The article describes how to use the Windows 10 desktop Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) app to access a Windows PC on the UWindsor network, such as your office workstation, from a PC that is off-campus, such as your home PC. This article assumes that Windows 10 is installed on both workstations. Note, this has also been found to work when the home PC is running Windows 7.
There are four steps required to enable connections to a University PC from off-campus:
- Office PC:
- Record the IP address
- Enable Remote Desktop
- Home PC:
- Install VPN software to connect to campus network
- Configure the Remote Desktop Connection software on the off-campus computer.
Office PC
You have to perform the following tasks on your office Windows workstation before you will be able to connect to it.
1. Record the Office PC's IP Address
Each computer on the University network has a unique IP address assigned to it. You will need to record.
Browse to https://userid.net.uwindsor.ca/m/ip and record your IP address from the section labelled "My University of Windsor internal IP address."
Alternatively, you can check your PC's IP configuration manually. Please check the special section at the bottom of this article.
2. Enable Remote Desktop access
By default, remote access to a Windows 10 computer is disabled. If you have never used this feature before, you will need to enable it first.
- Click on the Start menu button, type in remote desktop settings and press Enter key. This will take you to the Remote Desktop section of the Windows Settings app.
- Ensure that Enable Remote Desktop is On
- Click Advanced Settings
- Uncheck the box next to Require Computers to use Network Level Authentication to connect then click Continue Anyway when prompted.
Make sure that your office workstation stays powered up at all times. Do not turn it off before going home.
Home Workstation
You now have to setup a few things on the computer that you will be using to connect to your office workstation (eg. home computer).
1. Install GlobalProtect VPN
- Install GlobalProtect VPN software on the computer that you will use to connect to your office workstation (eg. home PC) following these instructions.
- Click on GlobalProtect icon in the Windows tray (grey globe), then click on Connect.
2. RDP Config File
To connect to University of Windsor machines, you need to use specific settings in the Remote Desktop application on the computer you will be using. Download the attached RDP configuration file "UWindsor.rdp" file and save it in your Documents folder or on your Desktop.
The file is located under the "Files" section on the right side of this article (you may need to scroll up to see it).
See the special section at the bottom of this article for instructions to manually create the RDP configuration file.
Connecting
Follow these steps when you need to connect to your office PC,
- Connect your VPN session, as described in step 2 in the GlobalProtect VPN section above.
- Open Windows Explorer, browse to your Documents folder and double-click on the UWindsor.rdp file.
- You will need to confirm what program you wish to open the .RDP file. (This step will only occur once.)
- Next you will need to enter the IP address of your Office computer that you recorded in the first step of this article. (Use your own IP address, not the one in the screenshot.)
- You will be warned that "The publisher of this remote connection can't be verified. Do you want to connect anyway?" You do want to continue, so click Connect.
- Next you will then be warned that "The identity of the remote computer cannot be verified. Do you want to connect anyway?" Again, you want to continue, so click Yes.
- A login page will now appear. You will need to enter the username and password you typically use to log into your computer.
- You should now be logged into your Office computer.
Occasionally login may fail. In that case, try these forms of your username:
- uwinid, for instance jtester
- uwinid@uwindsor.ca, for instance jtester@uwindsor.ca
- UWINAD\<username>, for instance UWINAD\jtester
- AzureAD\<uwinid@uwindsor.ca>, for instance AzureAD\jtester@uwindsor.ca
Please take care to use your uwinid@uwindsor.ca email, not your personalized address (e.g. do not use First.Lastname@uwindsor.ca).
More information
For a more technical explanation, please visit this page https://www.niallbrady.com/2017/08/23/how-can-i-rdp-to-an-azure-ad-joined-windows-10-device/
(Special: Manually determine your Computer's IP Address)
To manually obtain the IP address of the office computer, follow these steps:
- To get to the Command Prompt, click on the Start menu button, type in cmd and press the Enter key.
- Type in the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter:
ipconfig
- Write the IP address down and take it home with you. The IPv4 Address will start with either 10.x.x.x (likely 10.180.x.x) or 137.207.x.x
(Special: Manually create RDP Config File)
To manually create a config file on the computer that you will use to connect to your office workstation (eg. home PC), perform these steps:
- Click on the Start menu button and type in rdp then press Enter. This will start the Remote Desktop Connection app.
- Enter the IP address of your office workstation that you wish to connect to into Computer field, but don't click Connect button.
- Click on the down-arrow next to Show Options to expand this section.
- Click Save As... to save the file with the name UWindsor.rdp in your Documents folder. Make sure that the file retains the .rdp file name extension.
- Close the Remote Desktop application dialogue box.
- Edit the file you just saved with a Notepad text editor. Right-click on the file and select Open with then Choose another app. Click on Notepad (you may need to scroll down the list of apps), then OK.
- Add the following lines of text on a new line each at the bottom of the file:
enablecredsspsupport:i:0
authentication level:i:2
- Click on File then Save from the menu.
- Close Notepad.