Saving your logon credentials in Remote Desktop Connection

Credentials are essential to network security. When you connect to a remote computer using Remote Desktop Connection, you're asked to provide your credentials before you can connect. In some cases, you can save your credentials so that you won’t have to provide them each time you connect to a particular remote computer. You can change or delete saved credentials, if needed, or use completely different credentials.

Credentials are saved per remote computer. For example, if you connect to five different remote computers every day and you want to use saved credentials for each of them, you need to save credentials separately for each remote computer.


  • For security reasons, only save your credentials to connect to private remote computers that you trust.

Saving credentials

You can enter computer name and credential information in one location for easier management of remote connections.

To save your credentials, follow these steps:


  2. In the Computer box, type the name of the remote computer you want to connect to, click Options, select the Allow me to save credentials check box, and then click Connect.

You'll be asked for your credentials, and the Remember my credentials check box will be automatically selected. The next time you connect to that remote computer, your saved credentials will be used automatically. To edit or delete your saved credentials, click edit or delete.


  • If saving your credentials doesn't work, and your computer is joined to a domain, your network administrator might have disabled the ability to save credentials.

Remote Desktop Gateway credentials

When you connect to a remote computer through a Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) server, you need to provide credentials for both the remote computer and the RD Gateway server. However, you can use the same credentials for both. To do so, in the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box, click the Advanced tab, click the Settings button, and then select the Use my RD Gateway credentials for the remote computer check box. This check box is selected by default.

You can save, edit, or delete your credentials for an RD Gateway server, just as you can for a remote computer. For more information, see What is a Remote Desktop Gateway server?