Running Windows Server 2016 Remote Desktop Services (session-based desktops).

Multiple session host servers, one DC, all running as VMs under Citrix XenServer 7.1. The servers are fully updated to present time as of 7 March 2019.

Every few days a user reports that after logging in to an RDS session he does not see his desktop but sees a black screen. When this happens, I can see that some users on that same RDS server still have their session working normally, but every user logging in after this also gets this black screen.

There are numerous references to this problem on the internet. It is apparently occuring since Server 2012 and has never been fixed.

Some people recommend to restart the Windows Audio service. Does not help in my case, never does when it happens to me. Other recommendations were to remove Firefox browser from the RDS session host servers. I did that two months ago and it seemed to help for one week but then it came back. I have not found any other recommendation - there seems to be simply no solution, except restarting that RDS session host server, which is a major inconvenience, it throws out the other users which still work, it takes 10 minutes or more to restart that server, and it can only be done manually. Most often it has to be force-restarted on top of it, as the server is totally unresponsive, and then some users may loose their user profile. Then I have to delete that user and recreate his user profile. Major trouble.

In the last few months I have rebuilt all RDS session host servers from scratch - total new installation, all updates, totally clean. It STILL happens. I have that system running since 2 years, and it has been a problem all the time.

When I try to log in to the console of the offending RDSH I can sometimes not even log in . Sometimes it does let me log in but I also get a black screen as local admin user (both Server\Administrator and Domain\Administrator). In this case, I can bring  up TaskManager via Ctrl+Alt+End and run a command prompt. I can restart services this way and execute other commands, but anything relating to the UI does not show up. Screen stays black.

Managed once to get the black screen off by restarting ShellExperienceHost service but then this logged out all users somehow and corrupted some profiles.

The only applications installed on the RDSH servers are Chrome browser, Thunderbird email client, Libre-Office.

From what I can find on the internet this problem occurs since the release of Windows Server 2012. This is seven years ago. I do not know if this happens to everyone, but there seems to be no common denominator from what I can find, it seems to happens on all sorts of environments, pointing to a bug within Windows Server itself.

From what it seems it is related to the new UI system implemented with Windows 8 (and Server 2012) because I can find no reference to this occurring with Server 2008. I have not run RDS on Server 2008 myself so I have no first-hand experience.

Is there ANYTHING I can do about this? It does NOT seem related to my setup which is really rock-bottom basic. Many users are reporting this as a dreaded issue they hope one day will be fixed by Microsoft.

Can it be related to the virtualization software? Anything having experienced that issue on bare-bone installs of RDSH servers? Any difference with Hyper-V VMs?

WHEN IS THIS GOING TO GET FIXED? THIS IS A PROBLEM SINCE 2012 - 7 YEARS!

I feel forced to start researching for non-Microsoft solutions for RDS type solutions because I simply cannot tolerate non-functional software. To the users it looks like it is me as admin who is not doing his job!

Atradius

Hi all,

We're currently experiencing issues at a random interval with regards to freezing start menu's on Server 2016 RDS Hosts.
When the freeze happens we can see the following items in the eventlog: Event ID 5973

Seems to be related on a per user base, as multiple users can connect to the RDS server but only a few of them are experiencing issues.

We are using User Profile Disks and Start Menu redirection. Any thoughts?

Hi All

Quick Question:

Have a file server in Domain A and need users that have been migrated from Domain A to Domain B to RDP back to a file server in Domain A  (No Trust), what the simplest way of doing this ?

Effectively Domain A = Company 1  & Domain B = Company 2

Thanks

Hi,

First of all, please note this: 

• Network level authentication IS supported on all machines as per theAbout Remote Desktop Connection. So please don't ask me to check this on the about remote desktop connection window.
• All clients are set per GPO to use the Remote Setting of the "more secure" option:
• The problem is on random machines, all windows 7. We only have a few windows 10 machines but no issues found on those so far. 
• It doesn't matter if the RDP connection is initiated from a windows 7, windows 10 or Windows Server 2012 R2. The problem remains and is exactly the same.
• The problem exists when attempting to connect RDP from personal home PCs (not managed by company GPOs and MS update schedules) over VPN

So the problem is this, first comes the first message and then the second.

It seems to have started after we deployed some Microsoft server updates, but its very inconsistent, some sites seems worse off then others, but its not all machines at any site. We haven't even done client updates yet.

Again, please don't give me a link to an old post or blog saying that I need to enable network level authentication, as shown by the top screenshot, it is already enabled/supported.

I already spent hours googling this. Please, I want responses from people who have actually had the exact same symptoms and issues or someone who has an idea that I haven't already clearly stated that I've checked above already.

Thank you.

I am looking for a way to allow domain users click the .rdp file and it can auto automatically logon the remote desktop server and run remote app with their AD credential. I currently published the remote app and downloaded the remote app .rdp file to the workstation. But it still requires users to type username and password to logon, then the remote app run.

