Remote Desktop Focus

Question

_{Wednesday, August 26, 2015 3:24 AM}

I recently discovered, while in a full-screen RDP session, Ctrl+Alt+Home snaps the focus back to the local machine. I usually have multiple RDP sessions open at once. With Win10, I've found that Ctrl+Alt+Home brings the focus back to my local machine, but when I Alt+Tab to another RDP session and use WinKey+R to open the "Run" box on the remote machine, the "Run" box opens on my local machine, not the remote machine.

All replies (11)

_{Monday, September 7, 2015 9:52 AM ✅Answered}

Hi RonaldGould,

Apologize for the late reply.

I think the Alt + Tab may cycle to the RDP session with no full screen mode, that might cause the Win + R only work at host.

The issue here also traps me, as I can't reproduce this at my side.

Regards

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_{Wednesday, July 1, 2020 11:54 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

I have the same issue. I found that the way around this is to do the following. When in your full screen Remote Desktop connection press Ctr+Alt+Break, this will change the session to restore down so it is no longer full screen. I can then do anything in my local machine. Then use Alt+Tab to get back to the Remote Desktop session and press Ctr+Alt+Break to maximise the session once again with the keyboard responding in the Remote Desktop session once again. Let me know if that works for you.

_{Thursday, August 27, 2015 9:39 AM}

Hi RonaldGould,

Thanks for your sharing.

For me it seems to be a normal behavior, as we have already bring the focus out of the RDC session.

To make it focus back, we need to take a click in the Remote desktop.

I will do some tests on Windows 8.1 and the Windows 10 machines, if any update, I will update here.

Regards

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_{Monday, August 31, 2015 1:09 AM}

Nope.

I can recall on Win 8 and 7 using Ctrl+Alt+Home to snap the focus back to my local machine, then Alt+Tab to cycle to another RDP session and let go of the keys with the focus being in the other RDP session. This was all done without touching the mouse.

_{Tuesday, September 1, 2015 8:01 AM}

Hi RonaldGould,

I tested under Windows 8.1, the symptom is Win + R (or the other shortcuts) would work in remote connection only when the session is full screen mode. This is the same for both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

Did we make any configuration settings under the RDC for Windows 10, like redirect or something else?

Regards

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_{Tuesday, September 1, 2015 7:24 PM}

No, standard configuration.

Going back to the original post, Win+R works in a full screen RDP session. When I Ctrl+Alt+Home to bring focus back to the local machine, then Alt+Tab to cycle to another RDP session, the focus isn't on the remote session, it's still on the local machine.

Think of it like this. Ignore the fact that I'm using remote desktop. I'm using one instance of program A. I Alt+Tab to another instance of program A. However, any keyboard shortcut I use isn't hooked to the active window, rather to the OS. If I use the mouse and click inside program A, I can then use keyboard shortcuts.

_{Sunday, July 29, 2018 4:38 PM | 1 vote}

Sorry, but the marked Answer is not correct.

After Ctrl+Alt+Home, the focus is never returned to a full screen mstsc session.  That is the problem.

_{Thursday, July 11, 2019 6:27 AM}

If Ctrl Alt Home takes you out of RDP, then using deductive reasoning, Dun Dun Dun Duuuun (trumpet sound)  

then Ctrl Alt Tab , takes you back into RDP!  (with an additional enter key press, lol)

_{Thursday, January 9, 2020 8:54 PM | 4 votes}

After pressing Ctrl+Alt+Home, all keys go to local machine, even after using Alt+Tab (or Ctrl+Alt+Tab) to switch back to RDP.

Here is my solution...

When I switch back to RDP, I use Alt+Tab.  However, instead of letting go of Alt after Alt+Tabbing to RDP window, I press Delete.  This tries to close the window and a dialog appears asking to confirm.  I hit Esc on the dialog and... Voilà!  I now have focus inside the RDP session.

Note:  Make sure HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\ShowShutdownDialog is 1 so that the Close confirmation dialog appears.

_{Tuesday, June 2, 2020 7:42 PM}

This may work to initiate the close RDP session prompt, but I set that to not ask me when I click the close button. When I follow these steps, the RDP session is closed when I press delete.

_{Wednesday, July 1, 2020 2:43 PM}

This accomplishes what I was looking for. Thank you.