When Duo Authentication for Windows Logon is installed on a system where NLA is enabled the RDP client prompts for the Windows username and password in a local system dialog. That information is used to connect to the remote system and passed through to the Remote Desktop manager. Remote Utilities. Includes lots of remote access tools. Great for both spontaneous and unattended. The Windows client automatically defaults to Windows Virtual Desktop (classic). However, if the client detects additional Azure Resource Manager resources, it adds them automatically or notifies the user that they're available. Use a specific URL Select Subscribe with URL from the main page. Duo integrates with Microsoft Windows client and server operating systems to add two-factor authentication to Remote Desktop and local logons and credentialed UAC elevation prompts. There is a known issue with installation of Duo Authentication for Windows Logon and RDP version 4.1.0 on Active Directory domain controllers that may trigger user. After you enable this setting on a Windows Server 2003-based computer, the following is true: The RDP channel is encrypted by using the 3DES algorithm in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode with a 168-bit key length. The SHA-1 algorithm is used to create message digests. Clients must use the RDP 5.2 client program or a later version to connect.

Have you ever used the Windows app Remote Desktop Connection? This app, included in all Windows installations, allows you to remotely access another Windows PC or a server with Windows Server. For this purpose, it employs the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

Organizations can install applications on a central server instead of various computers. To use those applications, employees must remotely access that server. Such centralization can make maintenance and troubleshooting easier. This technology was formerly known as Terminal Services (TS). Currently, web systems are more common. But, in some scenarios, Windows remote apps are still needed.

In those scenarios, Linux users can remotely access Windows computers and servers from their favorite system using an RDP client.

There are a few RDP clients available for Linux and we are going to talk about them today:

You can choose the one you like best or the one that best suits your needs.

Out of curiosity, FreeRDP is both an app and a library, which provides reusable features for other apps. Except for rdesktop, all of the other clients above use the FreeRDP library.

Enabling remote desktop on Windows

First of all, you must set up the computer you want to connect to so it allows remote connections. On the Windows machine you want to connect to, logged on with an administrator account, open the Start menu and click Settings. To do that, on the window that appears, open the System category, and then Remote Desktop. Finally, enable it:

Note that you can’t connect to computers running a Windows Home edition (for instance, Windows 10 Home). This screen informs you, if that is the case:

Your Home edition of Windows 10 doesn't support Remote Desktop.

Source of the image: Digital Citizen

If you want more information about remote desktop on Windows, take a look at: Sequans port devices driver.

Remmina is a remote desktop client that supports many remote access protocols such as RDP, VNC, NX, XDMCP and SSH. It aims to be useful for system administrators and travellers, who need to work with lots of remote desktops and/or servers. Remmina is included in the Ubuntu Linux distribution and is its default remote desktop client.

To install Remmina on Linux Kamarada and openSUSE, run:

Once installed, to start Remmina, if you use the GNOME desktop environment, open the Activities menu, on the top-left screen corner, type remmina and click its icon:

To quickly start a remote access, select the RDP protocol, type the hostname or IP address of the computer you want to connect to (e.g. 10.0.0.251) and hit Enter:

If it’s the first time you connect to this computer, Remmina asks whether to trust its certificate, click Yes:

On the next screen, enter your User name and Password on the remote computer. Also inform the Domain, if necessary. Optionally, you can choose to Save password. Click OK:

You will see the remote computer’s desktop in the Remmina window:

From now on, you are using that computer, but remotely, without sitting in front of it. Each clicking and typing is sent to be processed on the remote computer.

If the remote computer is a Windows desktop, its screen is locked during remote access.

If you are going to access this computer often, consider saving the connection settings, so that remote access can be easily initiated. To do this, click the Create a new connection profile button on the top-left corner of the Remmina main window:

On the next screen, give a Name to identify the connection, select RDP in the Protocol field and enter the connection settings: Server, User name, User password and Domain (if necessary). When you’re finished, click Save:

After that, the connection becomes listed on the Remmina main window:

When you want to remotely access that computer, just double-click it on the list.

FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol following the Microsoft Open Specifications. This implementation provides both the client and the server applications as well as a library, which allows other applications to use the RDP protocol. Today, we are interested in the FreeRDP client application.

