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How to clear remote desktop connections history

When we connect to a remote computer using Remote desktop application, it stores the remote PC name and the login user name. And whenever we open remote desktop application again, it suggests the names of the computers that the user has previously connected to. This TS sessions history is stored per user and a user will not be able to see the connection history of other users.

How to delete Remote desktop connection history?

  • Open Registry editor (Execute Regedit from Run window)
  • Navigate to the node HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftTerminal Server ClientDefault
  • Now you can see that each computer you have connected to has an entry in this node with the names MRU0, MRU1, MRU2, MRU3….
  • Select all the MRU entries.
  • Right click and select delete from the context menu. This method works for all Windows editions i.e XP, Vista and Windows 7 and also on the server editions Server 2003 and Server 2008.

 

Delete Remote desktop connection history from command line

Instead of using GUI we can just run a simple command from windows command line and delete remote desktop history.  Command for this is given below

reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftTerminal Server ClientDefault" /f

The above command can be added to a batch file and we can run the batch file whenever we want to delete remote desktop connection history.

Is there any group policy not to save the Server, username and passwords history?

There is a group policy for passwords which prevents passwords from being saved. There is no GP setting to disable user and remote servers history.

Remote desktop suggests user names when I try to connect to a computer which I used previously. How to delete this user name history in the remote desktop connections?

You can delete the user name history by deleting the registry keys under the node HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftTerminal Server ClientUsernameHint

From command line you can run the below command to do the same.

reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftTerminal Server ClientUsernameHint" /f

If you have any more questions related to remote desktop, check out Remote desktop and Terminal Services FAQ

{ 11 comments… add one }
  • Anonymous February 21, 2011, 5:18 am

    Is there any way to disable remote desktop history? or atleast a way to automatically delete it once I close the TS connection?

  • Techblogger March 8, 2011, 5:42 pm

    AFAIK, There's no such automatic way of deleting rdp history..You may create a batch file with the reg command to delete the history..

  • Anonymous March 28, 2011, 1:17 am

    i try to do but it still the same and cant not clear the section.How can i try more to complete this task.please help me. my E mail : [email protected] if you have answer.

  • Techblogger March 28, 2011, 8:41 am

    What's the error you got when you tried to delete the MRU entries in the registry?

  • Anonymous May 9, 2011, 6:45 am

    it works

  • Tekkie July 5, 2012, 3:12 pm

    There is no UsernameHint entry in my registry, but I still have hints to delete. Are they stored anywhere else? Windows 7 Pro

  • arshal October 23, 2012, 2:51 pm

    Thank u,
    reg delete “HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftTerminal Server ClientDefault” /f

    this key is working ;

    but the last entry is existing there.
    how can remove it completely ?

  • Muhammad Jamil April 26, 2013, 6:54 am

    your suggested procedure is working excellent

    thanks & Regard

  • ROcket August 26, 2014, 6:10 pm

    Weird question, but what would it take to *restore* the history if it were blanked out? More specifically, are the RDP registry keys stored as part of the NTUSER.DAT file, or are the registry keys part of a separate file?

  • Guruvishnu November 12, 2014, 8:18 am

    its working

  • Om Shankar Mishra February 26, 2015, 4:10 am

    Your solution is very good.
    Thanks & Regards

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