Remote desktop Newbie (wont Connect)

Hello I have two computers at home on the same network. They are part of the same homegroup and i'm able to send files back and forth, see drives, map network drives, printer share etc. Both computers are running win 7 ultimate x64

One of the computers is an htpc and the other is my office pc. I'd like to use my office pc to remote into the htpc in order to work on it as the mouse and keyboard in the office is a little easier to use than the logitech dinovo mini i have for the htpc.

I allowed remote desktop on both pc's and at first tried network level authentification. When i tried to connect to the htpc i was asked for a password. I dont use a password on either pc to log on. to googgled a little and found a guide to go into gpedit.msc and disable Limit local account use of blank passwords to consol logon only. tried to connect again and again i was prompted for a password. I decided to reboot the pc and try to connect again, same thing, i was prompted for a password. I decided to to go in to accounts and create a windows password for the pc. tried to connect again, entered my newly created password and got an error saying the password was wrong.

I decided to go to my htpc and see if i can remote into my office pc. First i created a password then tried to connect. I got past the first password prompt and it looked like i got in. the screen was blue.. there was a control panel bar at the top of the screen with the ability to minimize or close this new window but another password prompt in the middle. i used the same password as before but i got an error saying the password was wrong.

Anybody have any idea why this is happening? Both PC's were recently reformatted so i dont think theres anything weird going on behind the scenes.

any advice would be greatly appreaciated.

rsoares28 said:

Hello I have two computers at home on the same network. They are part of the same homegroup and i'm able to send files back and forth, see drives, map network drives, printer share etc. Both computers are running win 7 ultimate x64

One of the computers is an htpc and the other is my office pc. I'd like to use my office pc to remote into the htpc in order to work on it as the mouse and keyboard in the office is a little easier to use than the logitech dinovo mini i have for the htpc.

I allowed remote desktop on both pc's and at first tried network level authentification. When i tried to connect to the htpc i was asked for a password. I dont use a password on either pc to log on. to googgled a little and found a guide to go into gpedit.msc and disable Limit local account use of blank passwords to consol logon only. tried to connect again and again i was prompted for a password. I decided to reboot the pc and try to connect again, same thing, i was prompted for a password. I decided to to go in to accounts and create a windows password for the pc. tried to connect again, entered my newly created password and got an error saying the password was wrong.

I decided to go to my htpc and see if i can remote into my office pc. First i created a password then tried to connect. I got past the first password prompt and it looked like i got in. the screen was blue.. there was a control panel bar at the top of the screen with the ability to minimize or close this new window but another password prompt in the middle. i used the same password as before but i got an error saying the password was wrong.

Anybody have any idea why this is happening? Both PC's were recently reformatted so i dont think theres anything weird going on behind the scenes.

any advice would be greatly appreaciated.

Ok here is the thing about using remote desktop, you must have a password set up on both machines as you found out, or it will not work. You will want to change the group policy back to how it was.

This is by default for security reasons and there is no way to change this far as I know.

You can add a password to each machine then set it up for automatic access at boot up so you don't need to put in the password every time you boot up. Assuming that you added passwords to those machines, remote desktop should be working for you.

This link will show you hot to set up the auto passwords, very simple, just type netplwiz into the run box.

Log On Automatically at Startup

Thank you for the quick reply. I will try that now and report back

rsoares28 said:

So i changed the group policy back to enable on my office-pc.(did not disable it originally on my htpc) i setup a password on my office rebooted and tried the remote desktop and its still saying login failed.

The htpc cannot connect to the office pc anymore (meaning i dont get to the second login screen.

this error pops up. Authentication error occured. local security authroity cannot be contacted. remote pc office-pc

ANy ideas?

the htpc can only get to that second logon screen when i change both pc's to allow connections from computers running any version of remote desktop. thr netwrok lvl authentication gave me the above error. both pc's are running win 7 ultimate x64

Apparently others have had this problem as well but I'm not sure what causes it.

In this TechNet link, talks about this problem with a working solution near the bottom of the page.

Network Level Authentication error with Remote Desktop Connection between Windows 7 machines

Thanks again for all your help but unfortunately all those settings in the link were already there.

i'm stumped... been searching for hours and everything looks right.. it should work.