6 Appendix A: Product Behavior

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The information in this specification is applicable to the following Microsoft products or supplemental software. References to product versions include updates to those products.

  • Windows XP operating system

  • Windows Server 2003 operating system

  • Windows Vista operating system

  • Windows Server 2008 operating system

  • Windows 7 operating system

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system

  • Windows 8 operating system

  • Windows Server 2012 operating system

  • Windows 8.1 operating system

  • Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system

  • Windows 10 operating system

  • Windows Server 2016 operating system

  • Windows Server operating system

  • Windows Server 2019 operating system

  • Windows Server 2022 operating system

  • Windows 11 operating system

  • Windows Server 2025 operating system

Exceptions, if any, are noted in this section. If an update version, service pack or Knowledge Base (KB) number appears with a product name, the behavior changed in that update. The new behavior also applies to subsequent updates unless otherwise specified. If a product edition appears with the product version, behavior is different in that product edition.

Unless otherwise specified, any statement of optional behavior in this specification that is prescribed using the terms "SHOULD" or "SHOULD NOT" implies product behavior in accordance with the SHOULD or SHOULD NOT prescription. Unless otherwise specified, the term "MAY" implies that the product does not follow the prescription.

<1> Section 1.6: Client SKUs of the Windows operating system that support Remote Desktop (Windows XP Professional operating system, Windows Vista, and Windows 7) and server SKUs (Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system) that run in Remote Administration mode never contact a license server. In such cases, the PDU flow is as specified in section 1.3.3.

<2> Section 2.2.2.1:  Windows uses 2048-bit keys. Any client/server combinations that include Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP use 512-bit keys; for example, Windows XP as a client and Windows Server 2012 as a server, or Windows 8 as a client and Windows Server 2003 as a server.

<3> Section 2.2.2.1: The Windows Server 2008 terminal server does not send the server certificate if encryption is in effect and already protecting RDP traffic (for RDP security measures, see [MS-RDPBCGR] sections 5.3 and 5.4 ).

<4> Section 2.2.2.1: The appropriate license refers to any valid license that can be used to connect to the terminal server in question. A terminal server requires a license of the same version or later to honor the connection. For instance, if the terminal server is running Windows Server 2008, the license store is searched for a Windows Server 2008 license or later version license.

<5> Section 2.2.2.1.1: The Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 terminal server minor version that is specified in the low-order field of dwVersion is 0, which is the same value that is used for Windows Server 2008. See [MSDN-OSVER] for information on getting Windows operating system version numbers.

<6> Section 2.2.2.1.1: Licenses issued by Microsoft license servers contain "Microsoft Corporation" as the company name.

<7> Section 2.2.2.1.2: Scope Lists originating from Microsoft terminal servers contain only one Scope structure for the entity "microsoft.com".

<8> Section 2.2.2.2: Windows uses 2048-bit keys. Any client/server combinations that include Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP use 512-bit keys; for example, Windows XP as a client and Windows Server 2012 as a server, or Windows 8 as a client and Windows Server 2003 as a server.

<9> Section 2.2.2.2: On Windows platforms, it is relative to the major version number of the operating system and has the following values.

Value

Meaning

CLIENT_OS_ID_WINNT_351

0x01000000

The client operating system version is 3.51.

CLIENT_OS_ID_WINNT_40

0x02000000

The client operating system version is 4.0.

CLIENT_OS_ID_WINNT_50

0x03000000

The client operating system version is 5.0.

CLIENT_OS_ID_WINNT_POST_52

0x04000000

The client operating system version is between 5.2 and 6.3 (inclusive).

CLIENT_OS_ID_WINNT_POST_100

0x08000000

The client operating system version is 10.0 or later.

<10> Section 2.2.2.2: On Microsoft platforms, the second most significant byte can have the following values.

Value

Meaning

CLIENT_IMAGE_ID_MICROSOFT

0x00010000

The ISV for the client image is Microsoft.

CLIENT_IMAGE_ID_CITRIX

0x00020000

The ISV for the client image is Citrix.

<11> Section 2.2.2.2: On Microsoft platforms, the least-significant byte of the PlatFormId field contains the minor operating system version.

<12> Section 2.2.2.4: The wBlobType field is unused in EncryptedPlatformChallenge (part of SERVER_PLATFORM_CHALLENGE PDU), which is sent by the server to the client.

<13> Section 2.2.2.5: The wBlobType field is unused in EncryptedPlatformChallengeResponse (part of CLIENT_PLATFORM_CHALLENGE_RESPONSE PDU), which is sent by the client to the server.

<14> Section 2.2.2.5.1: The wClientType is WIN32_PLATFORMCHALLENGE_TYPE for all the Microsoft remote desktop clients except for those running in Windows CE where the wClientType is WINCE_PLATFORMCHALLENGE_TYPE.

<15> Section 2.2.2.6: For Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012, the EncryptedLicenseInfo variable (part of the Server Upgrade License PDU) sent by the server to the client has the wBlobType parameter set to value BB_ENCRYPTED_DATA_BLOB (0x0009). For Windows Server 2003, the value of wBlobType is not defined.

<16> Section 3.1.5.3: In Windows XP, the RDP connection is not disconnected on receiving ST_TOTAL_ABORT as the state transition in the Licensing Error Message (section 2.2.2.8).

<17> Section 3.1.5.3: All Microsoft implementations of Licensing Extension server and Licensing Extension client never send ST_RESET_PHASE_TO_START and ST_RESEND_LAST_MESSAGE.

<18> Section 3.2.1.5: For example, the ScopeList field in a Server License Request message sent by a terminal server running on a Windows operating system has the following content.

 ScopeCount = 1
 ScopeCountArray[0] = "microsoft.com"
 

<19> Section 3.3.1.3: Windows uses 2048-bit keys. Any client/server combinations that include Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP use 512-bit keys; for example, Windows XP as a client and Windows Server 2012 as a server, or Windows 8 as a client and Windows Server 2003 as a server.

<20> Section 3.3.2.1: The Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Remote Desktop client implements a configurable Client Packet Wait Timer. The default duration of this timer is 300 seconds.