Posts

Stefan Helander

Windows 10 desktop disappeared

/0 Comments/in , /by

A Windows 10 user contacted me because the desktop had disappeared.

The first thing to check is if Windows is in “Tablet mode” which disables the desktop.

  • Go to the Control panel
  • Search for “tablet” and click on “Table mode settings”
  • In the “When I sign in” change from “Use the apropriate mode for my hardware” to “Use desktop mode”
  • Log out and log back in again

If this doesn’t help the user profile might have become broken. In this case, the solution is (description below is just short notes taken from my memory):

  • Go to the Control panel and select accounts
  • Create a new account
  • Using a user with administrative rights, copy the content from the users folders like desktop, documents etc to the new user’s folder.
  • Log in using the new user
Stefan Helander

Connecting Remote Desktop to console screen

/0 Comments/in /by

When you connect to a Windows XP with remote desktop (RDP), you automatically get connected to the console, i.e. the same screen/session that a local user is logged into.

Starting RDP in console modeHowever, if you connect to a server, like Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you will not get connected to the local console session, but instead to a new session. Sometimes it is necessary to connect to the console session, for example when troubleshooting a problem and there is an error message on the console session screen.

To start the remote desktop in console mode you click on the Windows Start button and type in the Run or Search field:

For Windows XP:

mstsc /console

For Windows Vista / 7:

mstsc /admin

And then press enter or click Run.