Windows – Timeout settings for Remote Desktop Sessions to lock

remote desktopsessiontimeoutwindows

Our office uses a Windows 2003 server to provide access to an accounting application. Recently I was asked to increase the amount of time it takes for the session to lock itself and require the entry of the user's password to resume. That seems to be about ten minutes, at present.

I am familiar with group policy and have tweaked those settings to scavenge sessions (and thereby licenses) from sessions that have been disconnected (by the user closing the mstsc.exe client or by a network issue). That's simple and straightforward. But I can't find anything in GP to allow a longer time period before the RDP client window goes black and then, when clicked upon, requires a username and password to resume the session.

I must admit this would be nice personally as well, since most of my time is spent documenting the application and/or monitoring its database, so I usually have a window open to the terminal server along with the rest of the staff in the accounting center, but I interact with it very little. I usually enter my password 10-15 times per workday, but I'm pretty good at it by now. 😉

So, can this timeout period be adjusted, or are we out of luck?

Best Answer

I don't think you can control this just for RDP sessions, but you can set the time out for the screen saver via GP.

Default Computer Policy -> User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Display

Related Question