Reset Remote Desktop Services or its administrator password in a Windows VM

Note

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Note

The steps in this article don't apply to Windows domain controllers.

If you can't connect to a Windows virtual machine (VM), you can reset Remote Desktop Services and credentials by using the VMAccess extension. Here are the available methods to do this:

If you're using PowerShell, make sure that you have the latest PowerShell module installed and configured and are signed in to your Azure subscription. You can also perform these steps for VMs created with the classic deployment model.

Reset by using the Azure portal

First, sign in to the Azure portal and then select Virtual machines on the left menu.

Reset the local administrator account password

  1. Select your Windows VM and then select Reset password under Help. The Reset password window is displayed.

  2. Select Reset password, enter a username and a password, and then select Update.

    Tip

    If you enter a different name than the current local administrator account on your VM, the VMAccess extension will add a local administrator account with that name, and assign your specified password to that account. If the local administrator account on your VM exists, the VMAccess extension will reset the password. If the account is disabled, the VMAccess extension will enable it.

  3. Try connecting to your VM again.

Reset the Remote Desktop Services configuration

This process will enable Remote Desktop service in the VM, and create a firewall rule for the default RDP port 3389.

  1. Select your Windows VM and then select Reset password under Help. The Reset password window is displayed.

  2. Select Reset configuration only and then select Update.

  3. Try connecting to your VM again.

Reset by using the Azure PowerShell

First, make sure that you have the latest PowerShell module installed and configured and are signed in to your Azure subscription by using the Connect-AzAccount cmdlet.

Reset the local administrator account password

  • Reset the administrator password or user name with the Set-AzVMAccessExtension PowerShell cmdlet. The typeHandlerVersion setting must be 2.0 or greater, because version 1 is deprecated.

    $SubID = "<SUBSCRIPTION ID>" 
    $RgName = "<RESOURCE GROUP NAME>" 
    $VmName = "<VM NAME>" 
    $Location = "<LOCATION>" 
    
    Connect-AzAccount 
    Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubID 
    Set-AzVMAccessExtension -ResourceGroupName $RgName -Location $Location -VMName $VmName -Credential (get-credential) -typeHandlerVersion "2.0" -Name VMAccessAgent 
    

Reset the Remote Desktop Services configuration

  1. Reset remote access to your VM with the Set-AzVMAccessExtension PowerShell cmdlet. The following example resets the access extension named myVMAccess on the VM named myVM in the myResourceGroup resource group:

    Set-AzVMAccessExtension -ResourceGroupName "myResoureGroup" -VMName "myVM" -Name "myVMAccess" -Location WestUS -typeHandlerVersion "2.0" -ForceRerun $true
    

    Tip

    At any point, a VM can have only a single VM access agent. To set the VM access agent properties, use the -ForceRerun option. When you use -ForceRerun, ensure you use the same name for the VM access agent that you might have used in any previous commands.

  2. If you still can't connect remotely to your virtual machine, see Troubleshoot Remote Desktop connections to a Windows-based Azure virtual machine. If you lose the connection to the Windows domain controller, you will need to restore it from a domain controller backup.

Next steps

Contact us for help

If you have questions or need help, create a support request, or ask Azure community support. You can also submit product feedback to Azure feedback community.