Remote desktop domain

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 Policy

Almost 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;

• When traveling or when on vacation and you need to access your work computer
• When you can’t go to your office due to certain reasons and you still need to fulfill your daily tasks
• When you are a system admin and you need to perform administrative duties on your PC such as computer troubleshooting, tune-up, ID protection setting, printer set-up, software installation, email setup, virus and spyware removal, among others.
• When you need to give a demo and you need to access data from a private device
• When you want to personalize your remote desktop on experiences such as resolution, connection setting, screen setting, toolbar, start menu, icons among others.

How to Enable Remote Desktop Remotely on Windows 10

The 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 PowerShell

Suppose you want to remotely enable RDP on Windows Server 2012 R2/2016/2019. Here is the procedure to achieve the same;

1. On your computer, open the PowerShell console and run the following commands to connect to your remote server. Enter-PSSession -ComputerName server.domain.local -Credential domain\administrator.
2. You will have established a remote session with a computer and now you can execute PowerShell commands on it. To enable Remote Desktop, you need to change registry parameter fDenyTSConnections from 1 to 0 on the remote machine. Run the command; Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server'-name "fDenyTSConnections" -Value 0
3. When RDP is enabled this way [as opposed to GUI method] the rule that allows remote RDP connections is not enabled in the Windows Firewall rules.
4. To allow incoming RDP connections in Windows Firewall, run the command; Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop"
5. If for some reason the firewall rule is deleted, you can create it manually using the following commands. netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="allow RemoteDesktop" dir=in protocol=TCP localport=3389 action=allow
6. In case you need to allow secure RDP authentication [NLA – Network Level Authentication] run the command; Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp' -name "UserAuthentication" -Value 1
7. Now from your computer, you can check the TCP 3389 port on the remote host to see if it has become available. To do so, run the command below’ Test-NetConnection 192.168.1.11 -CommonTCPPort RDP.
8. If successful, you should get results similar to what is shown below’

The above results mean RDP on the remote host is enables and you can establish a remote desktop connection using mstsc client.

How to Enable/Disable Remote Desktop Using Group Policy

You can enable or disable remote desktop using group policy. To do so, perform the following steps

1. Search gpedit.msc in the Start menu. In the program list, click gpedit.msc  as shown below;
2. After Local Group Policy Editor opens, expand Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Remote Desktop Services >> Remote Desktop Session Host >> Connections. 
3. On the right-side panel. Double-click on Allow users to connect remotely using Remote Desktop Services. See below;
4. Select Enabled and click Apply if you want to enable Remote Desktop. Select Disabled and click Apply if you need to disable it. 

Now you will have enabled or disabled remote desktop using group policy

Network Level Authentication NLA on the remote RDP server

Network 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;

• It requires fewer remote computer resources initially.
• It can provide better security by reducing the risk of denial of service attacks.

To configure Network Level Authentication for a connection, follow the steps below.

1. On the RD Session Host Server, open Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration. To do so, click Start>>Adminstrative Tools1>>Remote Desktop Services>> Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration.
2. Under Connections, right-click the name of the connection and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab, select Allow the connection only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication checkbox
4. Click OK

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.

By default, only members of the Domain Admins group have the remote RDP access to the Active Directory domain controllers‘ desktop. In this article we’ll show how to grant RDP access to domain controllers for non-admin user accounts without granting administrative privileges.

Many of you can quite reasonably ask: why would ordinary domain users should have access to the DC desktop? Indeed, in small or middle size infrastructures, when several administrators with the privileges of domain admins maintain them, you’ll hardly need this. In most cases, delegating some administrative permissions in Active Directory or using PowerShell Just Enough Administration [JEA] is sufficient.

However, in large corporate networks maintained by many administrators, it may become necessary to grant RDP access to the DC [usually to branch office DC’s or RODC] for different server admin groups, monitoring team, on-duty administrators, or other technical staffs. Also, from time to time some of the third-party services, not managed by the domain administrators, are deployed on the DC, and there’s a need to maintain these services.

To Sign in Remotely, You Need the Rights to Sign in through Remote Desktop Services

After the server has been promoted to the domain controller, you cannot manage local users and groups from the Computer Management mmc snap-in. When you try to open Local Users and Groups [lusrmgr.msc] console, the following error appears:

The computer xxx is a domain controller. This snip-in cannot be used on a domain controller. Domain accounts are managed with the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

As you can see, there are no local groups on the domain controller. Instead of the local group Remote Desktop Users, the DC uses the built-in domain group Remote Desktop Users [located in the Builtin container]. You can manage this group from the ADUC console or from the command prompt on the DC.

Display the members of the domain group Remote Desktop Users on the domain controller using the command:

net localgroup "Remote Desktop Users"

As you can see, it is empty. Add a domain user it-pro to it [in our example, it-pro is a regular domain user without administrative privileges]:

net localgroup "Remote Desktop Users" /add corp\it-pro

Make sure that the user is added to this group:

net localgroup "Remote Desktop Users"

You can also verify that the user is now a member of the Remote Desktop Users domain group using the ADUC [dsa.msc] snap-in.

However, even after that, a user still cannot connect to the DC via Remote Desktop with the error:

To sign in remotely, you need the right to sign in through Remote Desktop Services. By default members of the Administrators group have this right. If the group you’re in does not have the right, or if the right has been removed from the Administrators group, you need to be granted the right manually.

Group Policy: Allow Log on through Remote Desktop Services

To allow a domain user or group a remote RDP connection to Windows, you must grant it the SeRemoteInteractiveLogonRight privileges. By default, only members of the Administrators group have this right. You can grant this permission using the Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services policy.

To allow remote connection to the domain controllers for members of the Remote Desktop Users group you need to change the settings of this policy on your domain controller:

1. Launch the Local Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc];
2. Go to the GPO section Computer Configuration -> Windows settings -> Security Settings -> Local policies -> User Rights Assignment;
3. Find the policy Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services;
4. Edit the policy, add the domain group Remote Desktop Users [like this: domainname\Remote Desktop Users], or directly the domain user, or a group [domain\CA_Server_Admins] to it;
5. Update the Local Group Policy settings on the DC using the command: gpupdate /force

Note that the group that you added to the Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services policy should not be present in the “Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services” policy , because it has a higher priority [check the article Restricting Network Access under local accounts]. In addition, if you are restricting the list of computers on which users can log on, you need to add the DC name to the properties of the AD account [LogonWorkstations user attribute].

It is better to create a new security group in the domain, for example, AllowLogonDC and add user accounts to it that need remote access to the DC. If you want to allow access to all AD domain controllers at once, instead of editing of the Local Policy on each DC, it’s better to add a the user group to the Default Domain Controllers Policy using the GPMC.msc console [change the policy settings in the same section: Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights Assignment -> Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services].

Warning. If you change the Default Domain Controllers Policy, don’t forget to add the domain/enterprise administrator groups to the policy Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services, otherwise they will lose remote access to the DCs.

Now the users [groups] you added to the policy will be able to connect to the AD domain controllers via RDP.

The Requested RDP Session Access is Denied

In some cases, when connecting via RDP to a domain controller, an error may appear:

The requested session access is denied.

If you are connecting to the DC under a non-admin user account, this could be due to two problems:

• You are trying to connect to the server console [using the mstsc /admin mode]. This connection mode is only allowed for administrators. Try to connect to the server using mstsc.exe client in normal RDP mode [without /admin option];
• The server may already have two active RDP sessions [by default, you can’t use more than two simultaneously RDP sessions on Windows Server without RDS role]. You cannot log off other users without administrator permissions. You need to wait for the administrators to release one of the sessions.