RDP doesnt use UDP and is very Slow after Update

Question

After upgrading the server to the 2025 version, the RDP connection has significantly degraded. The connection speed is now limited to 500 Kbit/s and uses TCP instead of the usual 40+ MBit/s with UDP. Disabling all graphics options has resulted in a somewhat usable connection. The clients are:

• Windows 11 Pro 24H2.
• iPadOS 18.4 - Windows App
• IOS 18.3.1 - Windows App

What steps can be taken to restore the previous performance?

Answer 1

Hello,

Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

You can open the Group Policy Editor by pressing Win + R to open the Run window, type gpedit.msc, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Connection Client. Double-click Disable UDP on the client, select Enabled, and then click OK.

I hope the information above is helpful.

Best regards

Zunhui

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Answer 2

This is how to use only TCP for RDP connections. Do you know how to force RDP to use UDP only?
TCP is slow, especially for local LAN connection.
It is possible with Windows 10, but not with Windows 11.

Answer 3

I was having this exact same issue after update kb5051987 broke RDP for use. We had to log into the affected machine and change group policy to the following.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Connection Client - TURN OFF UDP ON CLIENT - SET TO ENABLED

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host> Connections - Select Network Detection Server - Enabled (Turn off continous Network Detect)

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host> Connections - Select RDP transport Protocols - Enabled (Use TCP Only)

Immediate results on changing this.

Answer 4

We had this same issue. Change the following to have immediate results.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host> Connections

Select RDP Transport Protocols- Change this to TCP only....

Immediate improvement.