Remotely Enabling Remote Desktop

WindowsDevCenter.com - Windows Server Hacks: Remotely Enable Remote Desktop

"Remote Desktop is a cool feature of Windows Server 2003 that lets you remotely log on to and work at a machine as if you were seated at the local console (in Windows 2000 Advanced Server, this feature was called Terminal Services in Remote Administration Mode). Remote Desktop can be a lifesaver for fixing problems on servers at remote sites, but what if you forgot to enable the feature before you shipped the server out to Kalamazoo?...

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Fortunately, there's a workaround. Sit down at your desk and log on to your Windows XP workstation using your administrator credentials and start Registry Editor by Start --> Run --> regedit --> OK. Then select the Connect Network Registry option under the File menu (Figure 2). ...

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This is a nice tip on hacking a remote registry to remotely turn on Remote Desktop (reboot still needed).

Also make sure you check out the comments, as there is a ton of great extra information there (like free utilities to do this, instead of hacking the registry, WMI methods of doing this, remotely turning on Remote Desktop for WndowsXP, etc)

(via Nikhil's Blog - Enabling remote desktop remotely)