Use Remote Desktop on your Windows, Android, or iOS device to connect to a Windows 10 PC from afar.

• Windows Remote Desktop Connection
• Microsoft Azure Remote Desktop Server
• Azure Windows Remote Desktop Client

1. Set up the PC you want to connect to so it allows remote connections:

   • Make sure you have Windows 10 Pro. To check, go to Start > Settings > System > About and look for Edition. For info on how to get it, go to Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro.

   • When you're ready, select Start > Settings > System > Remote Desktop, and turn on Enable Remote Desktop.

   • Make note of the name of this PC under How to connect to this PC. You'll need this later.

2. Use Remote Desktop to connect to the PC you set up:

   • On your local Windows 10 PC: In the search box on the taskbar, type Remote Desktop Connection, and then select Remote Desktop Connection. In Remote Desktop Connection, type the name of the PC you want to connect to (from Step 1), and then select Connect.

   • On your Windows, Android, or iOS device: Open the Remote Desktop app (available for free from Microsoft Store, Google Play, and the Mac App Store), and add the name of the PC that you want to connect to (from Step 1). Select the remote PC name that you added, and then wait for the connection to complete.

I’m frequently on the move and switch between devices. I could be working at home one day, at a hotel working, on site at a customer office with no internet, on a plane. I just never know. Part of my workflow is running some of my daily activities on an Azure VM. I can get to it from pretty much anywhere and it doesn’t matter what device I do or don’t have access to, I can always get to what I need and access the Microsoft network.

I need to enable Remote Desktop Connection to three different computers on the same network, to be. Target computers are running Windows 8.1 Pro. Remote Desktop to Azure AD Joined Computer Unfortunately, at this time it isn’t quite as easy as “open up a new RDP connection, type in the computer, type my email, and connect”. If it were, this post wouldn’t be here.

In order to access everything from our corporate network I have joined the computer using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Before I show you how to remote desktop to an Azure AD joined VM or computer, let me show the steps to join a computer to Azure AD. This requires the machine to be running Windows 10 version 1709 or later to connect to Azure AD but 1809 or later to remote desktop with Azure AD credentials. This can be a physical computer or a virtual machine.

1. The Remote Desktop client has been part of Windows since Windows XP Pro SP2, and Remote Desktop Services has been around since Windows NT, when it was known as Terminal Services. Many companies already host Remote Desktop Services in their server rooms and Data Centers or on virtual machines (VM) in Azure.
2. Simplify infrastructure management, improve security, and reduce costs by migrating your Remote Desktop Services environment to Windows Virtual Desktop. Explore the benefits of moving your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to the cloud and learn how to migrate in seven steps.

Join a Computer to Azure Active Directory

First, launch the Windows Settings app and navigate to the Accounts section.

Using the left side navigation go to the Access work or school section and click Connect.

On the resulting screen click the link at the bottom of the page labeled Join this device to Azure Active Directory.

Windows Remote Desktop Connection

Proceed through the wizard by entering your email address, authenticate with your company’s preferred method, and verify the domain information.

Upon completion the work or school access screen will now show that you are connected to your organizations Azure AD along with the account used to connect.

Remote Desktop to Azure AD Joined Computer

Unfortunately, at this time it isn’t quite as easy as “open up a new RDP connection, type in the computer, type my email, and connect”. If it were, this post wouldn’t be here. So let’s look at the steps we need to go through to get connected.

First, open remote desktop as if you were going to connect to any other computer. Type in the computer name or IP address and expand the the Show Options section. Next, click the Save As button to save the RDP file locally. I’m going to place mine on my desktop. At this point you can close the Remote Desktop Connection dialog. It isn’t needed anymore.

Next, open Notepad. Click File -> Open -> location your RDP file that was saved in the previous step. You’ll need to change the document type dropdown from Text Documents (.txt) to All Files (*).

Go to the very bottom of the list of parameters and add the following two lines:
enablecredsspsupport:i:0
authentication level:i:2

Save the changes to the .rdp file. Note that your file may have more or fewer lines in it than mine.

Now you are ready to connect! Double click on the RDP file and fill in the dialog box.

Microsoft Azure Remote Desktop Server

For the user name field should be formatted as .AzureADemail@company.com
(Technically it only needs to be AzureADemail@company.com but there are some strange caching things that happen when the VM autolocks and you go to sign back in. Adding the dot slash (.) at the beginning will save you some headache of having to add AzureAD to the beginning of your user name each time you try to log in.)

There you have it! It’s a bit of a pain, but now you can RDP into a computer with your Azure AD credentials (aka, email address) to an Azure AD joined computer.

Azure Windows Remote Desktop Client

I use a free piece of software called Remote Desktop Manager for all my connections. You can’t make the necessary changes to a connection in there (that I can tell anyway), but you can create the RDP file using the instructions here then import that connection into the tool and it will work perfectly.