Remote Desktop for Mac won't connect (but will from Windows)

It's more likely that its the Mac's fault than that the remote server is refusing you. It's probably something to do with a failure to establish an encrypted connection to the Server.

I'd recommend using Microsoft Remote Desktop. It's a free app in the app store for OS X and iOS devices and connects flawlessly to PCs from Apple devices.

Thanks jaredfs. Im running Mac OS X Yosemite and just upgraded to Win10. I used to use the Remote Desktop Connection App but after the upgrade to Win10, I couldnt connect from my Mac. I installed Microsoft Remote Desktop and now I can connect to my Win 10 machine with no issues. Thanks for the quick fix!

That's the ticket... if you check your version of remote desktop for mac it says it's up to date... you have to know that the new version of RDP for mac is called Microsoft Remote Desktop.... maddening!!

Use the link mentioned above

https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id715768417?mt=12

Unfortunately https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id715768417?mt=12 will only install on 10.9 or 10.10

For those of us who cannot upgrade to the disasters called Yosemite and El Crapitan we are, to quote a popular tv show "attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis"

https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id715768417?mt=12 go to this link and download. this will solve your problem

Thank you that was really helpful! 🙂

I was at loss with Microsoft's RDP not at all working and no solution available.

I doubt this a 'problem' with the mac as such nor does it have anything to do with Remote Desktop for Mac which is an entirely different product and for which this forum is for. Questions about RDC for Mac should be put on the relevant Microsoft forum rather than here. However your problem may be with your understanding of the secure remote connections requirements between your server and remote connections. I doubt you'd be aware of any of this as generally server administrators won't necessarily discuss them. By default a mac will not have server-client trust certificates installed simply because the exchange won't happen transparently between an MS based server and non MS-OS such as OS X.

You begin to solve the problem by asking your server administrator for the server's root certificate. He/she has to export this using the built-in tools. They should know how to do this? Once exported save it to a memory stick, insert it into your mac, double click on the .cer file and when prompted install it as a system keychain. On further prompts make sure you select 'Always Trust'. Launch RDC for Mac and you should be OK?

If your server administrator does not know how or, worse still, won't do this for you, then you have far deeper problems that go well beyond OS X in particular and IT as a whole in general.

Did anybody figure this out? It used to work perfectly before until I installed the latest Windows 10 build.

Other Windows computers can still connect. I'm just having this issue on my MacBook using Microsoft's Remote Desktop app.

Thanks

Hi,

I have the exact same problem.

After update the Windows10 for the latest build (10049) i have this problem too.

Before the update everything works great. With Ms RDP app for Osx and with RoyalTS X.

Now none of them work.

The problem is with this update, because i have another machine that i have not updated and works fine

i have been fighting this since first installing windows 10 on one of my test systems....i FINALY have the solution.

So i HAVE been using CORD to log into my PCs from OSX. But it was not working on the Win10 box. I was in the insiders Beta program. and after some update CORD finaly started working. Well as said above, that was short lived with the next update CORD stopped working again. I can remote desktop in from a PC but not from CORD on my Mac.

So following the advice above i downloaded MICROSOFTS's remote desktop. and as soon as i tried to remote into my Win10 box, a message come up about generating a security certificate for this user. I said Yes, and boom! remote desktop ed in perfectly!

Sadly CORD (my preferred client) is still NOT working, but now we know WHY! Win 10 looks for this "security certificate" and if it doesnt find it Win10 will REFUSE the connection. This must be a PC to PC handshake that we never see.

So for CORD we need to ether:

1. Disable this "security certificate" check in remote login (best solution)

2. Get CORD updated to deal with this "security certificate" (doubt this will happen)

FRUSTRATING!!!!

So I did a inplace upgrade to Windows 10, from a Working window 7 system. CORD logged in PERFECTLY just as under Windows 7!

Now I need to play the difference game. What setting is WORKING on the newly upgraded box, that is not set on my original Windows 10 system.

All the setting for Remote Administration looks the same. All the firewalls are off.

Again the only lead I have is that Microsoft Remote Desktop app works on the original box, but not CORD. And i THINK this is due to a security certificate issue. Problem is I have not idea where to find that in Windows 10

Any new ideas?

Yes I too have had my issue solved by the 'Microsoft Remote Desktop',

But that does not leave me WANTING Microsoft to be then only company i can count on for a connection to my personal computers.

CORD was an open source project, and I would trust them a whole lot more then Microsoft when it comes to the access to my personal network.

before all the hate starts, here is my explanation:

Microsoft: close source beholden to government that allows them to operate with the inclusion of backdoors.

Cord / Open source: an open code base that anyone can look at to assure that there are no unwanted 'piggy backs' into your network.

I'm no network security expert, but even I can see that when your have only one company / platform / app that can access a network or system, you'r a prime candidate for the abuse of that one system of authorisation.

Botem line:

Remote administration access should be allowed by MORE then just the 'approved ' microsoft app. This is why open standards are SAFER then closed standards. MOre PUBLIC eyes = more PUBLIC security checks.

I realize this rant will not change anything, but as a user of this software I feel the need to vent my frustration and here seams to be a very relevant venue.

Had the same issue and would not wan't to upgrade to el capitan..

Changing the "SecurityLayer" registry on the windows 10 box from "2" to "1" fixed it for me. The key can be found under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp

I had this same issue once I upgraded to the latest Windows 10. Could no longer remote into my PC from my Mac. I have El Capitan OS X on my mac and had to remove the previous version of Microsoft's RD on my Mac and download the latest version from the App Store. Installed the latest version and it works fine. I can remote into my Win 10 PC from my Mac once again.

I got it to work by editing the local group policy on the windows 10 machine as per this article.

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/123218/osx-10-9-rdp-to-windows-8-1-on-a d

We had Windows 7 but I had performed an in place upgrade to 10 and I guess some security settings had change as part of this.

The lady who was having the issue had an old mac laptop which did not support the download from the iTunes store everybody is mentioning.