Your first connection
The first-launch experience
Section titled “The first-launch experience”When you open RDPMaster for the first time after install, a Welcome wizard appears. Fill in three fields:
- Display name — what shows up in the sidebar. “Web server”, “Lab box”, “Production-DC1” — whatever you like.
- Hostname or IP — the address of the machine you want to RDP into.
server.example.com,10.0.0.42, anything that resolves. - Username (optional). You can leave this blank and enter it at connect time.
Click Save and connect. The wizard closes, the main window opens, and the profile is in the sidebar with its ▶ (connect), ✎ (edit), and × (delete) buttons.
If you’d rather skip the wizard and use + Add manually instead, click Skip — add servers later.
Adding subsequent profiles
Section titled “Adding subsequent profiles”In the top-right title strip, click + Add. A profile editor opens with all the per-connection settings (display, redirects, audio, RD Gateway, recording, etc.). Most fields have sensible defaults — you typically only need to fill in Host, optionally Username + Domain, and click Save.
Connect
Section titled “Connect”Click the ▶ button to the right of the profile’s name in the sidebar. RDPMaster opens a tile in the main area and starts the RDP handshake. You’ll be prompted for credentials if they aren’t saved yet (passwords are stored in Windows Credential Manager — never in our JSON).
The remote desktop renders inside the tile. You can interact with it like any RDP session: click, type, drag windows, copy/paste through the clipboard. When you’re done, right-click the tile header → Disconnect.
What’s the difference between tile mode and expanded mode?
Section titled “What’s the difference between tile mode and expanded mode?”- Tile mode (default) — the session lives in a small tile in the auto-layout grid. You can see up to 16 servers at once.
- Expanded mode — click the ⛶ button in the tile header (or press F11 with the tile focused) to make the session take the whole window. Press Esc to shrink it back to the tile grid.
See the tile grid for the layout math and expand and shrink for the expand/shrink mechanics.
When the connection fails
Section titled “When the connection fails”The tile shows a red error message:
| Error | Likely cause |
|---|---|
No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it | The host is reachable but RDP isn’t accepting on port 3389. Check that Remote Desktop is enabled on the target machine: System → Remote Desktop → Enable. |
A specified logon session does not exist | Stale cached credentials. Right-click the profile in the sidebar → Edit → re-enter the password. |
The remote computer requires Network Level Authentication | The target requires NLA but the credentials supplied failed NLA pre-auth. Re-check the username (sometimes needs the DOMAIN\ prefix) and password. |
The remote computer could not be reached | Network-level — DNS, firewall, routing. Try ping <host> from a terminal. |
See troubleshooting for deeper diagnostics including RD Gateway, certificate trust, and slow connections.