Remote Desktop (RDP)

Add an RDP host

1. Open Add Session → Add RDP session. Or click RDP on the main toolbar and then Add RDP Host.

2. Fill in Host / IP and Username. The username can be user, DOMAIN\user or user@domain.com. Add a Domain only for domain accounts; leave it blank for local and Microsoft accounts.

3. Type the Password to keep it in your operating system's keychain, or leave it blank to be asked each time you connect.

4. Click Add & Connect. The host is saved to the sidebar and the session opens.

5. The first time, MangoSSH shows the server's TLS certificate fingerprint under Unknown server certificate. Check it if you can, then click Yes, Trust & Connect. From then on the certificate is pinned (see Certificates).

Click the screen once to give it the keyboard. Until you do, a hint reads Click the screen to send keys. To reconnect later, click the saved host in the sidebar. Each connected host gets its own tab, so several desktops can stay open at once.

The host form

The form has four sections down its left side. You meet it in two places: Add RDP session and Edit open it inside the RDP page, and the + button on the main toolbar, then RDP, opens it as the Add new RDP Session dialog. The fields are the same apart from the ones marked below.

The session toolbar

While a session is open, a slim bar across the top shows the host name, the remote desktop size and a row of icon buttons. Hover over one to see its tooltip. From left to right:

Display and resolution

With Auto-fit window (crispest), the remote desktop is created at the viewer's size, so text is drawn one-to-one rather than scaled. Match window starts on, and MangoSSH asks Windows to resize the desktop when you resize or maximise the window. Opening or closing a sidebar does not shrink it; the desktop only grows into space that frees up. If you would rather a resize never happens mid-task, turn Match window off.

A fixed resolution never changes during the session. The picture is scaled to fit the viewer instead.

Defaults for every RDP host live in Settings → RDP Session. A host's own settings override them, and changes apply at the next connect.

Keyboard and clipboard

Text copies both ways. Copy in the session and it lands on your local clipboard. Copy locally, click into the session, and it is ready to paste there. The toolbar's paste button is the fallback: it types up to 16 KB of clipboard text as keystrokes.

Ctrl+Alt+Del is claimed by your own operating system before any app sees it. To send it to the session, pop the session out and use Send Ctrl + Alt + Del on the pop-out toolbar.

To keep data inside the session, tick Disable clipboard on the host. No clipboard channel is opened, and the paste button refuses as well. This is enforced by MangoSSH; for a boundary that does not depend on the client, use the PAM Broker, whose sessions have no clipboard at all.

Shared folders, printing and smartcards

• Shared folders. In Access, click Add Shared Folder and pick a folder. Its drive name defaults to the folder name and you can change it. Inside the session it appears in File Explorer as name on MANGOSSH, and you can open, copy, rename and delete files there. Explorer does not refresh by itself when something changes on your side; press F5.
• Printing. With Printer redirection on, the session gets a printer called MangoSSH PDF Printer. Each job is saved to your Downloads folder as mangossh-print-<number>.pdf. It cannot print to a physical printer on your side; print the PDF from there.
• Smartcards. Smartcard redirection passes a local reader through, so you can sign in or sign documents with your card. Windows and macOS include the smartcard service this needs; on Linux, install and start pcscd.

Sound

Sound from the remote desktop plays on this computer unless Sound in Settings → RDP Session is set to Do not play. Your microphone is not sent to the session.

Pop-out window

Pop out into its own window moves a session into a window you can put on another monitor, maximise or keep on top. Its floating toolbar has Keep this window on top, Send Ctrl + Alt + Del, Refit the display to this window, paste, record, Toggle fullscreen, the connect log, Return this session to the main window and Disconnect this session. Drag the toolbar to move it, or collapse it out of the way.

Recording

Click the record button to capture what the screen shows. Click it again to stop; MangoSSH confirms with “Session log saved — see Tools → Session Logs”. Open Tools → Session Logs, select the recording, and click Play to watch it in the Recording Player, or export it as an .mrdprec file.

This recording is made on your device, so the person connecting can turn it off. For recordings they cannot switch off, broker the host and tick Record every session on the relay (see PAM Broker).

Reaching hosts you cannot dial

With an RD Gateway, MangoSSH does not check the gateway's own TLS certificate. The RDP connection inside the tunnel is still encrypted end to end to the PC, and the PC's certificate is still pinned.

Certificates

Windows RDP servers usually present a self-signed certificate, so there is no certificate authority to check it against. MangoSSH trusts on first use instead, like SSH host keys: you confirm the fingerprint once, it is pinned, and every later connection must present the same certificate. If it changes, the connection is refused with RDP HOST KEY MISMATCH and both fingerprints.

A certificate changes legitimately when the PC is reinstalled or its certificate is reissued. If you know that is what happened, right-click the host, choose Properties…, click Forget RDP Host Key, and connect again to confirm the new one.

Limits in this version

• No RemoteApp. MangoSSH opens full desktops. Single published applications (RemoteApp) are not available.
• No file copy through the clipboard. Copying files with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V is built but switched off while a crash it triggers is fixed. Use a shared folder to move files.
• Text-only clipboard. Images and rich text do not cross.
• No microphone. Sound comes out of the session, but nothing goes in.
• Multi-monitor is experimental.

Troubleshooting