Would you like to learn how to use a group policy to display a message to remote desktop users after the login on Windows? In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a group policy to configure a banner message that will be displayed to users after the logon on the domain computers.

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

This message will be presented only if the user is using a Remote desktop connection.

Hardware List:

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

Every piece of hardware listed above can be found at Amazon website.

Tutorial GPO - Message for RDP users after login

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 User configuration folder and locate the following item.

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Create a scheduled task.

GPO - message at Logon to Rdesktop users

On the General tab, perform the following configuration:

• Action - Create.
• Name - Enter a name to this task.
• Run only when the user is logged on - Yes.

GPO - Message to Rdesktop users

On the Trigger tab, click on the New button and perform the following configuration:

• Begin the task - At log on.

Click on the Ok button.

GPO - Notification to Rdesktop users - Trigger

On the Action tab, click on the New button and perform the following configuration:

• Action - Start a program.
• Program/Script - POWERSHELL
• Add arguments - Enter the Powershell arguments to display a message.

GPO - Notification to Rdesktop users - Action popup

Click on the Ok button.

In our example, we used these Powershell arguments to display the notification.

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Here is the alert message that will be presented to the Remote desktop user.

GPO - Banner logon Rdesktop

This is an alternate configuration to display the notification message above the clock.

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Here is the notification message that will be presented to the Remote desktop user.

GPO - Notification to Rdesktop users - Example

On the Common tab, select the Item-level targeting option and click on the Targeting button.

GPO - Notification to Rdesktop Targeting

We are going to create a filter to enable this scheduled task only for users connecting through a remote desktop connection.

On the Target screen, access the New item menu and select the Terminal session option.

GPO - Message to Remote desktop users

Perform the following configuration:

• Type of protocol - Remote desktop service.
• Parameter - Client IP address.
• Between - 0.0.0.0 and 0.0.0.0.

GPO - Rdesktop banner message - Filter

Access the Item options menu and select the option Is not.

GPO - Rdesktop banner message - Is not

This rule will apply to all users connected using a Remote desktop connection.

GPO - Rdesktop banner message - Rdesktop filter

Click on the Ok button.

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

Congratulations! You have finished the GPO creation.

Tutorial GPO - Display a text message for RDS users after login

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.

Access a computer using the remote desktop connection and verify the alert message.

GPO - Banner logon Rdesktop

In our example, we add a pop-up message using a GPO.