Remote Desktops MMC with alternate RDP port

If you manage windows servers, or access remote desktops you should be using the Remote Desktops mmc plugin that comes in the Administration Tools Pack. The standard remote desktop application that comes with Windows XP is OK, but this one makes it much easier to manage multiple machines, and to save all your connection settings.

However, we did run into a major problem with the Remote Desktops MMC plugin. The initial copy of the Admin Tools did not allow you to specify an alternate port when entering the IP address of the server. It was really annoying and forced us to use the standard RDP client when connecting to servers with a non standard RDP port. Port 3389 is the default port, but for security reasons, it is a good idea to change the port your server listens on.

The Service Pack 2 edition of the Administration Tools finally fixed this bug, and now we can use the MMC plugin to manage all of our servers, regardless of the RDP port. Simply specify the port after the IP/name in the format 192.168.0.1:1234