Comments for Remote Desktop slow problem solved

Remote Desktop slow problem solved

2007-04-19T14:41:16Z

Remote Desktop 6.0, the latest version of Microsoft Remote Desktop client, which comes pre-installed with Vista was slower than molasses when I tried connecting to some Windows 2003 servers. In particular, I was trying to manage a Windows 2003 R2 64-bit Server running Exchange 2007 with 4GB of RAM and a fast 1.83Ghz dual-core processor. I'd click on something and wait and wait for my click to register. Moving a Window would also be painfully slow. It didn't seem related to network connectivity since the screen redraw was fairly fast, but it just took a long time for the server to respond to keystrokes, mouse-clicks, etc. It had all the earmarks of a server's CPU being overwhelmed.

But surely, this brand-spankin' new server will all this horsepower couldn't possibly be overloaded unless it had spyware or a virus. That wasn't likely either since I'm pretty diligent about protecting my servers. I logged on locally to the server and the server's performance was normal. Thus, only when I used Remote Desktop was it slow. Further, when I tried Remote Desktop from a Windows XP Professional PC, the server was also fast. It was only when I used Remote Desktop from my brand new Windows Vista Ultimate Edition PC that the performance was terrible. It was very odd, because from my Vista PC I could connect to many other machines with no problems. I was aware that Vista comes with a new RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) client called Remote Desktop 6.0, which has more security and networking features, so perhaps there was some sort of network security conflict.

After doing some more research I discovered that Remote Desktop 6.0 leverages a new feature called auto-tuning for the TCP/IP receive window that could be causing the trouble. What is auto-tuning for the TCP/IP receive window? Well, the new Microsoft TCP/IP stack supports Receive Window Auto-Tuning. Receive Window Auto-Tuning continually determines the optimal receive window size by measuring the bandwidth-delay product and the application retrieve rate, and adjusts the maximum receive window size based on changing network conditions.]]> In Vista, Receive Window Auto-Tuning enables TCP window scaling by default, allowing up to a 16 MB window size. As the data flows over the connection, the TCP/IP stack monitors the connection, measures the current bandwidth-delay product for the connection and the application receive rate, and adjusts the receive window size to optimize throughput. The new TCP/IP stack no longer uses the TCPWindowSize registry values which many third-party utilities used to "tweak".

Receive Window Auto-Tuning has a number of benefits. It automatically determines the optimal receive window size on a per-connection basis. In Windows XP, the TCPWindowSize registry value applies to all connections. Applications no longer need to specify TCP window sizes through Windows Sockets options. And IT administrators no longer need to manually configure a TCP receive window size for specific computers.

According to Microsoft, with Receive Window Auto-Tuning, a Windows Vista-based TCP peer will typically advertise much larger receive window sizes than a Windows XP-based TCP peer. This allows the other TCP peer to fill the pipe to the Windows Vista-based TCP peer by sending more TCP data segments without having to wait for an ACK (subject to TCP congestion control). For typical client-based networking traffic such as Web pages or e-mail, the Web server or e-mail server will be able to send more TCP data more quickly to the client computer, resulting in an overall increase in network performance. The higher the BDP and application retrieve rate for the connection, the better the performance increase.

The impact on the network is that a stream of TCP data packets that would normally be sent out at a lower, measured pace, are sent much faster resulting in a larger spike of network utilization during the data transfer. For Windows XP and Windows Vista-based computers performing the same data transfer over a long, fat pipe, the same amount of data is transferred. However, the data transfer for the Windows Vista-based client computer is faster due to the larger receive window size and the server's ability to fill the pipe from the server to the client.

With better throughput between TCP peers, the utilization of network bandwidth increases during data transfer. If all the applications are optimized to receive TCP data, then the overall utilization of the network can increase substantially, making the use of Quality of Service (QoS) more important on networks that are operating at or near capacity. Obviously, this feature is good for ensuring better Voice over IP quality as well.

In any event, I discovered that Vista's (Windows 7 as well) Receive Window Auto-Tuning could have issues on some networks. I really didn't want to disable Receive Window Auto-Tuning due to it's QoS, bandwidth speed/throughput, and VoIP quality benefits, but I had no choice. I use Remote Desktop all the time to manage 30+ servers. After disabling Receive Window Auto-Tuning, the "slowness" problem with mouse-clicks, keystrokes, and screen redraws went away. Problem solved! Woo-hoo!

Here is what you need to do if you have the same issue:

- Run a command prompt (cmd.exe) as an Administrator
- Type: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
Disable the autotunning feature in Vista completely, and fit and lock the RWIN receive window to default value 65536 bytes.

