Disclaimer: Resetting the RDS grace period is not a substitute for purchasing and installing the required Remote Desktop CALs. The following steps are intended only for non-production, test, or lab environments. Applying this method on a production system may violate licensing terms and can lead to compliance issues.
For lab or test environments, it’s still possible to trick the 120‑day RDS licensing countdown in Windows Server 2022. The registry location has not changed – it remains under:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod
Inside that key is a single REG_BINARY value named L$RTMTIMEBOMB…, which acts as the “time bomb.” By default this entry is locked down (even Administrators can’t delete it without raising permissions). In practice, the same approach that worked on 2016/2019 also works on Server 2022: launch a SYSTEM‑level PowerShell or Regedit and delete the L$RTMTIMEBOMB value, then reboot.
Accordingly, you still need System privileges to do this (because the key’s ACL forbids normal admins from touching it). The simplest way is with Sysinternals PsExec: for example, run
psexec -s -i powershell
from an elevated prompt (accept the EULA on first run) to spawn a SYSTEM PowerShell session. Then you can remove the registry entry. For instance:
Remove-ItemProperty -Path Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal` Server\RCM\GracePeriod ` -Name 'L$RTMTIMEBOMB_*'
After deleting that value and rebooting, RDS will behave as if it’s fresh: the L$RTMTIMEBOMB entry is recreated and you get a new 120‑day countdown.
Steps
1. Prepare PsExec (Sysinternals): Download PsExec from Microsoft (Sysinternals) and unzip it (e.g. to C:\PSTools\).
2. Launch SYSTEM shell: Open an admin CMD and run psexec -s -i powershell.exe. A consent dialog will appear first time – click Agree. A new PowerShell window opens running as the LOCAL SYSTEM account.
3. Delete the grace-period key: In that SYSTEM PowerShell, run:
Remove-ItemProperty ` -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod' ` -Name 'L$RTMTIMEBOMB_*'
(You can also navigate with regedit launched via psexec -s -i regedit.exe and delete the entry by hand.) The key space “Terminal Server” contains a space, so make sure to quote it or use the HKLM: drive syntax as above.
4. Reboot: After deleting the L$RTMTIMEBOMB value, restart the server. On reboot, Windows will recreate a fresh timebomb entry and reset the countdown to 120 days.
That’s it – same as before.
Tool and Command Changes
One update for 2024: WMIC/GWMI are deprecated. Microsoft’s own documentation still shows using the old wmic or gwmi to query the grace period, but this is no longer ideal. (In fact, WMIC is disabled by default on recent Windows builds.) Instead, use PowerShell’s CIM commands. For example, to check days remaining you could run:
(Get-CimInstance -Namespace root/CIMV2/TerminalServices -ClassName Win32_TerminalServiceSetting).GetGracePeriodDays().DaysLeft
In short, replace any old wmic /namespace:… GetGracePeriodDays or gwmi Win32_TerminalServiceSetting calls with modern CIM (Get-CimInstance or Invoke-CimMethod).
Aside from that, PsExec itself is still available from Microsoft. The procedure hasn’t changed. Just remember: run PsExec from an elevated prompt, accept its license, and use -s -i to make it interactive.
Summary
In summary, yes – the old “timebomb” trick still works on Windows Server 2022 in 2024. The registry key path and value name are the same, and using PsExec to gain SYSTEM rights remains the easiest way to delete it. After removal and a reboot, you should see 120 days restored. Just bear in mind the official stance: this is a last-resort lab hack, not a permanent fix. If you need RDS access long-term, the real solution is to install and configure the proper RDS licensing infrastructure.
