Hi! This is a strange one. And it only happens on one of my several computers. Let me give a bit of background:
I manage a Windows server 2012 R2 Essentials on a small church network. We only have 5 clients on the network, and we keep it very simple...none of the clients join a domain. And I try to manage the network remotely from a
computer running Windows 10. So when I started this several years ago, the browser I use to connect to the server was expected to be Internet Explorer, with ActiveX controls enabled. I prefer Firefox, so I used some addons like IE Tab to simulate
the IE environment in Firefox, and I got this to work quite well. I would log onto the server, and be presented a list of clients on the server network to which I could connect remotely. I have the server configured so that when I choose it, I
get the desktop instead of the server Dashboard. And this all worked fine.
THEN, sometime recently, I noticed a change. I guess it was prompted by the depreciation of Internet Explorer, because suddenly the ActiveX requirements disappeared. And I guess the change was as a result of Microsoft updates to
Server 2012 R2. I enter the remote access URL for the server: ####.remotewebaccess.com, and provide my user ID and password when requested. Then I choose the server to bring up a remote desktop, but now the process has changed: I notice
that I am downloading a file named servername.rdp and executing it, which presents me with the remote desktop I desire. After my sessions are over, I look for the .rdp file, but it seems that it has been removed after serving
its purpose. This is all very fine, and in fact better than using the ActiveX features.
HOWEVER, I have one computer where this does not work. It happens to be one which I have used for a long time, and when a new OS has become available, I have done an in-place upgrade and not a clean install. So there are probably lots
of bits and pieces lying around from years ago. But when I use Firefox to access the server login screen, that works fine, but when I get to the next screen and select the server for a remote desktop, nothing happens.
I have made some progress in explaining this--I suspected my Firefox configuration, so I created a new Firefox profile and tried it. This time I got the notice that the servername.rdp file is to be downloaded, and when I
click OK, it downloads it. But it does not execute it. It just sits there in the download directory.
And I have made a bit more progress by doing a clean install of Windows 10 on a different partition of this computer, and the remote desktop comes up just fine, as expected. So it is not a hardware problem. And I have checked the system
files with sfc /scannow, and they all seem OK.
I have other computers which I can use to manage the server. Incidentally, all my computers are running Windows 10 pro version 1607. However, the one in question is my main computer, and since I have had this problem, I am concerned that
there may be other things broken also until I get this fixed. So I really would like to know what has happened and how I can fix it! Hope some of you can help, and thanks.
Art
actor39
