Authentication in the new RDP Client

You?ve probably noticed by now that Microsoft has integrated another security mechanism into the Remote Desktop client.

This authentication mechanism is designed to authenticate against the intended computer before making the RDP connection.  By authenticating with the system prior to the actual RDP connection, it can verify that the system that you intended to connect to is actually the system that will be accepting the connection.

This is a great measure to prevent the interception of the connection and reroute to a different potential destination.

It has taken me a little bit to get used to, and although I think it is a great idea I found that a lot of folks in the technology community find it rather annoying.  What if I want to connect to my destination right away?

You can modify this behavior.  Although it is not recommended, I have found sources (and verified myself) that if you edit your default.rdp file in Notepad, you can add a line that will initiate the connection with the authentication and initial verification taking you straight to your destination.

Adding ‘EnableCredSSPSupport:i:0’ to your default.rdp will restore the behavior that most folks are used to from the RDP client.

Use this at your own risk.  It is always better to let these security features do their job instead of disabling them.  After all, they are there for a reason.