If you want to to re-enable it:
- Type: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

In some cases you may need to use this command in addition to the above, but I didn't have to:
- Type: netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled

Update! This command makes your network connection EVEN FASTER
Type: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

The reason is that this command will still "auto tune" your TCP connections, but not as drastically as 'normal' mode. It will allow the receive window to grow beyond the default value, but again it will do so very conservatively. In this mode, Vista will by default use RWIN (receive window) of 16,384 bytes with a scale factor of 2. I was browsing computers in my Network Neighborhood and trying to get to \\computername\c$ which was taking forever to load. I changed it to highlyrestricted and it was much faster. 'highlyrestricted' mode is my recommendation for the fastest network performance whether you are using Remote Desktop, Internet browsing, or doing SMB file copies across your network.

Now, because Receive Window Auto-Tuning increases network utilization of high-BDP transmission paths, the use of Quality of Service (QoS) or application send rate throttling is important for networks that are operating at or near capacity. So I'd like to get this feature working, which will require some network topology examination. I did read that Windows Vista supports Group Policy-based QoS settings that allow you to define throttling rates for sent traffic on an IP address or TCP port basis. So perhaps I can just disable auto-tuning for the RDP port 3389 and leave it on for all other ports.

I'm headed over to Microsoft's site which has some excellent resources on policy-based QoS. From my initial research it looks like you can configure some pretty nifty QoS policies. For example, you can specify a QoS policy with a DSCP value of 46 for a VoIP application, allowing routers to place those packets in a low-latency queue, or you can use a QoS policy to throttle a set of servers' outbound traffic to 512 KBps when sending from TCP port 443 (HTTPS port). In theory, I can set Remote Desktop to have "top" priority and give it all the bandwidth it needs. Heck, maybe I'll set just my IP address and my Remote Desktop port to have top priority on our network. To hell with the rest of my fellow co-workers! They don't need no stinkin' bandwidth. It's mine! All mine! Now that I solved the slowness problem with Remote Desktop, it's time to head over to Amazon to check out their top Bluray deals of the week!

Comment from Ben on 2007-04-21

2007-04-21T07:10:04Z

Thank you so much for this, I just wasted an entire afternoon trying to solve this problem!

It only happened for me when remote desktopping to certain servers .. others in the same DC on the same network were unaffected. Those affected servers had been recently patched so I mistakenly focused my attention on the server, rather than the client.

Anyway, yet another thing to hate in Vista.

Thanks again
Ben

Comment from Tim on 2007-04-26

2007-04-26T12:53:46Z

Tom Keating, you are a god. THANK YOU!!!

Comment from Bon on 2007-05-14

2007-05-14T19:26:52Z

Be aware, this problem affects more than just remote desktop applications. Firefox 2.0 will have trouble talking to your server. So if you are hosting a website you are better to disable the feature on the server.

See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224829

Comment from AnT0ha on 2007-06-14

2007-06-14T16:58:07Z

I'm tied of problems with MS Remote Desktop. It's too hard for me. TechinlineRemoteDesctop (www.techinline.com) seems to be easier and cheep enough.

Comment from Boris on 2007-06-20

2007-06-20T11:29:01Z

Thanks! You're a lifesaver, this helped me so much that I've refferenced it from my blog also!

Comment from AussiedeviL on 2007-06-30

2007-06-30T19:18:41Z

Absolute Genius...you have single handedly fixed all my windows vista networking woes... CHEERS!!!

Comment from bobby on 2007-07-15

2007-07-15T21:50:59Z

Hey....gr8 work dude....i got my problem solved...thank u so much...

Comment from Alex on 2007-07-29

2007-07-29T16:22:07Z

Thank youuuuu,
I was about to hit a cardiac arrest i have worked very,very,very slowly the past day i was going nuts...
Thanks

Comment from Jacco Manneken on 2007-08-01

2007-08-01T17:16:53Z

Thanks for the solution!

Comment from Web Design Scotland on 2007-08-14

2007-08-14T07:53:46Z

Thank you - this has been a thorn in my side for a good while now. It's a major relief!

Comment from John Dogger on 2007-08-20

2007-08-20T13:28:28Z

Thank you -- we were about to send our Vista laptops back to Redmond 'discus' style...they should send you dividend payments...

