Microsoft Remote Desktop - The User Account Did Not Work

Question

Hi,

Recently I downloaded Microsoft Remote Desktop on my Mac so that I can remotely access my Windows laptop (which is on the same network). However, on entering the details for my Microsoft account, I received an error telling me that "The User Account Did Not Work" (as shown below). I have tried many solutions online but none seem to work.

• My Mac and Windows laptop are connected to the same network
• I am positive that I have entered my account details correctly (I was able to successfully log into the Microsoft store using them).
• The user account that I am using has admin permissions.
• I have my network settings set to private.
• I have tried using using both my PC name and its local IP address.
• For my user account I have used the email used to log myself into my Microsoft account andthe PCNAME\USERNAME format.
• I have allowed Remote Desktop access on my target machine.

Am I missing anything? I would be very grateful for any help given.

Thanks,

Henry

Answer 1

@Henry: I found a painless way of resolving this was to physically log in to the Windows laptop, using your password (ONLY, and NOT your face or fingerprint or PIN), and then log out (and if possible, then reboot). Thereafter, with the Windows laptop up and running, go onto your Mac, fire up RDP, and use it to connect from Mac to Windows as you would expect to. It should work.

It seems that there is a caching issue, such that if the last/previous time you directly logged into Windows was via biometric or PIN (or other non-password) credentials, then the RDP receiver/server on the Windows laptop will refuse your username/password connection attempt via RDP. (It's as if Windows' RDP server is comparing your remote authentication attempt against the previous physical authentication, and refusing if they don't match...)

Best wishes. Hopefully this helps as well: 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/remote-desktop-password-incorrect-windows-10/0720c735-196e-4550-9704-41d17b3551b3?page=3

T

Answer 2

I helped a student today who reported this issue on a home network, trying to remote from a Mac to a Win10 PC. I think the issue comes from using a Microsoft account (i.e., email address) to login to your Windows computer (something that Win 10 kind of insists on) but for remote desktop that login isn’t recognized because it’s not a local account on the computer; it appears to also conflate somehow the local account behind the Microsoft Account (i.e., the PCNAME\USERNAME approach ... USERNAME there is for sure not the email address used for logging in).

What worked for me was adding a local account in Windows (e.g., see Create a local user or administrator account in Windows 10; I called mine RDPUser with a password I assigned and also made the user an administrator) and then adding that login to remote desktop users. This does mean you will have a different login when logged in via remote desktop.

There may be a way to login using the local account ‘behind’ your Win 10 Microsoft Account but I haven’t cracked that puzzle yet.

Answer 3

It works! I think this is the closest I'm going to get to remote connect to my laptop from my Mac. What I have really been trying to achieve is a dual monitor setup consisting of my laptop and Mac but I have found that this is not possible using Microsoft Remote Desktop.

Thanks for the help!

Answer 4

Towcester! This is the best solution to this problem. Thanks!