{"id":11379,"date":"2026-07-21T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T06:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/diagnosing-and-resolving-inactive-ts-ports-in-windows-common-causes-and-effective-fixes\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T06:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T06:00:50","slug":"diagnosing-and-resolving-inactive-ts-ports-in-windows-common-causes-and-effective-fixes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/diagnosing-and-resolving-inactive-ts-ports-in-windows-common-causes-and-effective-fixes\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagnosing and Resolving Inactive TS Ports in Windows: Common Causes and Effective Fixes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One frequent issue encountered when operating a Remote Desktop Services (RDS) terminal server is the accumulation of orphaned print ports labeled <code>Inactive TS Ports<\/code>. This typically occurs when local user printers are redirected via RD Easy Print mode. Over time, these inactive ports can accumulate, leading to performance degradation of the RDS host, increasing delays during RDP session logons, and causing failures in local printer redirection for some users. The Event Viewer may record numerous timeout errors stemming from the <code>UmRdpService<\/code> (Remote Desktop Services UserMode Port Redirector).<\/p>\n<p>To address printing issues with redirected printers on an RDS server, users can access the Print Management console (<code>printmanagement.msc<\/code>) and examine the <strong>Ports<\/strong> section. Typically, one would find several inactive ports, named like <strong>TS001 \u2013 Inactive TS Port<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>When a printer connects through Remote Desktop Services, the Print Spooler generates a virtual TS port for that printer. However, if a user disconnects from their RDP session, the corresponding port does not get deleted automatically. Consequently, the number of inactive TS ports can multiply, potentially reaching into the hundreds, thereby disrupting the Windows print service.<\/p>\n<p>To mitigate these printing problems on RDP servers, the following strategies can be employed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Configure the RDS host to redirect only the default printer from the local machine to the RDP session. This limits the generation of TS ports. To enable this configuration, activate the Group Policy option <strong>Redirect only the default client printer<\/strong> on the RDS host.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Regularly reboot the RDS host to clear out orphaned print ports.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Manually remove inactive TS ports.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, attempting to remove an inactive TS port via the Print Management console often results in an error indicating that deletion is unsupported.<\/p>\n<p>To effectively clear these ports, users can delete their entries directly from the registry. The path to the relevant registry key is:<\/p>\n<pre><code>HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlDeviceClasses{28d78fad-5a12-11d1-ae5b-0000f803a8c2}##?#ROOT#RDPBUS#0000#{28d78fad-5a12-11d1-ae5b-0000f803a8c2}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>Multiple subkeys are assigned for each port, such as <code>#TS001<\/code>, <code>#TS002<\/code>, etc. The specific subkey can be deleted if its Port Description value contains <code>Inactive TS Port<\/code>. After conducting this deletion, it is essential to restart the Print Spooler service, which may temporarily disrupt printing from the terminal server.<\/p>\n<p>For more efficient management of dozens or even hundreds of inactive TS ports, a PowerShell script can be utilized, enabling bulk deletion in under a minute. This script scans through the registry and removes any inactive ports before restarting the Print Spooler service.<\/p>\n<p>Managing inactive TS ports on RDS hosts is crucial for maintaining optimal performance and ensuring seamless printing operations for users. Regular monitoring and maintenance can prevent the accumulation of these inactive ports and alleviate disruptions in printing services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One frequent issue encountered when operating a Remote Desktop Services (RDS) terminal server is the accumulation of orphaned print ports labeled Inactive TS Ports. This typically occurs when\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,108,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-powershell","category-windows-server-2022","category-windows-server-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}