Remote desktop not working with microsoft account

Question

I have my Win 10 desktop set up with a Microsoft account, and would like to access the desktop with remote desktop, more specifically the RD Client app on android made by Microsoft. I have not been able to get the app to work with a Microsoft account however. Whenever I try to log in, it says my creds are incorrect, I have tried using my username, MicrosoftAccount[email], MicrosoftAccount[username], ComputerName[username], but nothing seems to work, I know the password, so that shouldn't be the issue. I tried setting the desktop to have a local account instead of Microsoft, and I was able to log in fine like that. Is there something I am missing with logging in using a Microsoft account? When I look at the users who are allowed, I see my email as an allowed user, but still, it doesn't seem to allow me to connect.

Answer 1

Hey glad you asked, this question is somewhat rare but does come up occasionally and I decided to write about the solution here: Remote Desktop with Microsoft Account Sign-In

In a nutshell, you can fix it by doing this on the remote system you want to connect to.

1. Right-click Start button, choose Run
2. Type in the command below, but use your Microsoft Account email address instead of the example:

runas /u:MicrosoftAccount\username@example.com winver 3. Provide your Microsoft Account password when prompted. After you press Enter, the "WinVer" program will launch, informing you about what version of Windows you have (you can close it, you're done at this point).

Now you should be able to connect to this system without an issue (assuming, of course, the system is a "Windows 10 Pro" version).

The blog post I linked to has some more background, but this is really all there is to the trick of getting the credentials fixed.