Migrating Your RDP History to a Different Windows 7 Machine

You would think this would be a simple operation.  Migrating my bash history for Cygwin meant moving one file.  But you’d be wrong.  This migration means moving two registry hives, one file, and the contents of one very difficult to locate hidden folder.  Well, at least it can be done.

I began with the RDP client already pinned to my Task Bar.  Your results may vary if you have not done so.  Let’s get started.

First open the registry editor (just type regedit in the Run dialog or in the search box for the Start menu).  Once there navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER —> Software  —> Microsoft  —> Terminal Server Client

In this location you will find two hives called Default and Servers.  Export each of those hives (right-click  —> Export), move them to the new machine, and import them (right-click  —>  Merge).

Then you need your Default.rdp file (and any other .rdp files you may have saved if you’d like).  This is a hidden file located in your My Documents folder.  Migrate that file to your other machine (just copy it into the same location on the destination machine).

Finally locate this hidden folder.  You will not be able to navigate to it in the usual manner, even if you have hidden files enabled for viewing.  Just put this in your Explorer window:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

Migrate the entire contents of that folder to your new machine and you will migrate all of your so-called Jump Lists.  If you are already using your new machine and would rather not see certain Jump Lists overwritten, only copy in the unique files.  (I don’t know how to determine which file is which list at this time.)

Now you have all four of those items migrated (two registry hives, one file, and the contents you selected from one folder) just go ahead and restart your machine.  Now you should be all good to go.

I hope this helps you along.

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