How to Turn off or disable Remote Desktop on Windows 11
In this post, we will look at different methods to disable remote desktop on Windows 11. If you don’t plan to use the remote desktop, you can turn it off to keep malicious people from getting access to your computer remotely.
With remote desktop enabled on Windows 11, anyone who knows the username and password can access the computer from other location remotely via Remote Desktop Protocol. It is always recommended to turn off the remote desktop if you aren’t using it.
On Windows 11, you can disable the Remote Desktop feature from the Settings app, Control Panel, and commands from PowerShell and Command Prompt. In this article, I will cover all the methods, and you can choose the one that is easiest for you. You can also disable the remote desktop access using GPO for AD domain joined computers. If you’re managing your remote devices using Microsoft Intune, you can create a configuration profile and disable the remote desktop access.
Make sure you are logged in with an administrator account or user account that has admin privileges to turn off the remote desktop feature. All the methods described in this article have been tested on Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows 11.
Disable Remote Desktop on Windows 11 using Settings
To disable Remote Desktop on Windows 11 from the Settings app, use these steps:
Step 1: Open Settings on Windows 11. Click on System and select the Remote Desktop option.
Step 2: On the System > Remote Desktop window, turn off the Remote Desktop toggle switch. Click on the Confirm button. This will turn off the remote desktop feature on Windows 11.
Disable Remote Desktop from Control Panel
On Windows 11, you can disable the remote desktop from the control panel using the following steps:
Launch the Control Panel and click on System and Security. Under the System category, select the option Allow remote access.
Under the “Remote Desktop” section, select the “Don’t allow remote connections to this computer” option. Click Apply and OK to save the changes. The remote desktop feature is now disabled and the Windows 11 PC will not allow any remote connections now.
Disable Remote Desktop on Windows 11 using Command Prompt
To disable the remote desktop protocol from Command Prompt, use these steps:
- Click Start and type “Command Prompt” in the search box.
- Right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
- Type the following command to enable the remote desktop protocol and press Enter:
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Disable Remote Desktop on Windows 11 using PowerShell
Perform the below steps to turn off the remote desktop on Windows 11 using PowerShell:
- On the Windows 11 PC, click Start and search for PowerShell.
- Right-click Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator.
- Type the following PowerShell command to disable the remote desktop protocol and press Enter
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server' -name "fDenyTSConnections" -value 1
Once you complete the steps, the Remote Desktop feature will disable on Windows 11.
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