Unable to RDP through Windows AD Account or Entra ID from Windows Admin Center - Remote desktop for windows 2022 server

Question

I am unable to RDP through Windows AD Account or Entra ID from Windows Admin Center - Remote desktop for windows 2022 server onboarded to Azure Arc... the windows admin centre opens up from Arc with my Entra login with the RBAC role assigned "Windows Admin Center Administrator Login".... However, the Remote connection works with Local User account but not when i use windows AD or Entra Account....

Please note that this server is a DMZ- not domain joined server...

However, it works for 2025 windows server and there is a documentation with direct mstsc.. But i couldn't find any concrete link that says windows admin center for 2022 server Remote connection doesn't work with windows AD account or Entra Account and only works with local user account for "not domain joined" system..

So if anyone can let me know if this is possible or provide a reference citation where it says its not possible.?

Answer 1

Hello @Shailesh Panday

Based on your description, this is expected behavior for Windows Server 2022.

For Microsoft Entra ID authentication over RDP, the operating system must support Microsoft Entra sign-in for Remote Desktop. Simply onboarding the server to Azure Arc and assigning the Windows Admin Center Administrator Login RBAC role doesn't enable Entra ID authentication for RDP on a workgroup (non-domain joined) Windows Server 2022 machine.

While Windows Admin Center can authenticate to the Arc-enabled server using Microsoft Entra ID, the RDP session itself has separate operating system requirements. Microsoft documents support for Microsoft Entra sign-in on newer Windows Server releases (such as Windows Server 2025), but Windows Server 2022 does not support Microsoft Entra authentication for RDP on a non-domain-joined server.

For Windows Server 2022, your supported options are:

• Use a local Windows account for RDP.
• Join the server to Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and authenticate with domain credentials.
• Upgrade to a supported Windows Server version that provides Microsoft Entra ID sign-in support for Remote Desktop, if that aligns with your requirements.

So, if the same configuration works on Windows Server 2025 but not Windows Server 2022, that is consistent with the current Microsoft support matrix rather than an Azure Arc or Windows Admin Center configuration issue.

If your goal is specifically to enable Entra ID authentication for RDP on Windows Server 2022 in a workgroup configuration, I'm not aware of a supported configuration that enables this today. If Microsoft has a newer support statement or roadmap, it would be helpful for the product team to clarify that in the documentation.

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