To install the FreeRDP client on Linux Kamarada and openSUSE, run:

The FreeRDP client does not have a main screen like Remmina. To start a remote access using the FreeRDP client, run this command from a terminal:

Making the appropriate substitutions. For example:

If you need to inform the computer’s domain, use the /d parameter:

If it’s the first time you connect to this computer, the FreeRDP client asks whether to trust its certificate:

Type Y (yes) and hit Enter. Then type your user password on the remote computer and hit Enter:

After that, the remote desktop connection is initiated:

If you have ever started the remote desktop connection on Windows by the Command Prompt (using the mstsc command), you may have noticed that the FreeRDP client uses the same command syntax. It was implemented that way on purpose, to keep compatibility.

If you are a curious person and want to check it out by yourself:

• on Windows, run:

• on Linux, run:

Remote Desktop Windows Client Linux

rdesktop was the first RDP client for Linux and, for many years, it was the most used. But since November 2019, the project is looking for a new maintainer.

In contrast, FreeRDP was born in 2009 as a fork of rdesktop, when Microsoft decided to open the RDP specifications. As time passed and the FreeRDP project evolved, it became the standard RDP client on systems where no native Microsoft client is available.

I present rdesktop here for information purposes only. Unless you have a good reason to use it, you are advised to use one of the other RDP clients, based on FreeRDP.

To install rdesktop on Linux Kamarada and openSUSE, run:

Then, to start a remote access using rdesktop, invoke it from a terminal followed by the hostname or IP address of the computer you want to connect to. For example:

In the past, that would suffice and rdesktop would just work. But now we face a problem that comes from the lack of proper maintenance and updates:

At some point, Microsoft released an Windows update that has since made the use of Network Level Authentication (NLA) required by default. FreeRDP does support NLA, while rdesktop does not. You can still use rdesktop for remote access, as long as you disable NLA on the computer you want to connect to. Note that this makes the connection less secure.

To disable NLA on the Windows machine you want to connect to, logged on with an administrator account, open the Control Panel, open the System and Security category, then click the System icon. On the next screen, click the Remote settings link by the left. On the dialog box that appears, select the Remote tab. Finally, disable the option Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication and click OK:

With NLA disabled, back to the Linux computer that will start the remote access, try again:

This time, rdesktop will work. A window presents the Windows logon screen. Enter your username and password and press Enter to start the remote access:

Ubuntu Rdp Client Windows 10

If you want more information about that rdesktop bug, see:

Vinagre is the default remote desktop client for the GNOME desktop. That’s why it is also the default remote desktop client for Linux Kamarada 15.1, the current stable release. Spiked eyebrow pencil. Like Remmina, it supports some connection protocols: SSH, RDP, SPICE and VNC. However, like rdesktop, Vinagre is unmaintained for some time now.

When trying a RDP access, Vinagre only displays a black screen, as I reported on the openSUSE mailing list some time ago:

On some distributions, like Debian, Vinagre works. I believe that those distributions applied some patch to Vinagre.

Probably, the next Linux Kamarada release will come with Remmina instead of Vinagre, following the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Because of that, I present Vinagre here just for information purposes as well.

Vinagre comes already installed by default on Linux Kamarada and openSUSE, if you chose the GNOME desktop, but if you need or want to install it, you can do this by running:

To start Vinagre, which appears as Remote Desktop Viewer on the applications list, open the Activities menu, on the top-left screen corner, type remote or vinagre and click the corresponding icon:

On the Vinagre main screen, click Connect:

Fill in the next screen fields with the connection settings:

• on the Protocol field, select RDP;
• on the Host field, enter the hostname or IP address of the computer to connect to;
• enter your Username on the remote computer; and
• enter the Domain, if necessary.

When you are finished, click Connect.

If it’s the first time you connect to this computer, Vinagre asks whether to trust its certificate:

Tell it to do so by clicking Connect.

Enter your Password, optionally enable Remember this credential and click Authenticate:

At this point, you should see the remote computer’s desktop. You can notice it has its screen locked (as it normally does during RDP accesses). But, as I said, Vinagre only displays a black screen:

Like Remmina, Vinagre allows you to memorize the connection settings, to easily connect to the same computer again in the future. To do this, during the remote access, open the Bookmarks menu and click Add Bookmark.

After you created the bookmark, it will now be listed on the Bookmarks menu. When you want to remotely access this computer again, just open this menu and click the bookmark.

