Remote Desktop intermittently freezing

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I use a Windows 10 machine remotely at work. Both the local and remote machine are in the same ISP network (not same local network, but same ISP). I've been using it like that for almost a year now and I had never experienced absolutely any issues.

Until recently. I don't know if anything specific triggered this behavior, but I feel that it started happening after I upgraded the remote to W10 1903. I later upgraded the local one as well and I feel that it only made the problem worse (but that may be placebo, I haven't really annotated down when it started occurring).

From time to time, the session will freeze - the image stops updating. However, what I type and mouse clicks are still being sent. No error message is shown whatsoever, the image simply freezes. To make it work again, I have to close and re-open the session. Everything that I had typed and/or clicked while it was frozen is there.

Is there any way I can debug this?

andre_ss6

Posted 2019-09-10T20:56:40.320

Reputation: 353

Answers

37

I also ran into this issue since July 2019 on a Windows 10 1903 acting as the client machine. The following workaround on the client works for me, so that RDP no longer freezes.

Start an elevated command prompt (run cmd.exe as administrator), and then run:

reg add "HKLM\software\policies\microsoft\windows nt\Terminal Services\Client" /v fClientDisableUDP /d 1 /t REG_DWORD

After that, restart the remote desktop client (mstsc.exe, aka Microsoft Terminal Services Client).

I'm waiting for a final fix to this issue.

robbie fan

Posted 2019-09-10T20:56:40.320

Reputation: 524

Thank you! Been using RDP for over a decade and never had issues until 1903. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is my solution! – user0000001 – 2019-09-27T13:10:52.917

1Many thanks, working well again for a few days now, after running that on the client! Here the problem started after the RDP host was upgraded to 1903 (client is still 1809). – stevek_mcc – 2019-10-02T16:12:16.143

1

Thanks! Haven't had a freeze for over a day now, what a relief. I was restarting RDP about 20 times a work day, absolutely horrible experience. I assume following the instructions in this post lets you turn off the UDP protocol by policy setting.

– adabyron – 2019-10-02T22:38:34.200

1is this for the client(s) or host? – Vylix – 2019-12-04T09:49:44.627

@Vylix The client, i.e. the machine from which you connect to the remote host. – hasc – 2019-12-08T15:02:56.213

2This is still broken in Windows 10 1909. (I updated my server from Windows 7 and this problem started at that point). The UDP workaround prevents the freezing, but ultimately UDP is preferable for this protocol. – derek1284 – 2020-01-14T14:21:06.557

Asked: 2019-09-10T20:56:40.320

Viewed: 13 391 times

Active: 2020-01-30T00:50:30.483