Comment from Bogdan on 2007-09-01

2007-09-01T21:19:47Z

This looks great, but | am having a mouse problem with remote desktop connecting from XP to a XP system.. both of them are very capable systems.. just that the mouse is updating with a refresh rate of 0.3 seconds.. it doesn't move smoothly across the screen.. and the problem is just in one way.. connecting in reverse works perfectly ...

any ideas ? tryied google.. but nothing :(
thanks

Comment from shady on 2007-09-07

2007-09-07T12:52:32Z

it didn't work.

the following response occured:
Set global command failed on IPv4 The requested operation requires elevation.

Comment from Scott Crutchfield on 2007-09-07

2007-09-07T21:28:34Z

This is awesome! I was just about to give up on Vista when I found this and something finally worked.

Comment from Ben on 2007-09-07

2007-09-08T02:02:46Z

You need to run the command prompt as administrator.

Right click on Start / All Programs / Accessories / Command Prompt and choose "Run as administrator"

Comment from Jonathan ITQ on 2007-09-11

2007-09-11T17:08:48Z

Very well put - The RDP 6.0 was my first focus since it had problems with our Tricerat Simply Printing - Very well put on the solution!

Comment from Thomas Williams on 2007-11-03

2007-11-03T23:36:50Z

RDP Hangups.

Well, when I use my desktop at home running windows XP RDP 6.0, I get a very strange behavior connecting to my Vista Ultimate machine at work.

First of all, yes, the issue is related. I connect perfectly fine to 2003 servers and other windows XP systems, secondly, I have tried the options adjusting the autotuninglevel as well as the rss option.

Now, the strange thing about this is, that some days - you read right - days - the connection works perfectly, no hangups at all, and great performance as well (testing for 8 hours at a time and full bandwith utilization as well). A few other days I get hangups like every 10 minutes or 30 minutes. I can live with that.

But the last few days, I can barely stay connected at all. I get 1 or 2 seconds of "live feed" before the window freezes entirely for a typical 30 seconds.

Next, at all times, I connect fine, when first connecting RDP to a Server 2003, then once more from the Server 2003 to the Vista machine, however the latency in this setup is understandable.

My colleage at work, connects fine from his XP machine at home, to his Vista machine at work, and our setups are identical.

In the meanwhile, while connected, I can type things, and move the mouse, and while doing that I register outgoing and incoming RDP tcp packets.

Now, our network at work is flawless, everything is dupped and Microsoft-by-the-book, my connection at home is SHDSL 2mbit/s, even tried using cFosSpeed, which enlarges the default XP tcp receive window size and utilizes an improved QoS traffic control - no improvement what-so-ever. I even tried iShadow, which utilizes an alternative RDP client, whith same results - and last, I even tried a different network connection.

The Vista machine at work has all other network related software disabled, even the firewall.

Personally I'm a developer who has worked with all different kinds of strange network protocols, but this flaw beats me. Since nothing appears to be "wrong" with the connection itself, the transportlayer or drivers etc., I then looked a litle closer, and noticed, that not all parts of RDP freezes in the hangup, which essentially leads me to believe, that the flaw must be somewhere in the application layer on the Vista machine. I notice for instance, that mousemovements and keyboard control create a reaction at the Vista machine towards my XP while in hangup, and all input seem to appear in perfect order when returning from hangup. When escaping hangup, the tcp status window reveals a spike of data received at the moment of return, like the Vista machine has buffered the data.

Now something in my guts tell me, that the bug is related to some time-frame synchronization issue in the RDP graphics update system. Sometimes such an issue may be hard to track, but a good example is a piece of network software, which works only between 00:00 am and 12:00 pm. In this example, a bug is revealed, where the system "forgot" to send the "pm" signal along with the datetime data. Now imagine this issue on a more complex level, when packed, then unwrapped and some bits get missing in the process = boom, a time synchronization failure at apparently random intervals, which only appears at "certain moments" and only within specific setups.

A time-frame is basically a timestamp in a streaming protocol, allowing a fluent regeneration of frames on the receiving part. The frame architecture may vary from "01-dec-99 00:01:59.123" to a basic 0x001234e6f9. A timestamp is much like a framecounter on a videorecorder, but is an essential part of any streaming protocol.

I hope this may get some Microsoft developer up the chair saying "of cause, stupid me" :)

Comment from Lee on 2007-11-15

2007-11-15T23:53:05Z

You are great, thanks! I had gotten used to just using key strokes and just ordered a machine without Vista largely because of this. Now my tiny little tablet is functional again. Thanks!