References

Since it’s not possible to remotely access computers running Windows 10 Home, to write this how-to I used a VirtualBox virtual machine with a Windows 10 Enterprise evaluation version legally downloaded from:

Updated 14/04/2021
Thin Clients, are computers which are optimized to establish a remote connection to a server and run using the remote resources. Usually those systems are not meant to be used for intensive tasks or gaming and they are mostly found in office environments. In the following guide you will find out how to use a Raspberry PI to connect to a local Windows Computer using Microsoft’s RDP Protocol.
Every version of Microsoft Windows following the release of Windows XP includes a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client (mstsc.exe). The Remote Desktop Connection is accomplished through the Client using the Remote Desktop Protocol a proprietary Microsoft Protocol which provides a graphical interface to connect to another computer.

Requirements

1) A computer running Microsoft Windows XP or later.
2) A Raspberry PI Device. (Prefer a Raspberry PI 3 or 4 for performance reasons)
3) Network connectivity between the two devices. (If the devices are not in the same local network, port forwarding must be enabled at the router of the Computer’s network.)

Preparation

Enable Remote Connections on Microsoft Windows 10

1) Open Control Panel

2) Click on System and Security

3) At the 'System' section, click Allow remote access

4) A new window will pop up. Select the Remote tab.
5) Under the 'Remote Desktop' section:

• check the Allow remote connections to this computer option
• check the Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication option.

6. Click OK and close the window.

Allow only Specific Users to login remotely. [Optional]

Chrome Rdp Windows Client

1) From the Remote Tab, click the Select Users… button

2) In the popup window click on Add button

2) Type the preferred username(s) using commas to separate them

!

3) Click the Check Names button, to validate username(s). If username(s) is/are valid username(s) on the current computer then the computer’s name will be prepended to the username(s).

Raspberry PI Setup

1. Prepare a new sd-card with RaspiOS Lite (Version Used for this tutorial: January 11th 2021)
2. In the boot partition of the sd-card create an empty file, name it 'ssh' and make sure it has no extension.
3. Insert the SD card in your Raspi, connect it to your local network and power it up.
4. Establish an SSH connection to the raspi using the default credentials (pi/raspberry). Use the official guides for Windows or Linux or Mac if you haven’t use SSH before.
5. After connecting using SSH, update and upgrade your distribution
6. Install OpenBox Windows Manager and x11 Windowing System by running the following command.

7. Next, Install Remmina, an opensource Remote Desktop client with RDP support.

8.Make a configuration file at your home directory '/home/pi' and name it 'windows.remmina'.

9. Add the following contents to the configuration file (use: sudo nano /home/pi/windows.remmina): Change server from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx to your computer’s IP address and username to the computer’s login username. The password will be requested when remmina run.

10. Next, edit the file /home/pi/.profile (use: nano /home/pi/.profile) and append the following line at the end of the file.

11. Configure xinitrc by editing /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc (use: sudo nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc) :
    Comment out the following line:

    and add the following line:

12. Lastly, edit openbox configuration file (use: sudo nano /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart) and type the following commands at the end of the file to disable any form of Screen Saver, Screen Blanking and Power Management and set Remmina to launch when launching openbox :

13. Configure console autologin
    Run Raspberry PI configuration by typing:

Select 'System Options'

At the next screen select 'S5 Boot / Auto Login'

And finally, select 'B2 Console Autologin'

Use the Arrow Keys (Right arrow twice) to move to the Finish Button

Microsoft Rdp Client

Before Reboot confirmation connect your Raspberry to an external screen and attach a Mouse and a Keyboard in order to be ready for the next step.

Establishing an RDP Connection

14. At this point everything is ready, your Raspberry will boot to OpenBox and Remmina will open asking to Accept the Certificate for the connection. Click on YES
    

15. Now Remmina will ask for the password:
    

16. Finally, connection established, toggle fullscreen and you are ready to go!
    

Extra Functionality

Shutdown Hardware Button

Best Rdp Client For Windows

You can also add a Power On / Off button to your Raspberry PI using the information from the Raspberry PI Drone post

Show Desktop’s Background instead of Black Screen

Added 14/04/2021
By changing 'quality' property in the windows.remmina file from 0 to 9 your backround will be visible

Full Screen connection

Added 14/04/2021
By changing 'viewmode' property in the windows.remmina file from 1 to 4 the connection will start in full screen.