Fixing RDP Performance Issues to Windows 11 Hosts with Group Policy

Products Privilege Secure Show & Tell
, ,
1

:desktop_computer: Fixing RDP Performance Issues to Windows 11 Hosts with Group Policy

Affected product: Netwrix Privilege Secure for Access Management
Issue: Sluggish, delayed, or frozen RDP sessions to Windows 11 hosts

:warning: The Problem

We’ve heard from several customers, and seen it ourselves, that RDP sessions to Windows 11 machines can suffer from poor responsiveness. This includes symptoms like:

  • Laggy or delayed mouse and keyboard input
  • Frozen or stuttering screen updates
  • General sluggishness when connecting via Netwrix Privilege Secure RDP proxy

:white_check_mark: The Solution: A Group Policy Fix

To fix this, you need to disable continuous and connect-time network detection on the target Windows 11 hosts.

Group Policy Path:

Computer Configuration
  > Administrative Templates
    > Windows Components
      > Remote Desktop Services
        > Remote Desktop Session Host
          > Connections

Setting:

  • Select network detection on the server → :white_check_mark: Enabled
    • Set to: Turn off Connect Time Detect and Continuous Network Detect

Once applied, Privilege Secure RDP sessions to Windows 11 will immediately feel smoother and more responsive.

:office_building: Deploying This in a Domain

You could make this change directly on each individual host, but that doesn’t scale. Instead:

  1. Create or edit a Group Policy Object (GPO) with the setting above.
  2. Target it to the appropriate OU containing your Windows 11 systems.
  3. Force a policy update using PowerShell:
Invoke-GPUpdate -Computer <computer_name> -Force

For mass deployment, script this across all domain-joined Windows 11 computers:

$computers = Get-ADComputer -Filter * -SearchBase "OU=Win11Computers,DC=yourdomain,DC=com"
foreach ($computer in $computers) {
    Invoke-GPUpdate -Computer $computer.Name -Force
}

:test_tube: Immediate Results

This change does not require a reboot. However, any active Privilege Secure RDP sessions should be re-provisioned once the Group Policy change is applied.

5 Likes