Comment from Brian on 2007-11-20

2007-11-20T13:44:46Z

nice one problem solved for me

Thanks

Comment from Mike on 2007-11-29

2007-11-29T17:40:00Z

Is there any possible way to run the netsh command to disable TCP receive autotuning without administrative privileges? I'm using the client from a cluster.

-mike

Comment from Mike on 2007-12-02

2007-12-03T01:04:11Z

Clarification: I'm using remote desktop 6.0 from a cluster on which I have no Administrative Access (only user access) to connect to my own computer (Windows Server 2003 x64) on which I do have Administrative Access.

I've tried setting the TCP1323Opts and TCPWindowSize on my Windows Server 2003 x64 computer to emulate the Vista TCP/IP settings, but the problem still persists. Is there any way to modify my server machine to emulate Vista correctly?

I really don't want to install Longhorn....

-mike

Comment from Jim Currie on 2007-12-07

2007-12-07T08:04:58Z

Brilliant - how are we lesser mortals supposed to manage without people like this? Why does Microsoft throw these "improvements" in our way when only a selected talented few have the knowledge to find these fixes?

Did nobody in Microsoft try RDPing to an XP server in the test phase of Vista? Try opening an Office XP Excel spreadsheet by double click from a folder and it takes a minute or more (There's a fix for that of a similarly obscure (to lesser mortals) nature to this one)- did nobody at Microsoft try this either?

Thanks again Tom Keating - Bill Gates owes you a beer!

Jim Currie

Comment from Shaun W on 2007-12-07

2007-12-07T13:51:52Z

I worked days at a snail's pace...

Freedom!

Thanks!

Comment from Mark Foo on 2007-12-10

2007-12-10T23:45:43Z

Just quickly wanted to confirm other comments made here. Your solution is just great! It saved me hours of investigation in Technet et. al. Thank you very much for sharing this info!

Mark.

Comment from Alex K on 2007-12-18

2007-12-18T21:13:33Z

This only happened when i connected to 2003 R2 servers. Thanks so much. Now I can continue to use/test my Vista machine instead reverting back to XP for administration.

Comment from Inf on 2007-12-20

2007-12-21T01:56:35Z

OMG its sooooo fast now!!!

Thank You

Shame on Microsoft .. just another problem with Vista ... what a waste!

Comment from Jason Lind on 2007-12-30

2007-12-30T10:47:45Z

My problems started after I installed Service Pack 2 for Windows Server x64 so I thought this wouldn't be the problem, but it was. Thanks for the suggestion.

Comment from Neil on 2007-12-31

2007-12-31T13:40:59Z

Thx, been keeping XP in another machine just so I could use RDP into my box now can get back to using Vista in both, nice seeing RDP work again...

Thx. Neil

Comment from Doug on 2007-12-31

2007-12-31T18:35:30Z

I've been searching for this answer for MONTHS!!! Thank you, thank you.

By the way, the only instances I've seen this are with a Vista machine remote desktop connection into a Windows 2003 R2 Server with SP2 installed. It has never happened to me on plain-old 2003 servers with SP2, yet happens on both x86 & x64 2003 R2 Servers.

Comment from Marc on 2008-01-11

2008-01-11T11:05:55Z

Thank U very much! I had the same problem also with remote folder access and it solved my problem too! You're answer was my second choice in Google and bingo, problem solved.

Comment from posam on 2008-01-14

2008-01-14T17:53:59Z

Hi
I have vista ultimate version. Doing remote desktop from windows xp professional and RDP was very slow and dropping time to time. Even I did the following...

- disabled ipv6
- "netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled",
- netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled

and after all these steps, problem was not solved. Please help me out.

-posam

Comment from John Sloan on 2008-01-15

2008-01-15T11:54:54Z

You flippin' legend. This is exactly what I needed and it not only affects RDP but network access as well! we have a vista xp server 2003 network and ever since this workaround the vista machines on the network have been hugely faster

Well done

Comment from Craig on 2008-01-20

2008-01-21T00:33:51Z

Hi Tom

I have been working with this slow problem for a few weeks. I was login on to second servers to get around the issue.

I decided to see if there was a resolution on the web for the issue. Your Page was the first page I found and resolved the issue in seconds.

Only comment is you might want to state that the command is run on the Vista Client not on the server. I know this might sound obvious, but you know what end users are like.

Thanks a heap
Craig

Comment from Alex on 2008-01-21

2008-01-21T17:52:34Z

Thank you very much.
This solve my problem and all this time I was blaming remote server.

Alex

Comment from Rick on 2008-01-22

2008-01-23T00:56:47Z

You Rock!

