Temporary Directories for RDP sessions on windows

By default, In windows server machines, when you login to the machines using Remote Desktop Session, it will create a temporary sub directory in the temp folder and redirects to this when we tried to access temp folder using %temp%

As you see the number marked at the end.

We can disable this behavior using the below setting in group policy.

For server 2003:

group policy:  Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\Temporary folders . If you don’t select Do not use temporary folders per session, then these TEMP subdirectories are created.

Reference: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20110125-00/?p=11673

For server 2008 and above:

group policy:  Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Temporary folders

Reference: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755098(v=ws.11).aspx

The following tool, from Microsoft TechNet, allows management of Group Policy via the command line, and thus scripting as well:

Local Group Policy Object Utility, v1.0

The registry used is:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services]

“PerSessionTempDir”=dword:00000000