Kudos to ChrisControl - All in One RDP and VNC Remote Control

In one of my data-center, I have 2 servers, a Windows Server 2008 Core, a Hyper-V host and a Windows Server 2008 standard, the Hyper-V manager. I can access the servers remotely using Logmein and no VPN is in place.

I had to copy a large file from my office to the core server and decided to use PPTP VPN. Before I knew, the VPN was connected and Logmein kicked me out. I knew I had to disable the 'use default gateway on remote network' but it was too late to make the change.

I could have disconnected the PPTP from the office LAN if I was in office or the firewall had remote management enabled.

Anyways, I was able connect to the Server Core and ping the manager server, so I thought of setting up RDP from the core server. I copied the mstsc.exe and mstscax.dll to the server core and tried to run the executable file - no luck :( -  it failed to load

So I tried to find a standalone RDP client that would allow connection to the server. Luckily I found ChrisControl, I copied the executable to the Server core and ran the application. It worked but I still could not connect to the server.

On the Configuration tab, I saw the option to enter the path to the mstsc.exe file, I changed the settings to point to the location of the mstsc.exe file on the manager server and tried connecting again. It worked like a charm, I could see the server desktop and disconnect the VPN connection.