Hello, I have to connect to RDS many times a day. I do it either from Chrome or Edge. I am working on MacBook. In Chrome when I click on link ... it downloads .rdp file and opens it. On Edge it only downloads it but does not open it automatically. I failed to find the way to open it automatically. Hence, my question: how could I force Edge to open .rdp file automatically? Thanks

Hi @Susja , Based on your description, you must be talking about why "Always open files of this type" is greyed out for .rdp files in Microsoft Edge, while it can be enabled in Chrome. The reason is .rdp is defined as a file type with a danger_level of ALLOW_ON_USER_GESTURE in Microsoft Edge, which means it is potentially dangerous, but most likely harmless if the user requests the download. For more information, you can refer to How Microsoft Edge determines the danger level of a file type , and in the File types requiring a gesture section, you can find .rdp is in the list. Therefore, to force auto-open a downloaded .rdp file, you can configure a policy called AutoOpenFileTypes . You can choose to set it via registry settings. In your scenario, it should be: SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\AutoOpenFileTypes\1 = "rdp" Then you restart Microsoft Edge, and you will find .rdp files are automatically opened. Here's the evidence: If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. Best Regards, Shijie Li

Force downloaded file open automatically in Edge

Accepted answer

ShiJieLi-MSFT 7,626 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-12-08T05:47:17.93+00:00

Hi @Susja ,

Based on your description, you must be talking about why "Always open files of this type" is greyed out for .rdp files in Microsoft Edge, while it can be enabled in Chrome.

The reason is .rdp is defined as a file type with a danger_level of ALLOW_ON_USER_GESTURE in Microsoft Edge, which means it is potentially dangerous, but most likely harmless if the user requests the download. For more information, you can refer to How Microsoft Edge determines the danger level of a file type, and in the File types requiring a gesture section, you can find .rdp is in the list.

Therefore, to force auto-open a downloaded .rdp file, you can configure a policy called AutoOpenFileTypes. You can choose to set it via registry settings. In your scenario, it should be:

SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\AutoOpenFileTypes\1 = "rdp"

Then you restart Microsoft Edge, and you will find .rdp files are automatically opened. Here's the evidence:

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Best Regards,

Shijie Li
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Susja 711 Reputation points

2023-12-08T15:01:30.44+00:00

Hello @ShiJieLi-MSFT

Highly appreciate your clear and detailed answer.

The only caveat is that I don't have permission to access registry.

Are there any other options to modify it?

Thanks

Kyle Jones 96 Reputation points

2023-12-09T19:58:56.81+00:00

Looks like this is only supported for machines that are ADDS joined, AAD Joined, or under Device Management like SCCM or Intune.

"This policy is available only on Windows instances that are joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain, joined to Microsoft Azure Active Directory` or instances that enrolled for device management."

ShiJieLi-MSFT 7,626 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-12-11T01:59:18.78+00:00

Hi @Susja ,

Unfortunately, it is the only solution. You may need to request the permission to access registry. Also, as Kyle said, your Windows must be joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain, joined to Microsoft Azure Active Directory or enrolled for device management. Please make sure you have met the prerequisites.

Susja 711 Reputation points

2023-12-11T13:55:53.3066667+00:00

Appreciate your help

malcomio 0 Reputation points

2024-03-18T13:09:52.42+00:00

This is all very well, but I don't want to open documents in a browser and I also do not have a security concern about downloading documents from my company's web-pages. I appreciate Microsoft are attempting to look after our safety, but this is just annoying and somewhat paternalistic. I use Defender; shouldn't that be scanning the downloaded file before it is opened? I would never download a file I considered as potentially dangerous in the first place (and even if I did, what's to stop me from opening it?). As others have commented; does this mean that Chrome is less safe because it does allow this? This seems like something from the Apple playbook, which is why I use Windows in the first place. If I didn't know how to use a computer, I'd've bought a Mac.

The options for 'Ask me what to do with each download' are 'Always ask me if I want to save a file or open it without saving'. I want to do both: I don't want to have to download a doc, then hunt for it to open it, nor do I want to have to open a document and then save it in my downloads folder. I download docs dozens of times a day.
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Force downloaded file open automatically in Edge

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