Thanks for the info.

Rick

Comment from James on 2008-01-24

2008-01-24T12:56:36Z

Like everyone else thanks for saving me from a hatful of heartache with this tip.

My scenario was an old Philips laptop running Vista Home, no problems RDP plus admin of a database on the 2003 server from a local admin program. Replaced with a brand new Dell Vostro super spec with Vista Business which ran like a dog on the 2003 server trying to administer the sql database using a local admin prog and RDP.

Thanks again

James

Comment from Chad on 2008-02-19

2008-02-19T21:06:52Z

Thanks for the tip, this has helped us tremendously. As a side note this also significantly improved connections to our outside production SQL server when using SQL Management Studio.

Comment from Honza on 2008-02-20

2008-02-20T07:40:42Z

Dear Tom,

thank you very much, it solved my issue. Also notice, that not only RDC is affected by this, in my case it was also PL/SQL developer. And same as some else posted, it happened only when connecting to Windows 2003 R2 Server with SP2 installed.
It can also happen, that Vistas will turn this feature back on once you try "Diagnose and repair" for your network connection, it suggest you to "Turn on TCP performance improving settings" which does the job...

Regards
Honza

Comment from Toby on 2008-03-06

2008-03-06T15:51:51Z

This fix works great for me. However, I have one machine that continually reverts back to previous settings on it's own. No system restores have been done. No software changes have been made. We just boot up the laptop one morning, and RDP runs slow again. Once we redo the commands it works fine for a while, but then it'll happen all over again. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Comment from Mike on 2008-03-24

2008-03-24T17:50:38Z

This problem has been solved by Microsoft [finally]. Hotfix KB 948496.

Comment from Jacques Zetune on 2008-05-02

2008-05-02T19:24:03Z

Hi,

I have Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 in a brand new laptop I bought 4 months ago from Dell. Everything worked fine except the client SQL Server Tools when connecting to a remote hosted database, getting a very very slow response in connection and commands in general.
I have tried many many things.
The following command (that I found on your website):

netsh interface tcp set global
autotuninglevel=disabled

... made the thing work fine again

The weird thing is I am not using Remote Desktop and occasionally found this post (as I googled with the "remote" word).

I am very happy with the results and I wonder if there is some explanation to my "accidental" solution achievement.

And anyway, Thank you very much for the help, this tip saved my year.

Regards,
Jacques Zetune

Comment from Ben on 2008-05-05

2008-05-05T23:47:18Z

Yes that autotuning setting especially causes all sorts of networking problems, not just remote desktop.

I had problems streaming video from my vista machine to my PVR until I run those commands, it's worked fine ever since.

Comment from Jason on 2008-06-11

2008-06-12T03:57:42Z

There is a company called Expand Networks that has a unique solution to improving the performance of RDP, Citrix and other thin clients, especially useful in environments with alot of users.

http://www.expand.com/Products/Free-Evaluation.aspx

Comment from PM04 on 2008-06-18

2008-06-18T22:50:42Z

you may also want to check out Array Networks at arraynetworks.net

Comment from TommyNL on 2008-07-04

2008-07-04T12:24:19Z

Thanks !

Same as the guy above, I was about to hit a cardiac arrest aswell :-)

I'm using the mstscax.dll in an application of my own, and thought it was a problem in my application.

But apprently it isn't, problem solved!

Comment from peter.fernados on 2008-10-18

2008-10-19T01:08:32Z

If your like to use RDP over internet using microsoft windows teredo service(peer to peer connectivity) you can check this soft http://www.lanoninternet.com
Now RDP can work behind NAT/firewall.Since its peer to peer connection it is much faster than remote access solution

Comment from Maryanne on 2008-11-20

2008-11-21T03:19:30Z

I do not have Vista but am having the same very slow response times for my mouse clicks and screen views when using remote access on my laptop using XP professional when I connect to my Windows 2003 server. Can anyone offer a suggestion?

Comment from Steven on 2008-12-22

2008-12-22T11:58:03Z

So thats how remote desktop is suspose to work on Vista, and I was ready to smash this laptop at times. Great job.

Comment from Ryan on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T17:07:11Z

I have my primary dc with 2k8 64 bit, 12.gb RAM, 2 dual core 2.2 GHz processors. very clean and brand new. My XP machine would connect to this server by RDC and was a slug. The same server at the console was very responsive. When I ran both netsh commands on the server, all delays were gone! Great blog and information. Keep up the good work.

