How to Fix RDP “Can’t Connect to the Remote Computer Error”

If your computer can’t establish a connection through Remote Desktop, here are some tricks you can try to make it work one more time. Remote Desktop Connection allows you to connect to a Remote Desktop enabled computer for troubleshooting and other purposes. However, when trying to establish or establish a connection, you may encounter a “Remote Desktop cannot connect to the remote computer” error.

This error can occur for various reasons, mostly due to misconfiguration and network issues. In this post, We look at the reasons and some troubleshooting tips to help you get RDC working again.

Why can’t the remote desktop connection to a remote computer error?

This error can occur for several reasons:

• Remote Desktop must be activated on the host computer. This feature is only available in Windows 10 Pro and above versions.
• Outgoing and incoming connections may be affected by the presence of antivirus on your machine. Check if your firewall is blocking RDP connections and whitelist it if necessary.
• Check that your account has sufficient permissions to initiate a connection from the source computer.
• You have a misconfiguration of listening ports, corrupt RDC certificate, or some network-related problem.

Now that you know the possible causes, let’s explore some solutions you can follow to fix this error on your PC.

1. Enable Remote Desktop on your PC

Before attempting any modification on this portal, ensure that RemotePitop is enabled on your PC.

Able to remoteptop in test 10:

• Navigate to Start > Settings > System > Remote Desktop.
• To enable the service, toggle the switch under Enable Remote Desktop.

Follow our guide on how to enable and set up Remote Desktop Connection in Windows 10 for more instructions.

If Remote Desktop is already enabled, close it and restart your PC. As soon as the PC restarts, enable Remote Desktop again and check for any improvement.

2. Check your firewall rules

Depending on how you configured your firewall policy, it may block some inbound and outbound communications. Check your Windows Defender firewall settings to see if Remote Desktop connections are blocked. If yes, add the app to the whitelist.

To unblock (RDP) Remote Desktop in Windows Defender Firewall:

• Type Windows Defender in the Windows search bar and click Windows Defender Firewall.
• In the window that appears, click Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall.
• Click Change settings to add or change app permissions. It will show a list of applications and features allow for inbound and outbound connections.
• Scroll down and check the Remote Desktop – (RDP) box for the Private and Public columns.
• Click OK to apply the changes.

3. Change your network profile

In Windows 10, you can choose to make your network profile either public or private. On a public network, disable the Windows Network Discovery feature to hide your computer from other computers.

Try changing your network to private to see if you can establish a connection with the active network discovery feature. Here’s how to do it.

• Press Win + I to open Settings.
• Go to Network and Internet. On the Status tab, check the status of your network.
• To change the status, click the Properties button and then set your network profile to Private. If it is already set to private, change it to public and check for any improvement.

4. Reset Remote Desktop Connection credentials

When you set up a new Remote Desktop connection for the first time, the client saves the credentials for a quick login. However, corrupt or altered credentials often cause the remote desktop cannot to connect to the remote computer error.

A quick reset of the saved credentials can resolve this error Here’s how to do it.

• Type remote desktop connection in Windows search bar and open client.
• Click on the drop-down for Computer and choose your remote PC.
• Click the Delete link under the Username section and click Yes to confirm the action.
• Once the credentials are reset, restart the Remote Desktop Connection client and try to connect again.

5. Add the remote PC address to the host’s file

Another way to solve Remote Desktop cannot connect to remote PC error is to add the remote IP address to the hosts file on your PC. Windows’ hosts file contains information to map a connection between an IP address and a domain name.

Manually adding the remote PC address to the hosts file can help you resolve any issues that may occur due to domain name resolution. Here’s how to do it.

1. Press Win + I to open File Explorer and navigate to the following location:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

2. Etc. folder, right-click the hosts file, select Open With, and select Notepad from the list of apps.

You can see a few entries commented out in the hosts file. All you need to do is add the IP address of the remote computer and save the file (Ctrl +S).

6. Enable the RDP protocol on the remote computer using the registry editor

In order for your Remote Desktop Connection to work, the RDP protocol must be enabled in the registry. Check the registry entry related to the RDP protocol to ensure that it is enabled for your system. Here’s how to do it.

1. Press Win + R to open Run.
2. Write regedit and click OK to open the Registry Editor.
3. After that, navigate to the following path. For faster navigation you can copy and paste the same:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server

4. Right-click the fDenyTSConnection value and select Edit.
5. In the pop-up window that appears, type 1 in the Value data field.
6. Click OK to save the changes.

Close the Registry Editor and then turn on Remote Desktop Connection to see if the error is resolved. If the problem persists, verify the RDP listen port configuration in Registry Editor. Buy admin RDP from Oudel Inc.

7. Check and configure the RDP listen port

RDP uses 3389 as the default listen port. As with RDP Status, you can configure listening ports using the Registry Editor. Here’s how to do it.

1. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following locations:

   Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp

2. Select the RDP-Tcp key. Then, in the Den pane, click Port Number – Den – and select Translate.
3. Set up the value to 3389 and press OK.

8. Enable Remote Desktop Services in the Group Policy Editor

If the problem persists, a Group Policy object may be blocking connections to your local computer. Here, you need to enable the service manually using Group Policy Editor. Here’s how to do it.

1. 1. 1. Press Win + R to open Run. Type gpedit.msc and click OK. This will open the Group Policy Editor. On Windows 10 Home edition, you need to enable GPE manually before accessing the tool.
      2. In Group Policy Editor, navigate to the below location:

         Computer installation\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Connections

      3. In the Settings section, double-click Detect and allow users to connect remotely using Remote Desktop Services.
      4. Select Enable and Apply to save the changes and click OK.

Close the Group Policy Editor and open a command prompt as an administrator. To do this, write cmd in the Windows search bar, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.

At the command prompt, type gpupdate ball and press Enter. This will force recent changes to the GPO

9. Check the status of your RDP service

Services in the Windows OS are non-UI software applications that run in the background and are typically scheduled to run automatically. For Remote Desktop to work, RDP-related services must be running on both the remote and client systems.

To restart RDP services:

• Press Win + R to open Run. Then, type Service and click OK.
• In the Services window, locate the Remote Desktop Service (TermService) service and right-click and select Properties.
• In the Properties window, set Startup Type to Automatic and press Apply.
• Right-click the service again and select Restart.
• Repeat the steps for the Remote Desktop Services user mode port redirector service as well

10. Add RDGClientTransport key to registry

Another solution to fix Remote Desktop Connection-related issues is to tweak Registry Editor to add the RDGClientTransport key. This will force the Remote Desktop Protocol to use RPC/HTTP connections instead of HTTP/UDP.

To add the RDGClientTransport key:

1. Press Win + R to open Run. Write regedit and click OK to open the Registry Editor.
2. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the below location.

   Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client

3. Right-click the Terminal Server Client key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
4. Rename the value to RDGClientTransport.
5. Next, double-click the newly created values and enter 1 in the Data Values field. Click OK to save the changes.

Now you can connect to a remote desktop without any error

Remote Desktop is a handy tool available in the Pro version of Windows 10 However, you may sometimes encounter connectivity-related issues, including disabled Remote Desktop, offline host computers, and network issues for a variety of reasons. Depending on the status of your PC, you may need to follow one or more troubleshooting steps to resolve this error.