Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCman) does not go full screen anymore

I'm using the Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.7 on a Surface Pro 4 with Windows 10. Until recently, it was working fine: It would go to full screen and show this blue full screen connection bar at the top when pointing there with the mouse. I could close the session from there or leave full screen mode.

A few days ago (no idea what happened), it stopped going to full screen properly. Now it only resizes to the full size of my screen minus the task bar (so I still see that and the RDCman's window is also not behind my local task bar. The blue bar at the top appears for a moment but I cannot get it back when moving the mouse there.

Reinstalling did not help. Any idea what might have caused this and how to fix it?

5 Answers

Simpler - just don't maximize the Remote Desktop Connection Manager window.

I just resize the RDCMan window to "almost" maximum size, then hit Full Screen in the RemoteDesktop connection (right click-> Full Screen).

Otherwise, it seems Windows 10 keeps a bottom bar reserved for the taskbar & doesn't allow the remote desktop to go "all the way" Fullscreen.

I know this is an old post but I had a similar problem and found that this worked:

1. Find rcdman.exe.
   Default location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Remote Desktop Connection Manager\RDCMan.exe
2. Open the Properties of the exe (Right click -> Properties)
3. Go to the Compatibility tab
4. Uncheck Disable display scaling on high DPI settings

Click View, then un-check Lock window size.

This worked for me

Here is what I did to solve the issue.  It also works with older apps that don't handle high dpi scaling well. First one must tell Windows to look for a manifest file for an application by default – a registry entry. Next is to provide a manifest file for a given application – the executable file name followed by .manifest.

1. Open RegEdit and navigate to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > SideBySide.
2. Right-click, select NEW > DWORD (32 bit) value.
3. Type PreferExternalManifest, and then press ENTER.
4. Right-click PreferExternalManifest, and then click Modify.
5. Enter Value Data 1 and select Decimal.
6. Click OK. Exit Registry Editor.
7. The RDP app is %windir%\System32\mstsc.exe so the manifest file is mstsc.exe.manifest.

I can't attach the manifest file so here is the contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3"> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*"> </assemblyIdentity> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"> </assemblyIdentity> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3"> <security> <requestedPrivileges> <requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false"/> </requestedPrivileges> </security> </trustInfo> <asmv3:application> <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns=""> <ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings=""> false </ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware> </asmv3:windowsSettings> </asmv3:application> </assembly> 

Copy the above into notepad and save the file with the appropriate name to the same folder as the executable.

Right-click the host, properties>display settings: uncheck inherit from parent and check scale docked remote desktop to fit window

On v2.7 build 1406.0, not sure if this was released in an update, just wanted to point it out in case people are still searching.