How can I keep Remote Desktop from timing out?

I'm using remote desktop to connect to a development web server.

The default timeout seems to be < 30 minutes. Reconnecting is slow, so I would like to make the timeout be at least a day.

I have looked at the remote desktop client and this does not seem to be a setting.

So what disgusting reg hacks do I need to make this work in a sane way?

remote-desktop

John Shedletsky

Posted 2014-08-26T23:30:15.783

Reputation: 245

You shouldn't. The fact that reconnecting is slow is the first sign something is not working right. If a connection is too slow to support RDP increasing the timeout will only cause a longer delay where things stop working before it registers the connection already was gone. If it was slow on occassion, then it could work, but in your case the longer it is slow, the less likely it will recover, so changing the timeout to longer will make things worse. – LPChip – 2014-08-26T23:33:31.973

What timeout are you referring to? Do you mean the amount of time that you can let the connection "just sit there" with no keyboard or mouse activity? – Patrick Seymour – 2014-08-26T23:48:26.520

Yes, the inactivity timeout. – John Shedletsky – 2014-08-26T23:53:37.373

I wasn't asking if I should or not. I was asking how to. – John Shedletsky – 2014-08-26T23:54:10.373

Answers

What you want to configure is the idle session limit. Exact steps vary by operating system, but you can Google "idle session limit" and your OS, and you should be able to find either how to configure a single server or how to set Group Policy to configure a number of servers.

For Server 2003:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc758177%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

For Server 2008 R2:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754272.aspx

Patrick Seymour

Posted 2014-08-26T23:30:15.783

Reputation: 7 662

I know this may not be the exact solution you are looking for, but if you use this it would result in an infinite up time. It just simulates normal mouse use for the computer and resets the log off timer every second. It also is not so over the top that you cant use the mouse while its on. So you can both leave it on and do work on the computer.

Ben

Posted 2014-08-26T23:30:15.783

Reputation: 11

Hackier than I would like. This is maximally hacky. :) – John Shedletsky – 2014-08-26T23:59:34.057