RDP guide

RDP in Telnety opens the Windows desktop right inside a tab. The renderer is based on IronRDP so you get a native experience on Windows, macOS, and Linux without needing the system RDP client.

What RDP looks like in Telnety

An RDP tab works just like an SSH tab: it gets a tab, a title, a connection status, and the same shortcuts (split-pane, broadcast, send to background). The renderer adapts quality to your connection — high-bandwidth links get full 32-bit colour and audio redirection; high-latency links automatically drop to 16-bit colour with adaptive frame rate.

Configure a host

New host → pick RDP as the protocol.
Enter the hostname or IP. Default port is 3389; change it if your gateway forwards from a different port.
Set Username as DOMAIN\user or user@domain, whichever your environment uses. Workgroup machines accept a bare username.
Optionally set the Domain field. Telnety prefers the explicit domain field over a domain prefix when both are set.

NLA and credentials

Network Level Authentication (NLA) is on by default and recommended. NLA authenticates the user before opening a desktop session, which prevents pre-auth resource consumption on the server.

Store the password in the credential vault for one-click connects. Telnety never writes cleartext passwords to disk; the vault uses AES-256-GCM with an Argon2id-derived key. Smart-card and Kerberos authentication are also supported on hosts that require them.

Servers that still require legacy CredSSP can be reached too, but Telnety surfaces a warning the first time you connect because CredSSP without NLA is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks on untrusted networks.

Clipboard sync

Clipboard sync is bidirectional and supports plain text, RTF, HTML, and file copies. Copy from a local app and paste inside the remote desktop, or vice versa. Toggle it per host if you want one-way sync (paste into the remote, no copy out).

Clipboard formats that round-trip

text/plain        Always
text/rtf          On Windows targets
text/html         Always
text/uri-list     For file copies (CF_HDROP on Windows)
image/png         Best-effort (compressed)

Display, scaling, and DPI

The display picker offers four modes:

Fit to window — the server renders at the pane size. Best for windowed work.
Fixed size — pick a resolution. The remote desktop scrolls if the pane is smaller.
Full-screen monitor — fills your primary monitor. Press Ctrl+Alt+Enter to toggle.
High-DPI scaling — honours your local DPI so text stays sharp on Retina and 4K displays.

Audio and printer redirection

Per-host toggles in the Advanced tab enable:

Audio playback — remote audio plays on your local speakers. Latency is below 80 ms on typical LANs.
Microphone redirection — forward your local mic to the remote desktop for voice apps.
Printer redirection — expose local printers as RDP virtual printers. Drivers must be available on both ends.

Mobile touch modes

The Android client surfaces three touch modes for working with a desktop on a small screen:

Direct touch — tap where you mean, like a touchscreen. Long-press is a right click.
Pointer mode — an on-screen cursor follows your finger; tap-and-hold then drag to move the cursor without clicking.
Trackpad mode — the screen behaves like a laptop trackpad. Two-finger scroll works as expected.

Troubleshooting

CredSSP error — the server is configured to require encrypted-credentials oracle remediation. Update the host's Group Policy or temporarily allow legacy CredSSP in the host's Advanced tab.
Display goes black after login — usually a GPU acceleration mismatch. Toggle hardware-accelerated rendering off in the Display tab and reconnect.
Clipboard stops working mid-session — some Windows clipboard managers fight with the RDP virtual channel; close them on the server side and reconnect.
High latency or stutter — enable Adaptive quality in the Advanced tab. Telnety drops to 16-bit colour and disables font smoothing when round-trip time exceeds 80 ms.