How to perform RDP shadowing from Win10 Pro to another Win10 Pro

Question

How to perform RDP shadowing from Win10 Pro to another Win10 Pro

Tan Eng Hong 1

I recently setup a Win10 Pro system for my son's virtual classes. With kids being kids, I would like to monitor his screen activity from time to time just to make sure he's not on another screen while his class is going on.

I've been reading a couple threads but still can't get RDP shadowing to work.

mstsc /v:<new_system_IP> works.
mstsc /v:<new_system_IP> /shadow:1 /noconsentprompt /control returns "This computer name is invalid."

I've opened firewall ports 443,49152-65535 on both our systems but still no go. Is there any detailed walkthrough on how to setup RDP shadowing for home network?

ComputerGuuy 26 Reputation points

2021-07-08T16:10:01.837+00:00

This is a very late post, but I wanted to add info here for any future inquiries.

Unless something has recently changed, ALL Windows workstation operating systems only allow one RDP connection at a time (unlike server operating systems).
When your son RDP's into the workstation it connects using the "console" (as there are no RDP "sessions" with workstations OS's).
If you also try to connect via RDP, it would need to kick your son off the console session.

Another specific here that I believe makes this impossible. From my experience, when using the RDP tool, you can only "shadow" an "RDP session" and not the "console" connection.

Microsoft's answer to what you were looking for used to be Windows Remote Assistance. I have never used Windows Remote Assistance, only third party solutions (TeamViewer, GoToMyPC, etc).

3 answers

Your answer

ComputerGuuy 26 Reputation points

2021-07-08T16:10:01.837+00:00

This is a very late post, but I wanted to add info here for any future inquiries.

Unless something has recently changed, ALL Windows workstation operating systems only allow one RDP connection at a time (unlike server operating systems).
When your son RDP's into the workstation it connects using the "console" (as there are no RDP "sessions" with workstations OS's).
If you also try to connect via RDP, it would need to kick your son off the console session.

Another specific here that I believe makes this impossible. From my experience, when using the RDP tool, you can only "shadow" an "RDP session" and not the "console" connection.

Microsoft's answer to what you were looking for used to be Windows Remote Assistance. I have never used Windows Remote Assistance, only third party solutions (TeamViewer, GoToMyPC, etc).

Answer 1

Mike Gugel 1

Hi, I've found some steps to accomplish this after having the same problems of "This computer name is invalid." & "Access denied'.

Instead of trying to initiate the rdp session from your remote computer, what you need to do is first rdp to an admin account on the box having the session you wish to shadow, then execute the shadow command from there e.g.

Follow directions above re: group policy and file sharing
RDP to remote IP with admin account credentials
Start a command prompt as administrator
Run "mstsc /shadow:1 /noconsentprompt /control"

note: you no longer need the computer name/ip since it's now local execution)

Anonymous

2023-02-13T09:14:39.0366667+00:00

I cannot shadow my own session

Answer 2

zorrox19 1

Hey did you find a Solution?

Tan Eng Hong 1 Reputation point

2021-06-18T05:02:10.063+00:00

Unfortunately no.

Answer 3

Anonymous

Hello @Tan Eng Hong

Did you configure the remote desktop shadowing in the Group policy ?

Policy path:
Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Windows components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Session Host -> Connections and called Set rules for remote control of Remote Desktop Services user sessions.

Here is the detailed walkthrough for your reference.

Keep me posted how it goes. Thank you and have a great day!

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Karlie

Tan Eng Hong 1 Reputation point

2020-12-08T07:01:44.007+00:00

Hi @Anonymous , thank you for responding.

I've followed both you & woshub's guides & configured the remote desktop shadowing on my son's system (just the Computer Configuration, not the User Configuration). Unfortunately, it's still giving me the same "This computer name is invalid."

Things that I've tried:

1) Added my own account into my son's system. In Computer Management > System Tools > Local Users and Groups > Groups, I made sure that both accounts are in the Administrators & Remote Desktop Users groups.

2) Verified in my son's system regedit > HKLM > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows NT > Terminal Services, the Shadow registry is there with value of 2.

3) Rebooted my son's system after making the above changes.
Anonymous

2020-12-08T08:01:01.777+00:00

Have you turn on file and printer sharing, this might work.
Tan Eng Hong 1 Reputation point

2020-12-08T08:09:57.817+00:00

Tried that & now the error message is "Access denied."
Tan Eng Hong 1 Reputation point

2020-12-09T04:28:21.277+00:00

Just an update in case it's helpful with the troubleshooting.

1) I restored my son's system to day0 configuration & connect it directly to my own computer ethernet port. Just wanted to remove the wireless router from the list of potential culprit. Normal mstsc works while mstsc /shadow returns the usual invalid computer name error.

2) Setup the group policy for RDS. Same result as (1) above.

3) Disabled all Windows firewalls on both systems. mstsc /shadow returns "Access denied".

4) Added my account into my son's system & added it into the Administrators group. Same access denied error.
Anonymous

2020-12-14T07:17:51.7+00:00

There are two places that things can go wrong.

Query session (step 2):
The common issue that occurs during this step is an access denied error. Make sure that you are running the commands from an account that is either a domain admin or has local admin rights on the target computer. Also make sure HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\AllowRemoteRPC is set to 1. The target computer must be rebooted after changing this key. I recommend setting via GPO if this is an issue.

If running this command against an RDP server, the account running the command needs to have Query Information permission rights on the RDP server.

MSTSC (step 3):
The most common error during this step is also an access denied error. Make sure that you're running as a domain admin or has local admin or remote desktop user rights on the target computer.

Access denied