Quick Fixes For Two Common Remote Desktop Issues

If you're a Windows Remote Desktop user, then sooner of later you're likely to hit a glitch during a remote access session. Here are a couple of the most common issues, along with pointers to quick and easy fixes.CNET columnist Dennis O'Reilly recently uncovered what he correctly describes as a "common problem" with many Remote Desktop sessions: Like many people who work for a company that's located hundreds of miles from their home, I rely on remote-access programs, specifically the Remote Desktop Connection utility built into Windows. I recently encountered a relatively common bug in the program: in the midst of a remote session, I lost the ability to copy and paste.

Closing and restarting the remote connection fixed the problem temporarily. A more permanent solution is described by Pinal Dave on the SQL Authority blog. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and click Start Task Manager. Choose the Processes tab, select rdpclip.exe, click End Process, and close Task Manager. Restart the process by clicking Start > Run (just Start in Vista and Win7), typing rdpclip.exe, and pressing Enter.

O'Reilly also points out that more generalized copy-and-paste problems, especially those involving a Web browser, may reflect a more serious problem with malware infections. For those users, he includes a link to a Mozillazine knowledge base article that offers suggestions for dealing with the issue.

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Over at TechRepublic, author Rick Vanover answers a question that more Remote Desktop users are likely to face as multiple-monitor hardware setups become increasingly common: Remote Desktop Services is the administration tool of choice for Windows Server admins and the display mechanism for many user scenarios. Many admins, as well as other knowledge and task workers, may have multiple monitors on workstations. While server-side Remote Desktop resources usage is not resource intensive for most situations, it may be necessary to set a policy that limits the amount of monitors that may be associated with a Remote Desktop session. According to Vanover, users running Windows Server 2008 R2 can deal with this issue by making a few quick changes to a server's Group Policy configuration. He covers the process in a thorough walkthrough that includes screen shots of the relevant configuration settings.

It is unlikely that either of these fixes -- or either of these problems, for that matter -- will apply to users who work with third-party remote access solutions.