Windows Remote Desktop: "configuring remote session" closes without error
I have a desktop/laptop pair at home operating x64 Windows 7 (the desktop was upgraded from Windows Vista, works just fine). I remote desktop to them on a daily basis when outside.
In recent weeks, I would occasionally fail to connect to my desktop. It can connect and authenticate fine, but the "configuring remote session" dialog would simply close and not show me the desktop window or any error message.
There is no error event log relating to this on the desktop computer.
Some suggestions call for disabling remote audio, which mine already is, but trying different audio modes did not yield any different result.
I am not too sure if this is related to video card drivers (they do get auto-updated), since remote desktop video is supposed to steer via a virtual device driver? Nonetheless the desktop operates three monitors via an ATI Radeon HD5770 (1 Displayport, 2 DVI). I do not see a real problem with that since I can mostly connect and operate it remotely.
I try to "remote tunnel" via my home laptop but obviously won't work either as the problem lies in the desktop. What other conditions can cause remote desktop to break without error?
UPDATE I came home and still couldn't connect to the desktop until I restarted the entire system.
Solution 1:
I started having a similar problem out of the blue on a PC at work--it connected and just hung there at the 'configuring remote session' window.
I found that I needed to go into the options under the 'Experience' tab and de-select the Persistent Bitmap Caching setting.
Once I disabled that setting I was able to connect quickly as expected.
Solution 2:
This can also happen if you have initiated a large Windows Update that is not yet fully configured or if the computer is not yet fully restarted. You can not remote to the desktop but the IIS might still receive and return responses for example. In this case all you need to do is wait.
A good thing to try is also deleting %localappdata%\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Cache and restarting your computer as mentioned by @JohnLBevan in comments.
Solution 3:
Cannot remember when but I guess one of those eventual Windows updates patched this problem.
Solution 4:
If you could not log in to the server using rdp, but your remote server is not being in state of rebooting, shutting down or starting with updates being installed, than the reason could be the lack of RAM or, maybe disk space.
In my case I was using psexec to connect to my server and verify if I have enough RAM on it:
c:\PSTools>PsExec.exe -u mydomain\user1 \\file-server.contoso.com -h c:\windows\system32\cmd
PsExec v2.2 - Execute processes remotely
Copyright (C) 2001-2016 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
Password:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>tasklist
Image Name PID Session Name Session# Mem Usage
========================= ======== ================ =========== ============
System Idle Process 0 Services 0 4 K
System 4 Services 0 140 K
smss.exe 436 Services 0 1,232 K
csrss.exe 596 Services 0 3,204 K
wininit.exe 680 Services 0 2,992 K
csrss.exe 688 Console 1 3,692 K
winlogon.exe 740 Console 1 8,600 K
services.exe 816 Services 0 12,016 K
lsass.exe 824 Services 0 41,116 K
svchost.exe 928 Services 0 15,240 K
svchost.exe 992 Services 0 12,312 K
svchost.exe 812 Services 0 55,608 K
dwm.exe 972 Console 1 16,932 K
svchost.exe 404 Services 0 27,708 K
svchost.exe 544 Services 0 18,568 K
svchost.exe 1064 Services 0 19,720 K
svchost.exe 1208 Services 0 22,576 K
svchost.exe 1336 Services 0 19,028 K
svchost.exe 1468 Services 0 3,336 K
WUDFHost.exe 1544 Services 0 7,928 K
svchost.exe 1820 Services 0 5,096 K
spoolsv.exe 2068 Services 0 15,316 K
LiteAgent.exe 2168 Services 0 4,724 K
amazon-ssm-agent.exe 2176 Services 0 15,340 K
pg_ctl.exe 2216 Services 0 6,300 K
svchost.exe 2448 Services 0 17,464 K
nfssvc.exe 2468 Services 0 6,396 K
svchost.exe 2476 Services 0 12,668 K
svchost.exe 2512 Services 0 15,608 K
MsMpEng.exe 2548 Services 0 128,684 K
svchost.exe 2564 Services 0 9,004 K
conhost.exe 3172 Services 0 9,208 K
svchost.exe 4792 Services 0 5,052 K
GoogleCrashHandler.exe 2768 Services 0 1,312 K
GoogleCrashHandler64.exe 5008 Services 0 1,088 K
msdtc.exe 6676 Services 0 4,980 K
SearchIndexer.exe 1912 Services 0 14,087,944 K
csrss.exe 3552 4 9,164 K
winlogon.exe 6364 4 5,228 K
dwm.exe 5020 4 20,492 K
rdpclip.exe 4348 4 7,068 K
sihost.exe 6532 4 16,360 K
svchost.exe 2620 4 19,936 K
explorer.exe 916 4 94,164 K
Taskmgr.exe 5652 4 16,220 K
dllhost.exe 5900 4 9,716 K
mmc.exe 6220 4 15,684 K
conhost.exe 6740 Services 0 3,184 K
backgroundTaskHost.exe 2560 4 2,128 K
RuntimeBroker.exe 5612 4 26,880 K
svchost.exe 5600 Services 0 13,836 K
taskhostw.exe 4308 4 10,928 K
NisSrv.exe 5264 Services 0 10,156 K
SearchProtocolHost.exe 6316 Services 0 10,548 K
SearchFilterHost.exe 6620 Services 0 7,180 K
svchost.exe 588 Services 0 54,936 K
cmd.exe 2828 Services 0 13,112 K
conhost.exe 3540 Services 0 9,204 K
MpCmdRun.exe 3104 Services 0 10,196 K
TotalCMD.exe 6304 Services 0 16,326 K
PSEXESVC.exe 4748 Services 0 6,908 K
cmd.exe 3060 Services 0 2,792 K
conhost.exe 2664 Services 0 9,496 K
tasklist.exe 1988 Services 0 7,784 K
WmiPrvSE.exe 6204 Services 0 8,600 K
C:\Windows\system32>
After I've killed some processes like this:
taskkill /f /im totalcmd.exe
I've been able to log in using rdp
Additionally, if you want to free some disk space, then open the file explorer or total commander and enter the next in the address bar (hitting Enter at the input end):
\\yourserveraddress\c$
Input that server's local admin credentials if required and after getting access, browse folders and remove unnecessary files to resolve the issue.
If you need to change some registry keys on that remote server, then open registry on your current machine and connect to the registry of the remote server:
File -> Connect Network Registry...
Specify remote computer name, better FQDN of your remote server and it would connect automatically if you have enough permissions.
I was able to perform all these actions inside of AD and having domain admin privileges and local admin privileges on the target server.
Additionally, if your remote server is very slow because of lack of RAM, than sign out other users from it remotely using psexec session:
C:\Windows\system32>query session
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
>services 0 Disc
console 1 Conn
rdp-tcp#221 user1 4 Active
rdp-tcp 65536 Listen
C:\Windows\system32>logoff 4
Server I was saying about is 2016 with 16Gb of RAM and 30Gb of C disk space.