RDP session is slow

Question

So I am connecting to my work computer from home and the Remote Desktop Connection app is annoyingly slow.

I pinged my work pc from my computer and it returned at a reasonable time of 50ms~ with 0 loss. I then attempted to ping my home IP from the RDP session and it timed out every time. Not sure if this might help anyone come to a conclusion but hopefully it does. Note I am also using it in conjunction with Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client if that helps at all. Work is Windows 7 and Home is Windows 8

I attempted switching off my home pc's firewall but that did nothing.

Any assistance would be great, surely a setting in the RDP file might make it run a little smoother.

I'll edit this post with further attempts at fixes below

Lew

Depends on your bandwidth more than ping response time. One thing I found greatly improves RDP in my experience is to set the host computers background to solid color black. – Coffeng

I'm not seeing the programming connection here... – Comprador

@JoeC didn't work for me :( but good tip anyway the image i had as my desktop was longer to load thats certain. – Lew

Answer 1

Did three things and now RDP is running screaming fast:

1. Change RDP settings:

2. Run the RDP session and connect to the remote machine

3. Find mstcsc.exe in the Task Manager and and set priority to Realtime

Roxyroy

Changing the size of 'Display Configuration' to something smaller also has a huge impact. Not the most practical but much more responsive. – Liles

This solution gave a noticeable difference when using xrdp with KDE plasma! +1 – Mestas

I have 2 laptops = 1 is provided by company having 8gb ram and i3 processor. Another is my own laptop with 8gb ram and i5 processor. I checked these settings and they are same on both laptops. But still remote desktop slowdown via logged in from company laptop. Is this also depends on hardware? What is resolution for this case? – Antichlor

Answer 2

I installed Ubuntu server XRDP.

Went through Windows and terribly slowed down. I solved this problem.

In the /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini file, change crypt_level=high to crypt_level=None

Attu

Can you please provide some more details? Are you remoting into a Ubuntu server from a Windows computer? – Orvie

Yes. I logged in remotely into a Ubuntu server from a Windows computer. By default, the Ubuntu server XRDP encrypts traffic. – Attu

Thank you @Kairat Koibagarov , I don't have permissions to edit this xrdp.ini file and I'm afraid to sudo chmod in these files that I'm not familiar with. I'll check with IT. – Orvie

Since we've left Windows-land, I'll chime in on "xfreerdp" ... I've solved slow connection issues with the "/network:broadband", "/network:broadband-low", and "/network:modem" options. – Estragon

Answer 3

Our remote chain is Citrix then RDP, target machine is Win 10. I solved this issue by changing the mouse pointer scheme to None and disabling the pointer shadow.

Disc

Answer 4

In Windows 10. Go to Display Settings >> Scale and Layout >> Set the custom scale to 120 [you may need to experiment, try 110 - 150]

After that log in to your Remote Desktop, it should adjust the resolution and scaling factors.

It gave me a faster experience. If you need more then follow the answer of Mr. B

Dowsabel

Answer 5

Setting "Realtime" priority for TermService's process ON REMOTE MACHINE helped me.

To locate process open Task Manager, find "TermService" on "Services" tab, see PID and locate process in "Details" tab or right click on "TermService" row and choose "Details"

Rubenrubens