How to allow unlimited terminal server connections in Server 2003

If you find yourself in a situation where you didnt purchase enough Terminal Server Cals or find yourself in the middle of a licencing issue the below may be of assistance to you.

In a corporate IT world, purchasing software licences is an accepted evil and the below is provided to help administrators temporarily overcome licencing issues and ensure business continuity.

First of all in order to maximize the Windows Server2003 evaluation period, do not deploy a license server until the grace period is about to expire. For Windows Server 2003, you receive a maximum of 210 days for evaluation. This is composed of a grace period of 120 days plus a temporary token of 90 days.

Note that this has been tested work only in licensing per device. In order to
bypass this evaluation period to unlimited licences follow the next steps:

1. SERVER - Stop the terminal license server in services
2. SERVER - Go to the %systemroot%\windows\system32\lserver\
3. SERVER - Backup both files edb.chk and TLSLic.edb in case method fails (microsoft
holds licence information database in these files)
4. SERVER - Delete both files edb.chk and TLSLic.edb from the directory
5. SERVER - Run registry editor
6. SERVER - Go to the following key
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing\"
7. SERVER - Note there is subkey named "Parameters"
8. SERVER - Delete subkey (I have noticed that if I don't delete this key license
server returns old database)
9. CLIENT - Go the client that has expired terminal evaluation period
10. CLIENT - Run registry editor
11. CLIENT - Go to the following key
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing\"
12. CLIENT - Note there are two subkeys named "Store" and "HardwareID"
13. CLIENT - Delete both subkeys
14. DO NOT connect yet to the terminal server with the client!
15. SERVER - Change the date on the server to lets say year 2030 (this is used to
change expiration day so you don't need to repeat following steps every 90 days)
16. SERVER - Start the terminal licensing service
17. CLIENT - Connect the client to the server
18. CLIENT - Note that windows recreated new key in
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing\". This new key holds new
expiration date on year what you choose to licence expire.
19. SERVER - Go to the Terminal server licensing in Administrative Tools
20. SERVER - Note that temporary licence now expires on year 2030. Issue date is
also at year 2030 but information is not importat for clients to function. Server just
saves expiration date on client.
21. SERVER - Return date on server to today date
22. You have Terminal Licence that expires at date that is long in future

This will give you the time needed to get your proper Terminal Server Licencing in order.