Thanks,

Hanson

A few users are experiencing this problem.

Event ID: 5973

Activation of app Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI failed with error: The remote procedure call failed. See the Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational log for additional information.

And event ID: 1000

Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.14393.2125, time stamp: 0x5a990817
Faulting module name: Windows.UI.Xaml.dll, version: 10.0.14393.2125, time stamp: 0x5a9909e5
Exception code: 0xc000027b
Fault offset: 0x00000000006d710b
Faulting process id: 0x6b78
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3c1fbf1890ced
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.Xaml.dll
Report Id: 7c1dae0b-eec7-416c-b5c9-5148b1bc7ba6
Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.14393.2068_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Faulting package-relative application ID: App

When this happens the start menu will not work. This corresponds with me enabling the roaming of C:\Users\user\AppData\Local

I'm wondering if there is a folder I should exclude from roaming.

If it's not being caused by roaming the local folder then it may be caused by some GPO settings I also changed. I did this because windows search was out of control and consuming too many resources. Unfortunately I cannot disable search completely because of Outlook. My discussion on Outlook and search I had to re enable indexing outlook.

Any guidance on this is appreciated.

So far the only fix I've come up with is temporary, which is to delete the local profile and on the next login the start menu works. After a day or 2 it stops working again. I haven't totally recreated the user profile and I'm hoping this is not the ultimate fix because that would be a PITA to have to do that for all the users that have this happen.

Can I import Server 2019 CALs into an existing Server 2016 Terminal Server License Server?

Or do I have to "upgrade" the 2016 server in order to issue 2019 CALs?

Or do I have to build out a new Server 2019 and install the Terminal Server License Server Role and import 2019 CALs?

Thanks!

We currently have an 2012R2 RDS environment running 8 farms across 12 session hosts from one connection broker. Recently I went to provision 2 new Session Hosts (one to a new farm and one to an existing) however they both fail with the following error in the Server Manager Wizard:

Access is denied
The term 'Get-LocalMachineFqdn' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

I've also tried installing from PowerShell without success.

Has anyone come across this before? I haven't been able to find anything in my searches on the web let alone find anything of use in the event viewer.

Cheers,

Ryan.

we have RDS installed in Windows 2016 standard edition and use session-base desktop deployment.

It was working fine for about one year. About two weeks ago, we started to have the following issue:

This computer can't connect to the remote computer.
The two computers couldn't connect in the amount of time allotted. Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact your network administrator or technical support. 

When this issue happens, we find some users are disconnected in the RDS-Collections-QuickSessionCollection. But we cannot log/sign off those users, they are always showing there.

BTW, we can sign of those users in the Task Manager-Users. 

We can solve this issue by restarting the server. How to fix it without restarting the server?

Thanks!

Atradius

I've seen this error discussed, but need little more detail. I want to understand how to create RDS Farms with correct initial settings to avoid this.

When clicking on a Remote Desktop Icon for a remote collection (Sage_Sales). I enter my credentials and see this dialog.

Then I see this warning about the certificate mismatch.

Then I see this error if I click [Yes]

Can someone explain why each dialog/error is displayed?

I want to be able to look back at this thread, and correct my configurations.

Regards

Hello Team,

Below is my environment details.

• 1 RDSH server ( 2016)
• 1 RDCB server ( 2016)
• 1 DC (2016)
• I have configured the licensing role on RDSH server.

I have purchased 30 per user licenses. I have successfully activated the licensing server. Installed the licenses. Applied the correct group policy settings. But the issue is " the licensing manager shows Incorrect cals and none of the cals are getting issued when the users are connecting. When I run the license report, it says no licenses are issued.

Ideally it should show 30 available per user licensing cals. Instead it displays 500 available cals. My doubt is, however, its showing 500 available cals, why it is not issuing none of them.

I want correct data to be shown on the server i.e 30 available cals.  

Any kind of help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Shravan

I recently deployed a few 2016 servers into my 2008R2 Domain-Ive read all the online descriptions of basically doing this and looking at group policy

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/33801.remote-desktop-troubleshooting-unable-to-copy-paste-files.aspx

Both are set to not configured or disabled-However still greyed out when attempting to cut and paste a fiile in an RDP session.

This works however no issue copying files between 2008R2 servers. Only when attempting to copy and paste either between 2016 servers or 2008r2 to 2016. Help!!!!

hi all,

       Win server 2016 connection brokers, 2012 R2 session hosts (due to application requirements), currently 154 session hosts in farm.

if i logon to specific session host, using mstsc.exe /admin, first logon time is approx 8 seconds. Subsequent logons are approx 3 seconds.

if i logon via the farm ()via rdweb, or an rdp file downloaded via RDWweb), the logon times are 18 seconds and 13 seconds respectively.

