Enable Audio Redirection on Windows Server 2008 Remote Desktop Session

A user complained that he couldn’t listen to the wav file from his Outlook when he’s on Remote Server. I logged into the server and noticed that there is a red X mark showing on top of the speaker icon on the system tray, indicating that there is no audio output device installed on the server.

Because this is a virtual machine built on VMware, I couldn’t easily physically attach an audio device to it. My first thought is to install a virtual audio driver to emulate the sound stream over the RDP session. But here is a much easier way. You actually don’t need any sound driver or devices physically installed on the Remote Server to be able to stream the audio. All you need to do is turn back on the Audio Redirection option that is disabled by default from the beginning.

Here is how:

1. Log into the server console.

2. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Remote Desktop Services, and open Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration.

3. Right click on RDP-TCP from the Connections list, and choose Properties.

4. Go to Client Settings tab, and uncheck Audio and Video playback option from Disable the following list section.

5. Click OK, and the change will be taking affect next time when you log into the server.

The Remote audio playback option on Remote Desktop Client is also need to be configured in order to make the redirection work.  The option is enabled by default. If you don’t see the audio redirected to your local computer, check the Remote Desktop Client Option to make sure the Play on this computer option is checked under Local Resources tab.