Got a nice surprise yesterday morning when I tried to run the remote desktop connection, it failed. The error given was “The pre-release version of Remote Desktop Connection has expired. To download the full version of Remote Desktop Connection, go to Windows Update or contact your system administrator.” After checking Windows Update and finding zero updates available I began poking around my system. I queried Google a couple times and found nothing. My laptop is running Windows XP SP3 v.3244 which was the latest beta / release candidate. Setting the system time to a date prior to April 7th is a quick work around, but it comes with its own set of repercussions. Luckily, when I install SP3 I choose to archive SP2 files in case an uninstall of SP3 was needed. In safe mode go to C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ and locate the files “mstsc.exe” and “mstscax.dll”. Create copies of these files and paste them into your C:\Windows\System32 folder. Restart the computer in normal mode and test your RDP client by going to Start -> Run, typing in mstsc, and click OK.
–himuraken