How to Connect to a Windows Server With Remote Desktop
You have been given three things: an address, a username and a password. Remote Desktop turns them into an ordinary Windows desktop on your own screen, and on a Windows PC there is nothing to install to get there.
The three things you need
Open the server in your control panel and look at the Access block:
- The address - the server's IP, something like 203.0.113.10
- Login - on a fresh Windows server this is usually Administrator
- Password - shown next to it. Generate new password creates a new random one, Set new password takes one you choose
Nothing has to be installed on the server. Remote Desktop is already running there and waiting.
From a Windows PC
- Click the taskbar search box, type Remote Desktop Connection and open it. It comes with every edition of Windows. You can also press Windows+R and type
mstsc. - In the Computer box, type the address of your server, then click Connect.
- Type the Login and Password from the panel and click OK.
- A warning appears saying the identity of the remote computer cannot be verified. On a new server this is expected: it means the certificate is one the server made for itself rather than one bought from a certificate authority. Click Yes. Tick the box if you would rather not be asked every time.
The desktop appears, and that is the whole procedure. Microsoft's own walkthrough of the same steps is here.
From a Mac, iPhone or iPad
Install Windows App from the App Store. It used to be called Microsoft Remote Desktop and was renamed by Microsoft; it is the same program.
Open it, press +, choose Add PC, put the server's address in PC name, and enter the login and password under User account. Then double-tap the tile it creates.
From an Android phone
Install Remote Desktop from Google Play, tap +, and give it the same three things.
From a Linux desktop
Ubuntu comes with Remmina. Open it, choose RDP from the dropdown next to the address bar, type the address and press Enter, then fill in the username and password.
Download links for every platform are on Microsoft's client page.
The first minute inside
It behaves like any Windows desktop, and most things work exactly as they do on your own machine. Two that surprise people:
- Closing the window does not log you out. Your programs keep running, which is usually what you want. To really finish, use Start, then the power icon, then Sign out.
- Copy and paste works between the two computers. You can copy a licence key on your own machine and paste it into the server.
If the password reached you in a chat message, change it now that you are in. Press Ctrl+Alt+End, which is Ctrl+Alt+Delete for the remote machine, and choose Change a password.
If it will not connect
- It cannot find the computer - usually a mistyped address, or the server is still starting up after its first deploy. Check the power state in the panel.
- The username or password is incorrect - type it rather than pasting it, and check your keyboard layout. A password entered with the wrong layout is the most common cause by far.
- The account is not authorized for remote login - that account is not an administrator and has not been added to the Remote Desktop Users group.
- The number of connections is limited - Windows Server allows two administrative sessions at once. Either a colleague is already on it, or an earlier session was closed with the X and is still sitting there. Signing out properly avoids this.
If none of that helps, the panel has a KVM console: a screen and keyboard attached to the server itself, which works even when Remote Desktop does not. You cannot lock yourself out of the machine.
Bottom line
Address, username, password, Connect. Everything else in this article is what to do when one of those four is not behaving, and the console in the panel is there for the times when nothing else answers.
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