Windows – Using Remote Desktop, connect to a Windows 7 domain user account without first logging on locally

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I have a dell laptop (henceforth we'll call this the server) running Windows 7 Enterprise. The server is part of my company's domain. My primary user account is a domain account.

When I am at home and not connected to the domain, I prefer to connect to the server using Remote Desktop Connection from my MacBook Pro (we'll call this the client). The problem is, that if I do not physically login to the server, I am unable to connect to it using RDC from the client.

I have a local administrator account on the server, and connecting to it via RDC works just fine.

I had a feeling that the Mac RDC application was not giving me the full story, so I attempted the same procedure from a Windows 7 client. When trying to login, I get this message:

An authentication error has occured.
The local security authority cannot be contacted.

So basically, If I logon to the server physically with my domain user and lock the computer, I can then successfully logon from the client. Otherwise, I am unable to connect.

Best Answer

There are two things you should check:

  1. Your domain user has to be in the local group Remote Desktop Users or Administrators(on the server)
  2. Check the security policies on the server with Local Security Policy(secpol.msc). Make sure your user is not in Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services. You find this in Local Policies\User Rights Assignment

Usually you don't have to check the policy Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services because the Remote Desktop Users are already added to this one. Those policies could be managed through your domain which would not allow you to make any changes.

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