Would you like to learn how to use a group policy to deny the remote access via RDP to a user account? In this tutorial, we will show you how to deny log on through the remote desktop service using a GPO.

• Windows 2012 R2
• Windows 2016
• Windows 2019
• Windows 10
• Windows 7

Equipment list

The following section presents the list of equipment used to create this tutorial.

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Tutorial GPO - Deny remote access via RDP

On the domain controller, open the group policy management tool.

Windows 2012 - Group Policy Management

Create a new group policy.

Windows 2012 - Group Policy Objects

Enter a name for the new group policy.

Windows - Add GPO

In our example, the new GPO was named: MY-GPO.

On the Group Policy Management screen, expand the folder named Group Policy Objects.

Right-click your new Group Policy Object and select the Edit option.

Windows - Edit GPO

On the group policy editor screen, expand the Computer configuration folder and locate the following item.

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Access the User rights assignment option.

GPO - User Rights Assignment

Access the option named Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services.

Click on the Add button and enter a username or group.

Gpo - Deny logon via Rdesktop

To save the group policy configuration, you need to close the Group Policy editor.

Congratulations! You have finished the GPO creation.

Tutorial - Applying the GPO to deny remote access via RDP

On the Group policy management screen, you need to right-click the Organizational Unit desired and select the option to link an existent GPO.

Windows-2012-Applocker application

In our example, we are going to link the group policy named MY-GPO to the root of the domain.

GPO- tutorial linking

After applying the GPO you need to wait for 10 or 20 minutes.

During this time the GPO will be replicated to other domain controllers.

To test the configuration, try to remote access a computer using this account.

GPO - Deny Redsktop user access

In our example, the account named USER01 was denied remote access on all domain computers through a GPO.