Knowledgebase

There are a few known issues with Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection app that prevents users from accessing their RDP servers normally. In this article we will explain how to troubleshoot two of most common issues with Windows servers and especially Windows Server 2016 and above.

1. Unable to connect/Connection Timed Out

a. Whenever one of these errors are present it means that either your Windows cannot communicate with the remote server because of a Windows version incompatibility between your PC and the server or your server is running a unactivated version of Windows. If your copy of Windows on the RDP isn't activated you can simply run "slmgr -rearm" in Windows Powershell to re-evaluate the license for 180 days.
After re-evaluation make sure to restart the server twice.
Keep in mind that if you don't do this your server will shut itself down after some period of time due to inactivity.

2. Black screen with/without visible mouse pointer

a. There is a known issue related to Windows drivers on Windows build 1904 that causes issues with Remote Desktop Connections. You can either rollback to a previous Windows version or use an alternative to Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection application.