By default, when using Windows Remote Desktop, you cannot use your local microphone to record sound in programs running on the remote computer in a terminal session (RDP/RDS). If you need to redirect the microphone to an application (Teams, Skype, etc.) installed on a Remote Desktop host, you need to check the settings on both the client and server-side.
If you open the Recording tab in the sound settings on the remote desktop, you will most likely see the caption:
No audio devices are installed
You will be able to redirect your microphone to an RDP session if the following conditions are met:
- Check that the Windows Audio service is installed and running on the RDP server and client. You can check that the service is running using PowerShell:
Get-Service Audiosrv
Audiosrv service is disabled by default on Windows Server. - Open the Local Group Policy Editor (
gpedit.msc), go to the following GPO section Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host. Enable two GPO options “Allow audio and video playback redirection” and “Allow audio recording redirection”. Update the GPO settings with the command:gpupdate /force. Restart the TermService (Remote Desktop Services) service;
- If you are using the built-in
mstsc.exeapp (Remote Desktop Connection) to connect to RDP, check its settings. Click on the Show Options button, go to the Local Resources tab, in the Remote audio section click on the Settings button. In Remote audio recording, change the settings from “Do not record” to Record from this computer;
- If after that sound appears in the RDP session, but sound recording doesn’t work, create DWORD parameter named fDisableAudioCapture with a value of 0 under the registry key
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp
Now connect to the Remote Desktop. Open the Sound item in the Control Panel, go to the Recording tab, and make sure that the Remote Audio device is being used to record sound.
If the application is published on a Windows Server RDS Remote Desktop as a RemoteApp, you need to edit the .rdp file used for the connection. Add the following lines to it:
audiocapturemode:i:1
audiomode:i:0
- Audiocapturemode = 1 – enables audio recording from a local microphone and redirects it to the remote session
- Audiomode = 0 – play sounds from RDP session on local computer
After that, microphone redirecting will become available both in RDP sessions and in RemoteApps. Don’t forget to select this Remote Audio microphone as the main audio source in your applications on the RDP host.
Under “Remote audio recording” > Need an option to”Record from remote computer”
Why is there no such option? How to get such an option?
Seems a very basic need to me – play all sounds on this computer, but allow to record from and onto the remote machine. Both “Remote audio playback” options exist: “on this computer” and “on remote computer”. But paradoxically the “on/from remote computer” option is missing from the “Remote audio recording” setting.
Please help. A Google search & study hasn’t helped yet in over an hour of research.
This is the default configuration of the built-in MSTSC client. You can only record audio to the remote computer in a Remote Desktop Services session.