Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2
Now that you've set up the Remote Desktop client on your device (Android, Mac, iOS, or Windows), you may have questions. Here are answers to the most commonly asked questions about the Remote Desktop clients.
The majority of these questions apply to all of the clients, but there are a few client specific items.
Current: Configure Remote Desktop From MacOS to Windows Configure Remote Desktop From MacOS to Windows. Instructions to establish a remote connection, or screen sharing session, with an on-campus Windows machine from an OSX machine. On-Campus machine must be powered on and connected to the network; Microsoft Remote Desktop. Download and install the software for your operating system on the computer or device you are connecting from and on the Windows/Linux/Mac computer you want to connect to. You can easily share a remote desktop or control a server over any network.
If you have additional questions that you'd like us to answer, leave them as feedback on this article.
Check out the supported configuration article for information about what PCs you can connect to.
I have my device set up, but I don't think the PC's ready. Help?
First, have you seen the Remote Desktop Setup Wizard? It walks you through getting your PC ready for remote access. Download and run that tool on your PC to get everything set.
Otherwise, if you prefer to do things manually, read on.
For Windows 10, do the following:
Note
You can't connect to a PC that's asleep or hibernating, so make sure the settings for sleep and hibernation on the remote PC are set to Never. (Hibernation isn't available on all PCs.)
Make note of the name of this PC under How to connect to this PC. You'll need this to configure the clients.
You can grant permission for specific users to access this PC - to do that, click Select users that can remotely access this PC.Members of the Administrators group automatically have access.
For Windows 8.1, follow the instructions to allow remote connections in Connect to another desktop using Remote Desktop Connections.
Here are some possible solutions to common problems you might encounter when trying to connect to a remote PC. If these solutions don't work, you can find more help on the Microsoft Community website.
The remote PC can't be found. Make sure you have the right PC name, and then check to see if you entered that name correctly. If you still can't connect, try using the IP address of the remote PC instead of the PC name.
There's a problem with the network. Make sure you have internet connection.
The Remote Desktop port might be blocked by a firewall. If you're using Windows Firewall, follow these steps:
Open Windows Firewall.
Click Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall.
Click Change settings. You might be asked for an admin password or to confirm your choice.
Under Allowed apps and features, select Remote Desktop, and then tap or click OK.
If you're using a different firewall, make sure the port for Remote Desktop (usually 3389) is open.
Remote connections might not be set up on the remote PC. To fix this, scroll back up to How do I set up a PC for Remote Desktop? question in this topic.
The remote PC might only allow PCs to connect that have Network Level Authentication set up.
The remote PC might be turned off. You can't connect to a PC that's turned off, asleep, or hibernating, so make sure the settings for sleep and hibernation on the remote PC are set to Never (hibernation isn't available on all PCs.).
Check the following:
Is the PC on and awake?
Did you enter the right name or IP address?
Important
Using the PC name requires your network to resolve the name correctly through DNS. In many home networks, you have to use the IP address instead of the host name to connect.
Is the PC on a different network? Did you configure the PC to let outside connections through? Check out Allow access to your PC from outside your network for help.
Are you connecting to a supported Windows version?
Note
Windows XP Home, Windows Media Center Edition, Windows Vista Home and Windows 7 Home or Starter are not supported without 3rd party software.
If you can see the sign-in screen of the remote PC but you can't sign in, you might not have been added to the Remote Desktop Users Group or to any group with administrator rights on the remote PC. Ask your system admin to do this for you.
If you want to access your office desktop from outside your company network, your company must provide you with a means of remote access. The RD Client currently supports the following:
VPN issues can have several causes. The first step is to verify that the VPN works on the same network as your PC or Mac computer. If you can't test with a PC or Mac, you can try to access a company intranet web page with your device's browser.
Other things to check:
Verify that VPN is enabled on your device. You can test your VPN connection by going to a webpage on your internal network or using a web service which is only available via the VPN.
If you are using L2TP or PPTP in your VPN, make sure to set Send all traffic to ON in the VPN configuration.
The web client supports Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11, Mozilla Firefox (v55.0 and later), Safari, and Google Chrome.
The web client supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS. Mobile devices are not supported at this time.
No. The client requires a Remote Desktop Gateway to connect. Don't know what that means? Ask your admin about it.
No. The Remote Desktop web client is hosted at a different URL than the Remote Desktop Web Access page. You can use either the web client or the Web Access page to view the remote resources in a browser.
This feature is not supported at the moment.
To use two or more screens, do the following:
Bi-directional sound can be configured in the Windows client on a per-connection basis. The relevant settings can be accessed in the Remote audio section of the Local Resources options tab.
Sign out of the session (don't just disconnect, sign all the way out), and then sign in again.
Yes, the remote desktop client supports retina resolution.
In order to make use of the right-click inside an open session you have three options:
No, the Remote Desktop client doesn't support AirPrint. (This is true for both Mac and iOS clients.)
