Remote Desktop randomly closes

Have you ever encountered a problem where the Remote Desktop session randomly freezes on Windows 10? Reportedly, this issue can be attributed to using the UDP protocol instead of TCP.

Given that there has been no official fix for this problem, there’s no guarantee that switching to TCP will fully prevent RDP from freezing. However, there is no harm in trying.

Here are three methods that may help you unfreeze RDP on Windows 10.

Warning: exercise caution when modifying the Windows Registry. Do not change any registry keys unless instructed to do so. Incorrectly editing the registry may cause system-wide problems that will require performing a clean reinstall of the OS.

Fix RDP freezing via Command Prompt

1. Run Command Prompt as administrator on the client machine.
2. Run the following command: reg add “HKLM\software\policies\microsoft\windows nt\Terminal Services\Client” /v fClientDisableUDP /d 1 /t REG_DWORD
3. Restart the client machine.

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Due to this epidemic, I've had to attempt to help people with their issues from home. I'm also doing many side projects while I'm at it. The issue is, every once in a while, the remote desktop disconnects. It doesn't even try reconnecting as if it had lost connection temporarily. Once I use the shortcut to connect again, all of my programs are closed, and it acts like I've just restarted, bringing up my startup programs. While using this computer at the office, I've never had such issues. I tried to just work around it, but it's getting frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.

• Without going in to 8 paragraphs of back story.... I'm going to suggest something seemingly "whacky".  This is based on a previous experience with a TS user and a similar situation.

  Check the users client side PC for any installed printers......  remove any (all) ... at least temporarily.  In my case the user had an old corrupt printer driver that would crash her session when connecting to the terminal server.... worse yet it also crashed the print spooler service on the server, making printing unavailable for anyone else.

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• Because of the error 1103 related to a remote printing issue (a weird local printer driver that is not TS compatible) , I would try without redirecting local printers. Actually, I would try with no clipboard , no printers , no disks.

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• hey Kelly, we are basically on the same track!

• It was his printer event that jogged my memory regarding my issue.......  although I do not recall if I saw those event ID's....  I do remember it being a pain to track down and ended up being an issue on the client (corrupt driver).

  I like your way of testing better....  probably smarter too.

• if you think it might be printer related,  try turning off the printer option in rdp

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• If I may chime in on this issue.  When was the last firmware update for the effected printer.  I recently saw a similar thing in a couple of dual updates for a Windows 7 and Windows 8 environment.  They both through a code like these and when I looked at the matter, it was a compatibility issue with the actual firmware update for the printer itself.  Take the printer out of the equation and if this solves the issue, try to roll back the firmware of the printer to a previous release or if it is that the printer is newer, then try updating it to a new manufacturer geared release.  Under no circumstances use the Windows solution for this issue.  I am having a problem with their releases for WLAN adapters and their compatibility with the actual device itself.  Use the manufacturer gear update and if that does not help you....it may in fact be something I need to learn about as well.

• You can also check the registry at \\HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers (or somewhere similar depending on your OS) to see if there's a "hidden" printer that's gumming up the works. Maybe it doesn't show up in the Control Panel but may show up there.

• If you want to isolate the printer as the problem (For the record, I don't think it is...) then customize your RDP session not to enable remote printing. If it works, problem solved, if not, then at least you aren't wasting time worrying about printer errors which almost always exist in RDP session logs.

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• Hey everyone,  thanks so much for your advice.  It turned out the user had a corrupt local printer driver.  I removed that, and everything worked.  I never thought it would be something as simple as that.  I had started messing with certificates and such only to realize it was a silly printer problem.

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• Hey Alex - there were a lot of Helpful Posts given here as well.  hint. hint..

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• You are correct sir!  Action taken.  ;)

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• Thank you!  That keeps our community going when members get "thanks" for trying to help out.

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• Networkbee wrote:

  Hey everyone,  thanks so much for your advice.  It turned out the user had a corrupt local printer driver.  I removed that, and everything worked.  I never thought it would be something as simple as that.  I had started messing with certificates and such only to realize it was a silly printer problem.

  When it happened to me, it was a remote client, and a separately remote user.  I had to remote in to multiple locations after many emails trying to coordinate times when we could troubleshoot.  It took me almost 2 weeks total (to arrange those times and try a few tests each time)..... finally after figuring it out... the lady said "oh, well that was easy", and I wanted to smack her lol

  Sure the last click of removing the corrupt driver you have, for a printer you don't even have any more, is easy...... it's the 2 weeks of emails and phone calls back and forth to get to that point, that wasn't easy.

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• I unchecked "Printers" and it worked for me.

  I removed 2 printers that he wasn't close to anyway and it worked with "Printers" and "Clipboard" checked.

  Thanks!

• To solve problem remove printers from local resources from you're remote desktop

• I'm experiencing this issue, but only on one server.  I am at a client site and trying to connect to the server with all resource sharing turned off (printers, drives, etc...), so I'm pretty sure it is not a printer issue.  I have tried to connect in console mode and non-console mode.  I don't have any other details about the server because I can't connect to it, but a coworker is able to connect from her laptop.

  I'm not sure what my laptop has against this one server...  Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

• SOLVED. I had this problem on a Windows 7 machine and uninstalled update KB2830477 which is an update to the remote desktop client. 

• Thank you  tinavalgemae!!! this just fixed my RDP issues that has plagued two of my home systems. I can't believe how MS can leave people hanging with junk updates like this.

• Update KB2830477 suggested by tinavalgemae didn0t work for me. After the first successfull connection it stoped respondind again.

  What really fix it for me was this:

  1.Stop the "Remote Desktop Services"3.Install update 2667402

  4.Restart the computer or just "Remote Desktop Services"

  Microsoft Reference for the fix:

  //www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29145

• paul4170%uFEFF

    , I would try without redirecting local printers. Actually, I would try with no clipboard , no printers , no disks.

  %uFEFF
  

  You are a genius.  Unchecking Printers in Remote Desktop Local Resources solved it for me.  Thanks!!

• i deleted the printer objects on the desktop and it started working. go you!

• Thank you.  I have a Windows 10 client and as someone previously suggested, I simply unchecked the printer checkbox on the Local Resources tab of Remote Desktop Connection utility and now my RDP session doesn't terminate after a few seconds.

• Removing printer driver solution worked for me, thank you Kelly Armitage!
  

• My issue was perhaps my error, and was related to Chrome also crashing whenever attempting to print from it. I had downloaded Dell's Windows 7x64 driver for my 3100cn laser printer and installed it on Windows 10. Windows did not complain about the driver, and some programs would print fine. Using the method described above, I was able to determine that the driver causing RDP to crash was this Dell driver, so I tried uninstalling it, purging my DriverStore directory of the files, reinstalling it (unsuccessful), then several other things. Ultimately, I looked carefully at my other PC which works flawlessly with this printer. I found that the printer was working fine with the driver published by Microsoft, so I followed in suit on my laptop. After allowing the printers list to update from Windows Update, I saw this printer in the list and installed the driver from there. I tried both Chrome and RDP and both work flawlessly. As a matter of fact, I am typing this via RDP. Hopefully this helps someone else with the same issue.