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4 Ways How to Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 11? MiniTool Tips

Step 2: View items by Category and go to System and Security.

How to Enable and Use Remote Desktop on Windows 11

Samir Makwana is a freelance technology writer who aims to help people make the most of their technology. For over 15 years, he has written about consumer technology while working with MakeUseOf, GuidingTech, The Inquisitr, GSMArena, BGR, and others. After writing thousands of news articles and hundreds of reviews, he now enjoys writing tutorials, how-tos, guides, and explainers. Read more.

Updated Nov 17, 2022, 3:02 pm EDT | 2 min read

To enable Remote Desktop on Windows 11, go to Settings -> System -> Remote Desktop and change the toggle to “On”. Click through the dialog and you’re done.

Want to use your Windows 11 desktop in another room inside your home? Instead of walking there, you can remotely access it from your phone or tablet. But first, you need to enable Remote Desktop on your computer. You can also enable Remote Desktop connections on Windows 10 or earlier versions, but the process is a little different.

Table of Contents

How Remote Desktop Works

You can use the Remote Desktop feature in Windows 11 to connect and access your computer using a remote access tool. After that, you can carry on simple tasks like checking downloads, app installations, or even copy files from your computer.

RELATEDHow to Remotely Access Your Computer from Your Phone

We recommend using the Remote Desktop only on your home network with the Network Level Authentication, which acts as a secure login layer at the network level. So you’ll need to use your Windows user account password to authenticate yourself on the network before you can access the remote computer.

Warning: We do not advise exposing the Remote Desktop service directly to the internet. Microsoft recommends setting up your own VPN if you want to access Remote Desktop away from your local network. There are also other third-party remote desktop tools you may want to try.

How to Enable Remote Desktop on Windows 11

To begin, click the “Start” button and select “Settings” from the pinned apps. Alternatively, press Windows+i on your keyboard to launch the Settings app quickly. Choose “System” on the sidebar and select “Remote Desktop” from the right-hand side.

Toggle on the switch for “Remote Desktop.” Select “Yes” on the User Account Control (UAC) prompt and click the “Confirm” button on the window that pops open.

Next, select the drop-down button next to the switch. Check the box for “Require devices to use Network Level Authentication Connect (Recommended).” After enabling this option, you’ll need to add the Windows user account password of the remote PC to authenticate yourself on the local network. Only after successful authentication will you see the Windows login screen.

Select “Yes” on the UAC prompt and choose the “Confirm” button to enable that extra layer of security for using Remote Desktop.

It’s worth noting you can change the Remote Desktop port if you really want to, although it’s probably not necessary most of the time.

How to Use the Remote Desktop App to Access Your PC

You can try any free remote access tools to use your PC remotely, but only a few have a mobile app. We’ll demonstrate how to access Remote Desktop using Microsoft’s Remote Desktop app available on Windows, macOS, Android, iPhone, and iPad. Open the Remote Desktop app and tap the plus (+) icon in the top-right corner.

Then, type in your PC Name and Windows user account details. Next, you may toggle on other options like “Clipboard,” “Microphone,” “Storage,” and others.

Hit “Save” in the top-right corner to finalize all changes.
After this, tap on the card with your PC name to start a remote desktop session.

That it! Keep in mind that you should disable Remote Desktop if you don’t plan to use it for a while.

RELATED: 5 Free Remote Access Tools for Connecting to a PC or Mac

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Samir Makwana
Samir Makwana is a freelance technology writer who aims to help people make the most of their technology. For over 15 years, he has written about consumer technology while working with MakeUseOf, GuidingTech, The Inquisitr, GSMArena, BGR, and others. After writing thousands of news articles and hundreds of reviews, he now enjoys writing tutorials, how-tos, guides, and explainers.
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[4 Ways] How to Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 11? [MiniTool Tips]

If you want to remotely access files or apps on another PC, using remote desktop is very useful. How can you enable remote desktop in Windows 11? This is not a difficult task and you can follow four ways in this post offered by MiniTool Solution.

Remote Desktop Windows 11

Remote desktop is a basic feature of the Windows operating system. It is designed to access your own or other’s computers remotely using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). You can easily access files and programs on another computer remotely. Besides, you can use it to control a PC or offer assistance to someone without being present at that location.

To use remote desktop, two steps are required – enable remote desktop and set up or connect to the enabled device. How can you turn on remote desktop in Windows? It is easy in Windows 10 but for Windows 11, some settings are changed and the way is different. Now, let’s see how to enable Windows 11 remote desktop.

Tip: Windows 11 Home Remote Desktop is not supported and this feature is only available in Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise. If you are running the Home version, use a third-party remote desktop app.

4 Ways to Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 11

Turn on Windows 11 Remote Desktop via Settings

Here is how to do this work in Windows Settings:

Step 1: Click the start icon and tap on Settings to open this app.

Step 2: Under the System tab, click Remote Desktop.

