Windows 10: RDP - What's the best way to lock down physical access to my PC while I'm remoting into it...

I plan on using Windows 10's Remote Desktop to access my home PC from elsewhere over the coming weekend. I'd like to make sure while I'm using RDP to connect remotely, someone can't just power on my monitor and watch what I'm doing or take over control (I don't have reason to believe someone would, but I like to make sure as I work under an NDA.)

Is there some way to lock down RDP as such in Win10 Pro?

(Oh, and other RDP security tips are welcome! My current plan is to just port-forward as necessary and set up dynamic DNS, as I usually do when running servers, but I figure there must be some safer gateway/middleman service for RDP like the ones Chrome Remote Desktop and Steam Play Anywhere use out there somewhere.)

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:)

 

Remote Desktop

RDP is easy to setup but you need access to the PC you want to RDP to so you can enable the feature. You need to have login credentials to initiate an RDP session according to the requirements for RDP.

Depending on if it is domain joined or not will also have a small effect...I'm assuming it is not domain joined in this situation.

RDP by default locks a user's session and starts a new one. IF you log in as that same user, you'll lock them out of their own session, thus taking over and seeing what they're looking at. They can also log back in and kick you out.

If you have administrative rights to the PC, you should be able to enable and connect using Microsoft Remote Assistance. I believe you can download MSRA from here, set it up and that will give you access similar to Teamviewer, VNC, ScreenConnect, LogMeIn, etc. where you are viewing the same session as the user physically at the console.

Otherwise, you might look at Teamviewer, VNC or Google Remote Desktop as alternatives.

 

RDP - how can I reboot remote machine

You simply RDP into the remote machine and issue a Reboot command the same way you'd do it on a physical machine. Nothing special about it.

Older versions of Windows used to prevent direct access to Reboot and Shutdown commands from the GUI when logged in through RDP (so we had to work around it by manually issuing a command-line 'shutdown' command). However, this restriction is gone from Windows 10 - just open the menu, click the power icon and you will see the Reboot command right there. I don't know what is the reason behind this change (and I'd say that the former approach - no Reboot and Shutdown in GUI - made more sense).

Of course, if you are talking about a LAN machine and you have the required credentials you can reboot it without RDP: just use the '/m \\computer' option of 'shutdown' command.

 

Windows 10 remote access doesn't show that a computer is logged-in remotely to the PC.

I know what Anas is talking about.

What he means is, at least for Windows 7 Pro, if a user was remotely connected to a machine, and another person physically stepped in front of the machine that was being remoted into. You would see the standard Windows login page, and the user profile that
has someone in an RDP session shows up on the profile icon with text below it indicating that someone is actively in a remote session.

In fact, if you try to log on the machine, if I recall correctly it lets you know you will terminate that active RDP session. Either way, it distinctly informs you of an active RDP session.

On Windows 10, the login screen described as such shows no indication whether a user is logged in or not via RDP. Additionally, if you log in, it just logs in normally, whilst terminating the RDP session from the other user. Further along this line, if the
RDP user tries to log back in after being terminated, the user physically on the machine will just see his session switch back to the login screen. So Rishad is incorrect in indicating you can view the RDP session in real time on the physical machine.

I hope I concisely explained this scenario, but it has bothered me too that Windows 10 does not warn of an active RDP session in progress, and to the unaware, wouldn't even realize whats happening when the above behavior I just explained is experienced.

With that being said, I'd really like to know if there is a way to make these RDP mechanics behave more like Windows 7 did, as it was a lot more convenient to the standard user from an informational perspective.