Comment from Jan on 2009-04-25

2009-04-25T21:56:05Z

I am so happy for you all!...

But for me (with exactly the same problem) changing these settings (autotuning AND rss disabled; confirmed and rebooted) DID NOT solve the problem. I am still waiting 30 seconds (!) or more sometimes for one mouse click on my Vista Client PC to be registered on the XP server!

I am having this problem for more than 2 years now and it's driving NUTS. I have recently migrated from CheckPoint to Cisco VPN, but the problem remains.

Please, please give me some hints why this solution may NOT work for me, while everyone else seems to be speeding their way through remote desktop linked Vista/XP.

Sincerely
Jan

Comment from peter.fernados on 2009-04-26

2009-04-26T05:57:45Z

jan,
This may be due to delayed ack. Your xp pc might have formed small chunks of packets for reply of mouse click for which vista delayed acks. Can u try disabling the delayed acks by setting TcpAckFrequency value to 1.
Follow this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328890

Comment from John on 2009-04-27

2009-04-27T22:29:32Z

Master !! I´m having this problem in Terminal Server ST 2003 and XP-RDP clients, but not solve my problem.
Please help!!

Thanks in advance

Comment from Phill Hardstaff on 2009-07-07

2009-07-08T00:26:54Z

Here s variation on this, I am using Windows 7 64 bit, when I RDP to "certain" Windows 2003 Servers and Windows 2000 servers not only is the RDP session slow as described above but it brings the REAL server console to a crawl, it also affects network connectivity to the server ? Any ideas, I tried the steps above but no go.

I have a real mix this affects, some Windows Server 2003 SP1 are affected and some are not, have not found an SP2 that does this yet but still trying, Windows Server 2000 comes to a complete halt almost when I RDP to it.

I am not finding much on the internet about it ?

Phill

Comment from David Chan on 2009-09-11

2009-09-11T15:35:50Z

I was using a Windows 7 enterprise client to manage a Windows Server 2003 R2 SP1, and it worked without problem. After patching to SP2, remote deskop was almost unsable.

Then your solution resolved this problem! Thx !

Comment from Phill Hardstaff on 2009-09-11

2009-09-11T21:10:48Z

Just an update, I went back to Windows 7 32 bit (both RC and final release) and I do not get this behavior, only from Windows 7 64 bit RC and final. If I RDP to the affected servers from a VM of say XP on the same box it is no problem, which is weird ? Eventually this just got in the way of how I work so I went back to 32 bit. On one Windows 2000 server on our DMZ, when I RDP to it from Windows 7 64 bit the server console cannot be used and that whole network just gets flooded with traffic, weird problem and I never worked out what it was.

Comment from satinder on 2009-09-15

2009-09-15T05:16:47Z

I am using win7 32bit RC 7100 build. I am having the same issue.When i make a rdp session to W2k which is our domain controller, the cpu usage becomes 100% and trmsrv and rdpclip process are consuming 70% resources. Please help

Comment from Perb on 2009-09-25

2009-09-25T11:46:34Z

Hat off for you, Sir.

Comment from Mark on 2009-10-15

2009-10-15T12:10:38Z

I'm logging in from Vista 64 into a Dell T300 Server running XP Pro 64 and have the same problem. I can log into the server from an XP machine no problems, but from my Vista machine its virtually useless.

I tried the fixes mentioned here, but to no avail. Any ideas? Does this solution not work because I'm attempting to connect to a XP box as opposed to Server software?

Comment from Goran on 2009-11-05

2009-11-05T15:34:50Z

I have the same issue at my work. I have to connect through app tunnel (using CrossLink app). Connecting from my Windows7 to Win2000/2003 is extremely slow.
Strange enough, it works OK from my colleague's machine also running Windows7!? As expected it also works OK from WinXP.
Running the commands didn't slove my problem. Restared my machine, run them again, slow slow slow.. :(
Unfortunatelly, didn't help me...

Comment from PinoProxy on 2009-11-27

2009-11-27T23:28:10Z

This issue was bugging me for over a month.
I am running Windows 7 x64 RTM (build 7600).
The suggestions above did not help.
Finally I went on a googling spree and came across a suggestion to turn off TCP checksum offload which significantly improved things for me.

Here is how to if you are still having issues after trying the suggestions in the blog post:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/networking-forum/protocols-routing/248812-wireshark-question-tcp-checksum-offload.html
(post #4)

I used this with the latest update in the blog post:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

Give it a go and I hope it works for you too.

And its pretty usable now. Although its still far from convenient... any tips on how to make it even faster will be appreciated!

