I have a Windows 10 Pro machine running Terminal Server. I always have a single logged in session and never logout (only disconnect). Every so often it gets into a state where client RDP connections hang after successful (NLA) authentication and just show the “Please Wait” with the indefinite looping dots UI forever. Once this happens, it will never resolve itself. Restarting Terminal Services does not fix it. It may be associated with a loss of network connection and a reconnection attempt by the RDP client.
In addition, after this occurs, unlocking the Windows session locally (using the physically attached keyboard/mouse/display) works fine, but then once unlocked, I cannot re-lock the session. In other words, Ctrl+Alt+Del is ignored and does nothing, and any other method of locking the session also does nothing. The only fix I have found is a reboot.
Edit: Also, the elevation prompt (consent.exe) will not appear on the local session when attempting to run something that needs elevation. So nothing can be elevated in this way.
I want to know:
- What is causing this?
- Is there a workaround that does not require a reboot or logout? Is there a process/service I can kill/restart while keeping the user logged in and all apps/windows running?
Edit: Note that I have the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStationsIgnoreClientDesktopScaleFactor registry key set to 1, and the Group policy for “use wddm graphics display driver for remote desktop connections” set to Disabled in an attempt to improve re-scaling performance and excessive window resizing/repainting at RDP connection time.
