Is it possible on Windows Server 2022 RDS RDWeb to remove the requirement for the domain prefix on the login page?

Question

Is it possible on Windows Server 2022 RDS RDWeb to remove the requirement for the domain prefix on the login page?

I did this previously with Windows Server 2012 R2 RDS RDWeb (as per https://msfreaks.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/properly-removing-the-domain-prefix-requirement-from-rd-web-access-2012-r2/ ) but the same process does not seem to work for WIndows Server 2022.

It just keeps saying "You must enter a valid domain name"

I know you can add a default domain to appear on the login page, but it would be nice to remove the need for the domain prefix at all, as I did previously.

Anyone actually done this?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello,

According to your description, you need to remove the domain prefix requirement for the login page on Windows Server 2022 RDS RDWeb, you can try the following:

1. Open Server Manager, select Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. In IIS Manager, expand Server Name, then Site > Default Site, locate RDWeb. Right-click on RDWeb and select Manage Websites > Advanced Settings. In Advanced settings, look for the Authentication section, make sure Windows authentication is enabled, and disable other authentication methods. If Windows authentication is enabled, you can try disabling the Provide domain option, if one exists.
2. Open the Registry Editor (regedit) and navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp

Back up the registry key first so that you can restore it if there is a problem with the modification. Then look for a registry key named UserAuthentication and set its value to 0. Restart the server for the changes to take effect.

3. Open the RDWeb's configuration file, usually located at the following path:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\RDSWeb\Pages\Login.aspx

Open the file using a text editor, such as Notepad++. Find the code related to the domain prefix, such as <asp:TextBox> or <asp:Label>, etc., delete or comment it out, save the file, and restart the IIS service.

I hope this information helps.

Best regards,

Jingjing Wu

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply, but... the changes you suggest made no difference (and there is no 'Provide domain' option to disable as far as I can see).

Following these changes & a restart, you still need to login using the format <DOMAIN>&lt;User> otherwise it just complains that "You must enter a valid domain name".

I want to remove the requirement for the <DOMAIN> prefix altogether (as was possible in 2012 R2 RDS RDWeb) so that you just provide <User> (and the appropriate password).

The <DOMAIN> part is already implied (hardcoded in the config files).

In 2012 R2 RDS you had to edit the webscripts-domain.js and renderscripts.js files to do this. But when I tried the same process on Server 2022 RDS it doesn't seem to work (even copying across the exact files from the 2012 R2 RDWeb server to the 2022 Server doesn't work.

It just always seems to want the domain prefixing the user name).

Is this even possible to achieve on Windows Server 2022 RDS?