PCS Remote help

My computer shows a different machine's number

Help code HELP-RC-101 · Last updated November 2, 2026

Not connecting to DESKTOP-4KQ7M2X: its number now belongs to a different machine.

Why does this happen?

Usually because a computer was cloned: a disk or virtual machine was copied, or sysprep wasn't run (or wasn't run properly) before the image was made. The copies share one Windows identity, so PCS Remote gives them all the same number.

It's a Windows imaging issue, not a fault in PCS Remote. In our own test, another popular remote tool showed the same address on both copies.

The potential fix: give each copy its own Windows identity

Please read this whole page, including the box at the bottom, before running any of these.

If a copy is already cloned

The quick option, for a lab or virtual machine. On that copy, open PowerShell as administrator, run this, then restart the computer:

Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography' MachineGuid ([guid]::NewGuid().ToString())

It comes back as a new machine with a new PCS Remote number. In PCS Remote IT, add it again as a new tile.

If PCS Remote was already installed on that copy

After the restart it may fail to connect. If it does, delete the old key file in an administrator PowerShell, then restart again:

Get-ChildItem 'C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\Keys' -Force | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '8f9d3fae6be3d585d06231d46d4dfa5e_*' -and $_.Name -notlike "*$((Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography').MachineGuid)" } | Remove-Item -Force

Next time: run sysprep before cloning

The best way to avoid this. Run sysprep /generalize before you capture or clone the image, and every PC made from it gets an identity of its own, including its own Windows SID, which matters on a domain.

Please don't press “Generate new ID” in PCS Remote. It moves every copy that shares the identity to the new number, so the copies still collide.

And please don't press “Reset security pin” to get past the warning. That tells PCS Remote IT to accept whichever machine holds the number right now, including the wrong one. Fix the copy's identity instead.

What you might notice

• PCS Remote IT refuses to connect and says the number “now belongs to a different machine”, or that “more than one machine is claiming to be it”. Or two computers show the same number.
• Only one copy can hold the number at a time: the last one to connect. The others stay connected, but nobody can reach them, and they can look healthy on their own screen.
• If PCS Remote was installed after the copy was made, each copy has its own key, and PCS Remote IT refuses the wrong one instead of connecting to it.