Thanks
-Pino

Comment from Ty on 2009-12-03

2009-12-03T23:00:04Z

I have just had the same (or similar problem) with Windows XP 64 bit version but the command solution listed here didn't work for me. I ended up just downloading a new version of Remote Desktop from Microsoft and it is now blazingly fast.

Here's where I got it: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=160ce316-bf2b-48d0-a035-e2abbc55d8e8

Hope this helps someone.

Comment from Rob on 2009-12-23

2009-12-23T13:21:15Z

Lifesaver!

Comment from Manoj on 2010-01-18

2010-01-18T06:52:46Z

Great article!!!

I wanted to ask one thing; what is the minimum bandwidth required to use remote log on? I mean I have ~100 kbps (bits) download and ~50kbps upload speed and remote connection keeps on breaking down.

Manoj

Comment from j03m on 2010-02-01

2010-02-01T17:08:45Z

omg, i love you. I had the reverse problem, connecting from 2003 (my workstation) to server 2008 was dog slow. Ran the same commands on the server, logged out, logged back in - now very fast.

Thanks for posting. You are awesome.

Comment from Ryan on 2010-03-24

2010-03-25T03:35:24Z

Ok, here's a different senerio for ya, I am remoting to a W7 workstation using the MS RDP client for Mac OSX and getting the exact same right down to the detail issues as stated above. Would I benefit modding the w7 box? Is there any fix for this Mac RDP client??

Comment from Jeremy on 2010-04-06

2010-04-06T13:44:19Z

Glad that this is working out for so many. Unfortunately, it's not working for me. :(

Running WinXP at work.

Remote to Win7 32-bit at home (wife's machine) - no problem, fast as lightning, screen refreshes are fine

Remote to Win7 64-bit at home (my machine) - slow, slow, slow :(

Presumably that eliminates any ISP issues at either end and, the fact that I can RDP to my wife's machine on the same network at home with no problems likely eliminates it's my work laptop.

If I'm at home with my work laptop and try to RDP to my Win7 64-bit machine, there are no probs and it's just as fast as my wife's machine.

I tried the solutions above (including the "highlyrestricted" and the "rss=disabled" options) and neither seem to work. :(

I'm stumped. :(

Comment from Jeremy on 2010-04-07

2010-04-07T13:27:53Z

Sounds like this has been a great fix for many users. Unfortunately, I'm having a similar issue but the fixes above (both the netsh commands and the TCP Checksum suggestion) haven't resolved it.

My Issue and Troubleshooting:

Machine A - WinXP machine (office laptop)
Machine B - Win7 x64 Ultimate box (home PC - fully loaded i7 box)
Machine C - Win7 x32 Ultimate box (wife's home PC - mid-range AMD box)

~ from office, A connects to B with very slow screen refreshes and poor performance
~ connected to local network at home, A connects to B with great performance
~ connected to BlackBerry through tethering, A connects to B with very slow screen refreshes and poor performance

~ from office, A connect to C with great performance
~ connected to local network at home, A connects to C with great performance
~ connected to BlackBerry through tethering, A connects to C with great performance

So it seems that it's nothing specific to Machine A (my office laptop) as I can connect to the troublesome Machine B over my local LAN at home with no probs AND I'm able to connect to Machine C (also on the same LAN at home) in any scenario with great performance.

I don't know WHAT it is but the problem seems to be connecting from Machine A to Machine B over anything other than a local LAN.

This same config (save for Windows Updates) has been working flawlessly in this scenario for several months. Just recently I've noticed all these performance issues when connecting to it using a non-local RDP session.

This is seriously hindering my pr0n surfing from work (kidding!)

But I AM frustrated as hell.

Aaaargghhhh!

Any insight would be tumultuously appreciated. :)

Comment from Robert Singleton on 2010-04-13

2010-04-13T21:29:01Z

Let me know if you have a solution for your problem with the Mac RDC. I have a user with a Mac connecting to a Windows 2008 Server that is having slow performance. When he drags windows they take forever or making edits other edits.

Comment from someone on 2010-04-27

2010-04-27T14:49:56Z

I had searched for months a solution for that and finaly as discovered it was a bug in NOD32 antivirus only with Win7 x64.

see that link to solve the problem :

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winserverTS/thread/f71551fb-9376-42b9-9695-8458ed0ea555

hope this solve someone from suicide !