Step 3: Turn on remote desktop by switching the toggle to On.

After that, you can decide who can remotely access this PC. Just click Remote Desktop users, add the email ID or PC name of the user to access the device, and click OK.

Enable Windows 11 Remote Desktop via Control Panel

In addition, you can turn on remote desktop in Control Panel, and here are steps you should follow:

Step 2: View items by Category and go to System and Security.

Step 3: In the pop-up, click the Allow remote access link from the System section.

Step 4: Under the Remote tab, move to the Remote Desktop section and make sure the option – Only allow connections from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (recommended) is checked.

Also, you can add a user who needs to access this PC by clicking Select Users.

Step 5: Save the change by clicking Apply and OK.

Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 11 Command Prompt

Step 1: Click the search box, type cmd, and right-click the result to choose Run as administrator.

How to Open Command Prompt (CMD) in Windows 11? (7 Ways)

How to open Command Prompt (CMD) in Windows 11? If you are looking for methods to open this tool, read this post and you can find some ways.

Step 2: Type reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server” /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f and press Enter.

Step 3: Perform this command – netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”remote desktop” new enable=Yes to allow remote desktop through the Windows Firewall. This step is optional.

Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 11 PowerShell

If you prefer Windows PowerShell, you can turn on remote desktop via the command tool.

Step 1: Right-click on the start icon and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Step 2: Type this command – Set-ItemProperty -Path ‘HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server’ -name “fDenyTSConnections” -value 0 and press Enter.

Step 3: Run this command – Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup “Remote Desktop” to let Windows Firewall not block the remote desktop connection.

How to Use Remote Desktop in Windows 11

These are all the ways to enable remote desktop in Windows 11. After turning on this feature, now you can connect remote desktop. How to do this task?

Step 1: Type remote desktop to the search box and click Remote Desktop Connection.

Step 2: Input the computer name to which you want to create a connection in the Computer section.

Step 3: Click Connect.

How To Set And Use Remote Desktop In Windows 10, Look Here

Many people want to set and use remote desktop in Windows 10, but don’t know how. I’m writing this to help them out.

Further Tip:

Sometimes you may encounter many issues when using remote desktop, for example, Windows 11 remote desktop won’t turn on/Windows 11 can’t enable remote desktop, Windows 11 RDP not working, etc.

To find solutions, you can refer to this related article – 6 Methods to Fix the Windows 10 Remote Desktop Not Working Error. Although this post is written based on Windows 10, the given solutions also apply to Windows 11.

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About The Author

Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 5 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.

How to use Remote Desktop

Use Remote Desktop on your Windows, Android, or iOS device to connect to a Windows 10 PC from afar. Here’s how to set up your PC to allow remote connections and then connect to the PC you set up.

Note: While a Remote Desktop server (as in, the PC that you are connecting to) needs to be running a Pro edition of Windows, a client machine (the device you are connecting from) can be running any edition of Windows (Pro or Home), or even a different operating system altogether.

  1. Set up the PC you want to connect to so it allows remote connections:
    • Make sure you have Windows 11 Pro. To check this, select Start , and open Settings . Then, under System , select About , and under Windows specifications, look for Edition. For info on how to get Windows 11 Pro, go to Upgrade Windows Home to Windows Pro.
    • When you’re ready, select Start , and open Settings . Then, under System , select Remote Desktop, set Remote Desktop to On, and then select Confirm.
    • Make note of the name of this PC under PC name. You’ll need this later.
  2. Use Remote Desktop to connect to the PC you set up:
    • On your local Windows PC: In the search box on the taskbar, type Remote Desktop Connection , and then select Remote Desktop Connection. In Remote Desktop Connection, type the name of the PC you want to connect to (from Step 1), and then select Connect.
    • On your Windows, Android, or iOS device: Open the Remote Desktop app (available for free from Microsoft Store, Google Play, and the Mac App Store), and add the name of the PC that you want to connect to (from Step 1). Select the remote PC name that you added, and then wait for the connection to complete.
  1. Set up the PC you want to connect to so it allows remote connections:
    • Make sure you have Windows 10 Pro. To check this, go to Start >Settings >System >About and look for Edition. For info on how to get Windows 10 Pro, go to Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro.
    • When you’re ready, select Start >Settings >System >Remote Desktop, and turn on Enable Remote Desktop.
    • Make note of the name of this PC under How to connect to this PC. You’ll need this later.
  2. Use Remote Desktop to connect to the PC you set up:
    • On your local Windows PC: In the search box on the taskbar, type Remote Desktop Connection , and then select Remote Desktop Connection. In Remote Desktop Connection, type the name of the PC you want to connect to (from Step 1), and then select Connect.
    • On your Windows, Android, or iOS device: Open the Remote Desktop app (available for free from Microsoft Store, Google Play, and the Mac App Store), and add the name of the PC that you want to connect to (from Step 1). Select the remote PC name that you added, and then wait for the connection to complete.

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