It seems to me as if the farm negotiation and deciding where to place the client is taking a full 10 seconds - which just ruins the user experience.

i havent been able to find anything by googling this - has anyone got some suggestions as to what to check or what tools i can use to troubleshoot this ?

I have an issue I have been attempting to diagnose for about a week now. I only posted a few times ever and I am not used to requesting assistance so, please if there is anything I should have obviously mentioned just ask and I will fill you in. 

Little background. My primary environment is 100% on VMware with 3 hosts using Dell Compellent storage. I have 2 Virtual servers acting as sessions brokers and gateways, one of these servers is a licensing server and I had 12, session hosts. All servers are 2012r2 and were about a month behind on updates when this started around March 6th.  I shut down my VMs on the 10th when adding a storage expansion to the environment. After the system came back up this issue hit hard starting right on the 11th.

I am having an issue with the 2012 R2 Session hosts in my environment logging users out and I am not sure why. I have a primary RDS collection and a single server we use for various IT functions acting as its own license server, Session broker and host. Both the primary RDS collection and this IT server both log out users at what appears to be random. When I look in the logs of the Hosts, they show the logoffs as normal events with the reason being 12. I have confirmed the sessions timeouts are set appropriately both in GPO and in the session settings of the collection. These log outs happen if a user connects through the session broker or directly to the server via a console connection as an administrator. I have removed all nonessential GPOs from the servers. The only GPO settings being sent to the servers are a registry key for a database connection, 2 simple scripts to audit and add log on and logoff times to a notepad, loopback set to replace, and a policy adding websites to the trusted sites and allowed pop-ups. I have confirmed these are the only settings for both the user and computer GPO using gpresult. 

This log off event happens for users and administrators. while testing I will log my account into each server and monitor so I can view logs when I get the long off the event. The logs as far as I can tell look the same as if I were to hit the log off button in the start menu. Sometimes I will get logged off of just one server, or sometimes 2 or 3 at the same time(confirmed by logs down to the second) which tells me something is causing this event. 

Since the issue has started I have removed the expansion cabinet, updated all sessions hosts to current windows updates and added two more hosts for a total of 14. I have removed all nonessential GPOs, double checked and set session timeouts in both the collection session settings and GPO, Attempted to set keep alive in RDS GPO settings to 1. I have around 15-20 users using 1 remote app on these hosts during daytime business hours. 

My hope is to get some assistance with diagnosing a possible issue with the server itself, or helping figure out within logs what may be initiating the log of events.

I have not posted any logs because with everything I have looked through this week, I am not sure what is relevant to a trained eye. I can answer any questions and produce logs to anyone who may be able to assist with this issue.

Hello Team,

I have 30 session host servers and I am using non persistent servers where my users will simply login and use it for a day and log off. Whenever they log off the server will get back to its initial state and all the changes made to the servers will be lost.

I have purchased the Per user licenses and configured them. I have installed licensing role on the sever and applied the below group policies to my session host servers.

• Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Licensing\Specify RD License Servers - I have specified my licensing server.
• Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Licensing\Specify the Remote Desktop licensing mode - I have specified per user licensing mode.

But the licenses are not getting issued. These servers are still depending on 120 days grace period. In the event viewer it says "  The Remote Desktop Session Host server does not have a Remote Desktop license server specified. To specify a license server for the Remote Desktop Session Host server, use the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool". 

I am wondering that I have already specified the group policies and still it displays the above error. 

I tried deleting the grace period registry key as I read in on the forums, since these are non-persistent VM's at the end of the day the registry key will regenerates and starts issuing the free licenses. I am afraid now, what happens after 120 days?

There are no error messages on licensing diagnose? Please advise is this a kind of bug or something else?

Any kind of help is much appreciated

Thanks,

SM

hi please help me for remote desktop in server 2012 afther windows update 

event log

DCOM got error "2" attempting to start the service lpasvc with arguments "Unavailable" in order to run the server:
{12F246F3-DF68-4252-AE6B-07B9CF73B99A}


The Microsoft Policy Platform Local Authority service failed to start due to the following error: 
The system cannot find the file specified.

server 2012

Read many of the posts regarding certificate errors when connecting through RDWB and connecting to remote desktop. Like to  know more about why these errors occur and how to prevent them.

I used LetsEncrypt and created a certificate rds.domain.com.

First Certificate ErrorName Mismatch:

DC-RDS-SERVICES.ANS.LOCAL

Name in certificate is rds.domain.com

Second Certificate error:

Name in certificate from remote computer:

DC-RDS-001

Since my farm isn't in production yet, what can I do to resolve this. My users will freak out.

Thanks

Keeping seeing this event id in DPM when I try to back up a sql db. Other db's backup on that server without issue. It's in the default instance. I have verified the permissions. SQL 2012 R2 DPM 2016 both server on 2012 R2 for the OS. 

An unexpected error occurred while the job was running. (ID 104 Details: The parameter is incorrect (0x80070057))

Please advise how to fix