RDP to Windows 10 hangs at Please wait screen

kiran kumar 61

RDP to Windows 10 hangs at the 'Please wait' screen forever until rebooted.

In our organisation, we are often seeing this issue on domain-joined systems & VMs with Windows 10 OS

This happens when users are trying to log in with their domain accounts. When the issue is reported, we IT team can log in with our Domain ADM accounts and reboot the system/VM. The user will be able to log in now, but the issue comes back again after a day or two. These systems/VMs are updated with the latest patches.

Even after running SFC Scan, the issue remains.

Frank Alexander van Ede 6 Reputation points

2021-06-28T14:37:42.083+00:00
I am having the exact same behaviour with a user working from home on a domain-joined laptop, connecting to the office over VPN to a domain-joined workstation.

It is a unique case and I am wondering if it is related to how the RDP session is ended.

Our IT group works similar and never has issues. We connect to the VPN, open RDP, do our stuff, close RDP/disconnect, close VPN
The user leaves everything connected and closes the lid of the laptop. That action puts the laptop to sleep.

To resolve the issue we connect remotely with RDP to the computer of the user, and after a reboot, she can connect again over VPN, with RDP.

It seems something gets stuck; googling I saw this link: where they recommend killing the rdp client with

taskkill /f /im msrdc.exe

`
Ter 1 Reputation point

2021-11-10T02:50:38.413+00:00

I encountered the same issue.
Moreover, I can always use my laptop with the same Microsoft account logged in to connect RDP, while my phone, my pad and other people's Windows PC will be stuck at Please Wait screen.
||v|| || ((=;; ||_|| ||£ ||_ 21 Reputation points

2022-10-26T23:30:33.957+00:00

Stumbled upon this post after a user inquired about the issue. This was after not having seen the issue in (maybe 10) years.

Old school trick: try pressing CTRL+ALT+END (not DEL) on your keyboard -- this will effectively send a "CTRL+ALT+DEL" to your Remote PC and can sometimes fix the issue/give you additional options or insight into what's happening... or at least snap the system out of it.

I tried again this time and the workaround was still effective in my environment.
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SPH 70 Reputation points

2023-07-15T19:42:30.5233333+00:00
Had the same problem at work after transferring settings between identically configured machines (first working, the second had this issue). After trying things on this site and others, I believe I have the answer. After fighting the problem for two months, i have had no issues since applying this Group Policy (gpedit.msc) setting:

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

At that level Enable the following setting

Restrict Remote Desktop Services User to a Single Remote Desktop Services Session
Alexander Niazi 1 Reputation point

2023-10-19T11:05:47.5+00:00

SPH fix solved the issue for me, found the below article useful for creating a clean .reg key on my PC then exporting it for easier importing to other users in the future. https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer::TS_SINGLE_SESSION
Alexander Oliva 0 Reputation points

2024-09-04T02:58:29.46+00:00

Recently I got the same problem and after losing my mid for 2 days and alredy given up, A sudden idea crashed my mind, should I do the fix on the PC that I want to connect? IT WAS THAT!!

the solution is to do as @SPH describes but ON THE HOST/REMOTE MACHINE the one you want to log in

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

'Restrict Remote Desktop Services User to a Single Remote Desktop Services Session' and enable it and restart

I don't know why, but in my 2 PCs I was able to connect without problems, then I full reinstall windows 11/10 on 1 pc and It was stuck on the 'please wait screen', but in the other PC it was still working, so I try to apply the fix on the client PC (my PC) not on the host (remote PC)... ahh so much time wasted. Why in old installs works but not on new installs? no idea, use the fix

35 answers

BruceK 1 Reputation point

2022-04-26T13:05:29.113+00:00

I just experienced this issue for the first time and saw something odd not mentioned here. Someone called me about not being able to connect to their office desktop. They were getting the please wait screen. I logged in from one of my computers and saw exactly the same thing. Being ignorant of all this, I told him an update probably got stuck and someone would have to reboot his machine in the morning. This morning I logged into his computer from a different computer and all was fine. I called him and said it must have been an update taking a long time to install and all was fine. He tested and said, "no it still says please wait!" I remoted into his laptop and checked and sure enough he was right.

Some computers were getting the "please wait" screen and others were not. That is somewhat at odds with what is being said here, so I thought I would mention it. The difference between the two computers is the one not experiencing the issue is running Windows 11.
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smartin 6 Reputation points

2022-05-09T02:25:13.213+00:00

Thanks so much for your comment. It gave me the idea to login to my remote pc that was hung up with the "please wait" from another laptop and restart the remote pc. This solved my issue. Thanks
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谢家海 1 Reputation point

2022-05-22T13:08:47.587+00:00

Try to use xfreerdp connection under Linux system, you can connect, and then restart other clients to connect.

I think it may be caused by some connection options of the client

There is no recurrence after trying to connect. I still don't know the specific reason.
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Travis Lamming 6 Reputation points

2022-10-17T21:11:07.357+00:00

Has anyone actually figured out what causes this and how to fix it? It appears to be when sessions are disconnected and when you try to reconnect from the same machine.
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BruceK 1 Reputation point

2022-10-18T18:54:04.503+00:00

My guess is it is when someone either has their computer go to sleep or closes their laptop before logging off the RDP session. This is an amazingly rare occurrence for me and the people I support in a number of businesses. I have only seen it happen with one person and it has only happened with him twice now. There are a number of solutions for rebooting the remote computer which you might gather from this topic. Alterative RDP clients may work, especially to reboot the remote PC.

Travis Lamming 6 Reputation points

2022-10-19T15:48:00.403+00:00

Remote reboot is just not a fix for an end user who would have to contact someone more knowledgeable at all hours of the night. I get that its rare, but it sure would be nice to reproduce this strange one and find an actual fix.
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Smeddeu 1 Reputation point

2022-10-18T20:05:28.797+00:00

We also see these problems with RDS Gateway/Hosts
For some reason this "Please Wait" issue mostly occurs with our customers trying to connect from a Microsoft Surface to one of our RDS Hosts.
A simple solution would be to manually logoff the user at the server end.. Sadly enough the user would lose all of his work.

I couldn't reproduce the "Please Wait" by disconnecting the session with the X on top for several times.
I figured out that by disabling Sleep on the Microsoft Surfaces the problem just vanished.
When I set the computer to go into sleep (after 5min) I can sometimes reproduce the "Please Wait" problem after few sleep cycles.
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Istvan Nyari 1 Reputation point

2022-11-24T21:41:02.753+00:00

I use the RDP a lot from both Window, iOS and OSX.
From Windows desktop I never had this "please wait" screen.
But, after (any time) I logged in from windows desktop to the remote with configuration 'use all monitors',
I am not able to login from iOS and OSX anymore. Only if I go back to the windows desktop, connect to remote with "use all monitors" switched off, and restart the remote.

If I use the RDP from windows desktop only with one monitor, I never was able to reproduce it.
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RDP to Windows 10 hangs at Please wait screen

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