Macintosh - How to set up a Remote Desktop connection to access a remote Windows workstation

Owned by Jared Nixon (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 12, 2022
3 min read

  1. This guide assumes that the Windows computer you are attempting to remotely connect to has been joined to the sooner.net.ou.edu domain and has had Remote Desktop enabled. Please visit this guide if you still need to enable Remote Desktop on the target Windows computer.

  2. Open Microsoft Remote Desktop

    1. If the latest version is not already installed, open the Apple App Store and search/download, download directly from Microsoft, or you can download the app from the University Libraries Self Service application installed on your Mac

  3. Click the Settings gear and then “Preferences”

  4. Click the “User Accounts” tab at the top, then click the plus + button on the bottom left

  5. Type “SOONER\” and then the user’s 4x4, for example: “SOONER\user1234” in the username field

    1. You do not need to enter the password on the screen. Once the connection is established Remote Desktop will prompt for a user password

    2. You do not need to give the account a nickname but you can if the user wants

  6. Click the blue Add button

     

  7. Now we need to create a connection to the UL Remote Desktop Gateway. Click the “Gateways” tab at the top, then click the blue plus + button on the bottom left

  8. Type in “rdp.lib.ou.edu” in the “gateway name” field

  9. Choose the user account that you created in steps 4-6 that will authenticate to the gateway from the user account drop-down menus

  10. Click the blue Add button and close the Preferences window

     

  11. Now we are back at the main Remote Desktop screen. Click the “PCs” tap at the top middle-left, then click the blue “Add PC” button in the middle of the window

  12. Type in the PC host name. This is the name of the PC you are trying to connect to remotely. A typical library computer hostname is going to be “UL[PC_SerialNumber].sooner.net.ou.edu”

  13. Choose the user account that you want to use to authenticate to the remote connection. This is going to be the same user account that was set up in the Preferences in steps 5-6

  14. You can choose to name the connection to the remote PC if you would like, but it is optional.

  15. Click the Gateway drop-down menu and choose the gateway rdp.lib.ou.edu that was created in steps 7-10

  16. Click the blue Add button

     

  17. Now the connection is set up and you can test. The connection may have a certificate error, which is expected because the workstation will have a self-signed certificate. If this happens, you can click “connect anyway” or whatever equivalent to proceed.

     

  18. Note: If you are attempting to access the remote connection from off-campus, you will need to set up the OU VPN connection on your computer.

  19. If you have any issues please contact Library Technology Platforms.