Windows 10 Remote Desktop (RDP) Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts don’t work as expected when connecting to a remote server using RDP.
RDP stands for Remote Desktop connection and allows you to connect to a remote computer and access its desktop.
Whilst using RDP with Windows servers is usually used to allow remote administration of systems, when connecting to a Windows 10 desktop it’s most likely to offer support to someone.
That said, it’s not the only reason. I connect to a remote Windows 10 virtual machine to do development work using Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition. I don’t want to clog my surface up with all that comes with .NET development as so a remote Windows 10 VM seemed like a great idea (and it is).
But of course when connected and you want to do something like Alt+Tab your local desktop will see it and action the request rather than sending it to the remote computer.
So we have to use a different set of keyboard shortcuts to accomplish what we want.
Below is a handy table of these alternative keyboard shortcuts.
Keyboard Shortcut Table
| Local Shortcut | Remote Shortcut | Description |
| Win Key or Ctrl+Esc | Alt+Home | Opens Start Menu. |
| Alt+Tab | Alt+Page Up | Displays the Alt+Tab application switcher where pressing Page Up while holding down Alt will switch programs from left to right. |
| Alt+Shift+Tab | Alt+Page Down | Displays the Alt+Tab application switcher where pressing Page Down while holding down Alt will switch programs from right to left. |
| Print Screen | Ctrl+Alt+’+'(Plus key on numeric keypad) | Copies a screenshot to the clipboard which you can then be pasted. |
| Alt+Print Screen | Ctrl+Alt+’-‘ (Minus key on the numeric keypad) | Copies a screenshot of the active window to the clipboard which can then be pasted. |
| Alt+Space | Alt+Delete | Opens the menu for the active window. |
| Alt+Esc | Alt+Insert | Cycles through open apps in most recently used order |
| Ctrl+Alt+Del | Ctrl+Alt+End | Sends Ctrl+Alt+Del to the remote computer. |
| Ctrl+Alt+Break | Toggles the RDP window between full screen e and windowed modes |
Recent Comments