remote desktop - Windows 8 / Server 2012 RDP connection is slow
2014-04
Chris
I recently installed Windows Server 2012 for development purposes at our office and noticed immediately that connecting via RDP is slow. It can take 5-10 seconds to connect at times, where as connecting to any of our Win7 or Win2008R2 boxes takes at most 1-3 seconds. At first, I chalked this up to the box itself needing a driver update or something, but just yesterday, I installed Win8 on my desk PC and connecting from home to that machine produces the same result. There is a 3-4 second pause at "securing remote connection" and then again at "configuring remote session".
I don't see any warnings in the event log, and once connected, there do not appear to be any performance issues. Is there a known problem with RDP connections on Windows 8 systems? Anything I should look for?
Jonathan Garber
This has happened to me before. I solved it by going into the Remote Desktop Connection -> Experience tab and ensuring I didn't have "Detect connection quality automatically" selected. I also unchecked everything under "Allow the following".
schellack
I experienced the same issue and resolved it by adding the registry setting referred to here.
- Open RegEdit on the Windows Server machine.
- Navigate to this registry key in the tree on the left:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
- Right-click on the right side, and add a new DWORD (32-bit) Value
- Set the value name to DisableTaskOffload and the value data to 1
- Reconnect to the Server via RDP (to a new session) and your performance should be normal.
EBGreen
You can diagnose this a few different ways -
Use the NetBIOS name, then the FQDN, then the IP Address when using the RDP application. usually this is a name resolution delay and can be resolved by using the FQDN instead of the shorter NetBIOS name. Normally, after the first connect, subsequent connections should resolve faster as the name will be cached on the local machine.
If this is a machine you will be connecting to regularly AND that machine has a static IP address, you could add it to the local HOSTS file which should result in the faster negotiation that you are accustomed to.
Bruno Villeneuve
The problem that lead me to this page was concerning a remote desktop connection problem. I did a brand new installation of Server 2012 in VM ESXi 5.5 All the server was configured fine, DC and DHCP roles on, nothing else.
The console of ESXi was acting life a charm. Rebooting and connecting immediatly. But when it came the time to connect from remote desktop, the connection was taking several minutes before opening up. I didn't understand why because on the 2008 box besides it was fine!
Well all this time, the problem was related to Remote Registry service being Stopped. I wasn't able to start it because it was saying something about the connection user not the same than another related service.
Resolution: manually change the Connection settings in the Remote Registry setting for NT Authority\LocalService and no password required. Now the RDP connection goes well and it connects right after I enter my domain admin password.
Paul
My W8 machine is connected to domain zen. If I rdp to the W8 machine, I can log in as a local user without problems. If I try to log in as a domain user, I am prompted for a smart card instead of a password.
Any ideas why?
Note that Interactive login: require smart card is disabled in group policy:
And here is the output from rsop.msc:
Some additional information on this one. If my connecting machine is on the same domain/network as the W8 machine, then I am prompted for a password as usual. If the machine is remote, on a different domain, then I am prompted for a smart card. In addition, the machine I am connecting from that gets the smartcard prompt is an XP box - so it may be an issue confined to mstsc.exe version 6.0.x - with 6.1 the authentication is managed prior to the rdp gui session being established.
I haven't isolated exactly which of these factors triggers the different response.
Paul
You have to disable Interactive logon: require smart card in
Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Edit Group Policy /
Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings /
Local Policies / Security Options
Note that these are server-side settings and so apply to the machine being connected to.
More info here.
Phil
I had exactly the same issue. No idea why it prompts for smartcard, but found 2 workrounds.
- use linux RDP client (grdesktop) where you submit password before connection is made
From XP, add /public to mstsc command line.
mstsc /v a.b.c.d /public
ImAlmogaver
I realized that if I don't specify a username in the RDP connection and I use the IP address instead of the server's name, no smartcard is requested to login on the server.
terdon
I managed to bypass the problem by clicking on "other user". I was then able to enter my username and could enter a password.
Sam
Another thing you might look for is a program called "Bitguard". I started getting the Smart Card prompt when trying to access shared devices on my network. This was driving me crazy because every time I tried to disable it using Control Panel, I got a Windows Explorer crash or it was grayed out so I couldn't make the choice to use ID and Password. After much research, I read somewhere that a recently added program can cause this. I went to see what was recently installed and saw the culprit "Bitguard". As soon as that was uninstalled, I was able to access the network devices using ID and password with no other changes to my system.
user 99572 is fine
Yup, trying to reconnect to any 2012 or Win 8 RDP session prompts for smart card, but logging in again as yourself reconnects your session.
Weirdly if you're at the console screen itself it doesn't behave like this.