Group Policy Allow Remote Desktop Firewall
On the domain controller, open the group policy management tool. Show Create a new group policy. Enter a name for the new group policy. In our example, the new GPO was named: MY-GPO. On the Group Policy Management screen, expand the folder named Group Policy Objects. Right-click your new Group Policy Object and select the Edit option. On the group policy editor screen, expand the Computer configuration folder and locate the following item. Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Connections Access the Connections option. Enable the option named Allow users to connect remotely by using Remote Desktop Services. Optionally, access the security folder to enable the Network-level authentication. Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Security Enable the option named Require user authentication for remote connections by using Network-level authentication. To save the group policy configuration, you need to close the Group Policy editor. Congratulations! You have finished the GPO creation.
A. With the rename of Terminal Services to Remote Desktop Services in Server 2008 R2, you also have new locations for the Group Policy settings to enable Remote Desktop. Learn more: Q: How can I remotely enable Remote Desktop Services on a remote server? Below is the report of my GPO that enables Remote Desktop. It will also enable Remote Desktop on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and later systems. Assume a situation whereby you have just set up a remote site and now you find yourself having users or support servers that you can’t physically gain access. This means walking to the desk is out of your options. So how do you go about it to access the data and information you may be in need of? To get it right, you need to figure out how to enable Remote Desktop via Group Policy, so that it can get applied to all devices at your site. Configuration of remote desktop forms the basis of our guide today. Let’s get started. What is Remote Desktop Group PolicyAlmost all users who are interested in building safe connections between computers on the internet might have heard about RDP or VPN. RDP stands for the Remote Desktop Protocol. It is a network of communications protocol developed by Microsoft, to allow users to connect to another computer. With RDP, one can connect to any computer that runs Windows. With RDP, you can connect to the remote PC, view the same display and interact as if you are working on that machine locally. Some instances where you may need to use RDP include;
How to Enable Remote Desktop Remotely on Windows 10The easiest way to enable Remote Desktop on the Windows operating system family is to use a Graphical User Interface (GUI). To do this, you need to; Open the “System” control panel, go to “Remote Setting” and enable the “Allow remote connection to this computer” option in the Remote Desktop section. However, performing the above process will need local access to the computer on which you want to enable the RD. By default, remote desktop is disabled in both desktop versions of Windows and in Windows Server.
How to Enable Remote Desktop Remotely Using PowerShellSuppose you want to remotely enable RDP on Windows Server 2012 R2/2016/2019. Here is the procedure to achieve the same;
How to Enable/Disable Remote Desktop Using Group PolicyYou can enable or disable remote desktop using group policy. To do so, perform the following steps
Now you will have enabled or disabled remote desktop using group policy Network Level Authentication NLA on the remote RDP serverNetwork Level Authentication is a method used to enhance RD Session Host server security by requiring that a user be authenticated to RD session Host Server before a session can be created. If you want to restrict who can access your PC, you can choose to allow access only with Network Level Authentication (NLA). NLA is an authentication tool used in RDP Server. When a user tries to establish a connection to a device that is NLA enabled, NLA will delegate the user’s credentials from the client-side Security Support Provider to the server for authentication, before creating a session. The advantages of Network Level Authentication is;
To configure Network Level Authentication for a connection, follow the steps below.
Note, under step 3, if the “Allow connections only from computers running a remote desktop with network-level authentication” checkbox is not enabled, the “Require user authentication for remote connections by using network-level authentication” Group Policy setting has to be enabled, and has been applied to the RD Session Host Server. |