If you are using an international keyboard, you might see an issue where the characters that appear in the session do match the characters you typed on the Mac keyboard.
This can occur in the following scenarios:
You can fix this issue by manually setting the keyboard language for the remote session. See the steps in the next section.
There are many types of Mac keyboard layouts. Some of these are Mac specific layouts or custom layouts for which an exact match may not be available on the version of Windows you are remoting into. The remote session maps your keyboard to the best matching keyboard language available on the remote PC.
If your Mac keyboard layout is set to the PC version of the language keyboard (for example, French – PC) all your keys should be mapped correctly and your keyboard should just work.
If your Mac keyboard layout is set to the Mac version of a keyboard (for example, French) the remote session will map you to the PC version of the French language. Some of the Mac keyboard shortcuts you are used to using on OSX will not work in the remote Windows session.
If your keyboard layout is set to a variation of a language (for example, Canadian-French) and if the remote session cannot map you to that exact variation, the remote session will map you to the closest language (for example, French). Some of the Mac keyboard shortcuts you are used to using on OSX will not work in the remote Windows session.
If your keyboard layout is set to a layout the remote session cannot match at all, your remote session will default to give you the language you last used with that PC. In this case, or in cases where you need to change the language of your remote session to match your Mac keyboard, you can manually set the keyboard language in the remote session to the language that is the closest match to the one you wish to use as follows.
Use the following instructions to change the keyboard layout inside the remote desktop session:
On Windows 10 or Windows 8:
You might need to close and restart the application you are currently using for the keyboard changes to take effect.
You are not allowed to access the session you want to connect to. The most likely cause is that you are trying to connect to an admin session. Only administrators are allowed to connect to the console. Verify that the console switch is off in the advanced settings of the remote desktop. If this is not the source of the problem, please contact your system administrator for further assistance.
When a remote desktop client connects to a Remote Desktop server, the server issues a Remote Desktop Services Client Access License (RDS CAL) stored by the client. Whenever the client connects again it will use its RDS CAL and the server will not issue another license. The server will issue another license if the RDS CAL on the device is missing or corrupt. When the maximum number of licensed devices is reached the server will not issue new RDS CALs. Contact your network administrator for assistance.
The 'Access Denied' error is a generated by the Remote Desktop Gateway and the result of incorrect credentials during the connection attempt. Verify your username and password. If the connection worked before and the error occurred recently, you possibly changed your Windows user account password and haven't updated it yet in the remote desktop settings.
In case of an RPC error 23014 or Error 0x59E6 try again after waiting a few minutes, the RD Gateway server has reached the maximum number of active connections. Depending on the Windows version running on the RD Gateway the maximum number of connections differs: The Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard implementation limits the number of connections to 250. The Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation implementation limits the number of connections to 50. All other Windows implementations allow an unlimited number of connections.
This error is caused by a misconfiguration on the remote PC. Make sure the RDP security level setting on the remote PC is set to 'Client Compatible.' (Talk to your system admin if you need help doing this.)
This error happens when a Resource Authorization Policy on the gateway server stops your user name from connecting to the remote PC. This can happen in the following instances:
Per an earlier announcement from the Chair, ECE has moved to a Telework environment beginning Monday, 3/16, through the end of the semester. For this, we will be easing our normal restrictions of direct access to research desktops remotely. If you would like to be able to directly access your desktop from Georgia Institute of Technology’s VPN solution, please send a request to help@ece.gatech.edu including the IP Address (or fully qualified DNS hostname) of your research desktop and whether the operating systems is Windows, Linux, or macOS. We will permit requests for Remote Desktop under Windows and ssh under Linux and macOS. If you would like a full GUI under Linux, we will work with you to install the FastX server component on systems we maintain. For systems we do not maintain, we will provide best-effort support to help you get the “server” service for your OS set up.
Keep in mind that all other forms of remote access (VNC, Teamviewer, Chrome Remote Desktop, etc) are still not permitted either due to the lack of security support, unapproved third-party solutions or licensing we do not have.
We do not allow remote desktop access from outside of ECE. What you can do, and this is completely unsupported, is tunnel port 3389 on the remote end through ssh to one of the ecelinsrv systems, and then connect to the tunnel. Below are instructions for enabling a port forward using SecureCRT from OIT:
C:WINDOWSsystem32mstsc.exe
in the Application field/v localhost:33389
in the Arguments fieldWhen you open the session and log in now, it will open a remote desktop to your system.
Please remember that we do not provide any support for this and your mileage may vary.
ssh -L 33389:[name of your ECE PC]:3389 -l [ECE Unix user name] ecelinsrv.ece.gatech.edu
localhost:33389
ssh -L 33389:[name of your ECE PC]:3389 -l [ECE Unix user name] ecelinsrv.ece.gatech.edu
rdesktop localhost:33389
Last revised April 2, 2020.