Remote desktop: Fullscreen is limited to the resolution of my primary monitor. How can I get a full screen rdp session on my second (bigger) screen?

I have 2 monitors, unfortunately one is smaller than the other.

I want to use the 1920x1200 monitor for a fullscreen RDP session (this is where I do my main work).

And I would like to use the smaller (1280x1024) monitor on the side for email/skype/browsing etc.

The problem is that the RDP "fullscreen" resolution seems to be limited to the resolution of the monitor that I configured as my primary screen.

No problem, I thought, and configured my bigger screen as primary. But the problem with this setup is that the fullscreen RDP session hides my taskbar, and I miss email and skype notifications.

How can I have my taskbar display on my smaller screen, while still have a fullscreen RDP session on my bigger screen?

Edit: My current workaround is this: Make my bigger screen primary, start the RDP session, then make my smaller screen primary (not satisfactory at all).

8 Answers

The solution is to set the resolution in the view tab manually to that of your big screen (1920x1200 in this case), instead of "fullscreen".

This is due to the fact, that the initial RDP window always opens on your primary display and will take that display's current resolution as "fullscreen".

You can set ANY resolution you like by editing the .RDP file in a text editor!

Start the Open Remote Desktop connection, and drag the window to the bigger screen before you connect. This will open the desktop on that screen then, with the full screen size of that bigger screen.

Edit the RDP settings by right clicking the link. Go to the Display tab. Drag the slider off the Full Screen setting and you should see the highest resolution of your available monitors.

Save the settings.

Open up Remote Desktop Connection, then go into options on the bottom.

Then under Display there is an check box to "use all my monitors for the remote session".

May not be exactly what you want, but may help get more real estate.

If you are worried about not seeing new notifications showing up on the task bar because it is hidden behind the RDP session on the larger display, an alternate solution is to click anywhere there is an empty spot on the task bar and drag your task bar to the smaller monitor.

If you’re using Mac’s Microsoft Remote Desktop, edit the connection, go to Display, and check “Optimize for Retina displays”. Then reconnect.

In Remote Desktop connection display tab, under display configuration section, move the cursor to required screen size (between small and large) and then click connect or if you have shortcut make the change and save it.