I am not able to RDP into my VM (anymore)

Question

I am not able to RDP into my VM (anymore)

Eirik Simonsen 0

as of this afternoon am unable to RDP into my VM. I have been able to do so for a long time. In last session today, using RDP I cleaned up log files mainly., but something must have changed otherwise. When running 'Seetings/effectiv security rules, I do not see anything other than that existing/pre session rules have been altered. I have a higher priority RDP nn that includes my ip. I am running a couple of web sites on this equipment that does work. IP Flow verifies all is well

Enclosing screenshots.

Manish Deshpande 5,420 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-03T22:21:19.5966667+00:00
Hi Eirik,

Thanks for the clear description.

Brief summary of the situation:

Your Azure Network Security Group (NSG) and IP Flow Verify both confirm that RDP traffic (port 3389) from your IP is allowed.

The VM is otherwise healthy (web sites are responding).

The issue started right after you cleaned up log files inside the VM during your last RDP session.

This is a classic symptom of the Remote Desktop service or the Windows Firewall rule for RDP being unintentionally altered inside the guest OS. Azure’s effective security rules only show the cloud networking side; they don’t reflect changes made inside Windows itself.

Recommended fix : Reset the RDP configuration directly from the Azure portal. This re-enables the Remote Desktop service, restores the default inbound firewall rule for TCP 3389, and resets the necessary registry settings — all without touching your files, applications, or other configurations.

Steps to perform the reset:

Go to your VM in the Azure portal.

In the left menu, scroll to the Help section and click Reset password.

Select Reset configuration only (do not choose the password reset option).

Click Update.

The operation usually completes in seconds. Once it finishes, try connecting via RDP again.

Links:
https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/windows/reset-rdp

https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/windows/troubleshoot-rdp-connection

Thanks,
Manish.

1 answer

Your answer

Manish Deshpande 5,420 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-03T22:21:19.5966667+00:00

Hi Eirik,

Thanks for the clear description.

Brief summary of the situation:

Your Azure Network Security Group (NSG) and IP Flow Verify both confirm that RDP traffic (port 3389) from your IP is allowed.

The VM is otherwise healthy (web sites are responding).

The issue started right after you cleaned up log files inside the VM during your last RDP session.

This is a classic symptom of the Remote Desktop service or the Windows Firewall rule for RDP being unintentionally altered inside the guest OS. Azure’s effective security rules only show the cloud networking side; they don’t reflect changes made inside Windows itself.

Recommended fix : Reset the RDP configuration directly from the Azure portal. This re-enables the Remote Desktop service, restores the default inbound firewall rule for TCP 3389, and resets the necessary registry settings — all without touching your files, applications, or other configurations.

Steps to perform the reset:

Go to your VM in the Azure portal.

In the left menu, scroll to the Help section and click Reset password.

Select Reset configuration only (do not choose the password reset option).

Click Update.

The operation usually completes in seconds. Once it finishes, try connecting via RDP again.

Links:
https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/windows/reset-rdp

https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/windows/troubleshoot-rdp-connection

Thanks,
Manish.

Answer 1

Eirik Simonsen 0

Hi Manish

Thank you for your comment

I have, in additions to the findings in my original post:

Done a Help/reset password / (reset Configuration only).

Tested RDP access: unsucessful.

Restarted VM

Tested RDP access: unsucesfull.

Also did an ipconfig/reset ON PC I am rdp in from (and verified that whatsmyip value did not change). Did the same with yet another PC.

Tested again: unsucessfull.

I am reading up on Azure Serial console: I am not an Azure expert by even the longest of stretches but is this the only approach I can use here ? - is this in any way something that can be caused by A firewall or something on the OS itself that is somehow not overwritten by/controlled by Azure portal ?

Manish Deshpande 5,420 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-08T07:58:00.1933333+00:00
Hello Eirik,

Thank you for the detailed update and for trying the Reset configuration only step, restarting the VM, and testing from multiple clients that helps narrow this down quickly.

Your NSG effective security rules and IP Flow Verify correctly allow RDP (TCP 3389) from your IP.

Web sites on the VM are responding, so the VM is running and network connectivity is healthy at the Azure platform level.

The “Reset configuration only” operation (which restores the RDP service, default firewall rule, and registry settings) did not resolve the issue this time.

This is a classic symptom of a deeper change inside the Windows guest OS (Remote Desktop Services, Windows Firewall rule for RDP, or related registry settings) that occurred during your log cleanup session. The Azure portal reset applies a best-effort fix, but in rare cases it cannot fully override certain guest-level modifications. The good news is we can fix this directly from inside the VM using the Azure Serial Console no data loss, no redeployment needed.

Official Microsoft documentation
https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/windows/troubleshoot-rdp-connection this is the primary troubleshooting guide and explicitly recommends Serial Console when the portal reset does not resolve the issue.

Recommended steps

Enable Boot Diagnostics (required for Serial Console)

Go to your VM in the Azure portal → Support + troubleshooting → Boot diagnostics.

f not already enabled, click Enable (use the default storage account or create one). Wait 1–2 minutes for it to activate.

Access Azure Serial Console

Still in Support + troubleshooting, click Serial console.

You will see a black screen with a login prompt (or SAC> prompt).

Open a Command Prompt channel inside the VM

At the SAC> prompt, type CMD and press Enter (this creates a new command channel).

Type ch -si 1 and press Enter to switch to channel 1.

Log in with your local administrator username and password (the same credentials you normally use for RDP).

Run these commands to reset RDP inside the guest OS (copy-paste one at a time):

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="remote desktop" new enable=yes sc config TermService start= auto net start TermService

Type exit to close the channel, then close the Serial Console window.

Restart the VM from the Azure portal (Operations → Restart).

Wait 1–2 minutes, then try RDP again from your PC.

This sequence forces Remote Desktop to be enabled, re-creates the Windows Firewall rule for port 3389, and restarts the service — exactly what the portal reset attempts to do, but applied directly at the OS level.

If the issue persists after these steps, please reply here in the Comment section with:

The exact error message you now see when trying to RDP.

Whether the Serial Console commands completed successfully.

Thanks,
Manish.
Manish Deshpande 5,420 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-09T10:19:21.01+00:00

Hello Eirik

I wanted to check if my last response made sense. I’d be glad to assist further or explain anything in more detail and please accept as Yes and upvote if the answer is helpful so that it can help others in the community.

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I am not able to RDP into my VM (anymore)

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