How to change the listening port for Remote Desktop

This article describes how to change the port that Remote Desktop listens on.

Note The Remote Desktop Connection Client for the Mac supports only port 3389. 3389 is the default port.

You can use the Remote Desktop feature in Microsoft Windows XP Professional to connect to your computer from another remote computer.

Warning The Remote Assistance feature in Microsoft Windows XP may not work correctly if you change the listening port.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To change the port that Remote Desktop listens on, follow these steps.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber
3. On the Edit menu, click Modify, and then click Decimal.
4. Type the new port number, and then click OK.
5. Quit Registry Editor.

Note When you try to connect to this computer by using the Remote Desktop connection, you must type the new port.