Comment from Adam on 2010-04-27

2010-04-27T19:09:43Z

It's true that RDP 7 does provide improved user experience and performance compared to previous versions of RDP. However, it's possible to improve video and graphics performance even further (by about 2-5 times better than RDP 7 alone) with a solution called Ericom Blaze.

Ericom Blaze is a software-based RDP acceleration AND compression product that provides a superior end-user experience over WAN and congested LANs. Besides delivering higher frame rates and reducing screen freezes and choppiness, Ericom Blaze accelerates RDP 7 performance by up to 2-5 times (and up to 10-25 times for earlier versions of RDP), while significantly reducing network bandwidth consumption over low-bandwidth/high latency connections.

Also, don't forget that to get the benefit of RDP 7 you need to upgrade all your hosts to Windows Server 2008 R2. If you are not ready to do that, and still want performance improvements in RDP, you can still use Blaze.

You can read more about Blaze and download a free evaluation at:
http://www.ericom.com/ericom_blaze.asp?URL_ID=708

Or view a video demo at:
http://www.ericom.com/blaze_youtube.asp?URL_ID=708

Adam

Comment from John Harley on 2010-05-03

2010-05-03T15:56:56Z

In Vista, you have to run the command as Administrator. Right click on the Command Prompt Icon and select Run as Administrator.

Comment from Parag on 2010-05-07

2010-05-07T06:15:01Z

Thanks for the post. I tried all three scripts, autotuning disabled, normal and highlyrestricted but i still have keystroke and mouse delay.
I have Vista Business and remotely connecting to Windows 2003 server. When i connect and login to window 2003 server, first the login prompt has keystroke and mouse delay anywhere between 5 to 30 sec. Once i am login, launch the application on remote machine, mouse click delays 5 sec to 10 secs..
I am very frustated. any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Comment from Prashant on 2010-07-04

2010-07-04T04:03:21Z

Thanks... The problem Solved. I tried to overcome this problem for quite some time...

Comment from kimsland on 2010-07-06

2010-07-06T14:33:02Z

Including: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

Here's a few more to reset your network:

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
netsh interface ip delete arpcache
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset reset.log

Its helped a few times, and doesn't hurt.
Restart then test again ;)

Comment from Parag on 2010-07-06

2010-07-06T17:17:58Z

Same here. Problem solved. Thank you everyone for posting the feedback.

Parag

Comment from Phill Hardstaff on 2010-07-07

2010-07-08T00:28:49Z

wooohoooo !! I had the problem listed a bit further up, from Windows 7 64 Bit when I RDP to certain servers (no pattern) the consoles would turn to molasses and network traffic would go through the roof. I booted into 64 bit today determined to fix this, so I hit it with the lot.

From the Blog here I ran these

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled

and then from here

http://www.techsupportforum.com/networking-forum/protocols-routing/248812-wireshark-question-tcp-checksum-offload.html

towards the bottom

A guide:

1. Open Device manager (right click "Computer" and click "Manage")
2. Click on "Device Manager"
3. Expand "Network adapters"
4. Right click your network adapter mine is called "Nvidia nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet" etc.
5. click "properties"
6. click the tab named "Advanced"
7. Find "IP Checksum Offload" and click it
8. Put the value to the right to "Disabled"
9. Find "TCP Checksum offload (IPvX)
10. Set the value to the right to "Disabled"

Plus to be on the safe side I disabled also

UDP Checksum offload for IPv4 and IPv6

After all that problem, gone, don't ask me which one did it though :) Will come back to it some time but for now I can go back to my 64 bit Windows 7 ! I am guessing it was either the new edit highlyrestricted or the last part/

Phill

Comment from Yariv E on 2010-08-31

2010-08-31T09:01:26Z

Thank you so much. Worked for me.
Saved me lots of mouse clicks and keystrokes.

To clarify, I see that lots of the comments relate this problem to some kind of slowdown. But as Tom wrote, the problem is that the mouse clicks are not registered, but keyboard strokes do. At least in my case.

I found out, that after clicking the mouse, clicks that were not registered, and then clicking the keyboard, the mouse clicks were also transferred. So it means that they were just waiting in some Queue.

And Tom's solution solved that - Thanks again.
Yariv

Comment from Joliet Carpet Cleaners on 2010-09-22

2010-09-22T11:37:13Z

the built in remote tool is just too slow, that's why a lot users prefer to use third party programs.

i was hoping this would be worked out at 7 but seems not.

Comment from Carisa on 2010-09-28

2010-09-29T03:15:09Z

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I am so relieved, I have been going crazy trying to work from home since I got this new computer, so slow. Works like a charm now, thank you :)