How to Access Local Drive Files from Remote Desktop Session

Suppose, you are working on a Remote Desktop session remotely and would like to access files saved on your local computer or a USB flash drive. 

By default, it’s inaccessible but there is a setting in Remote Desktop Client that when it’s turned on all local drives, including USB drives, will be mapped to the Remote Desktop session automatically, acting as if a network mapped drive.

Steps to Access Local Drive Files from Remote Desktop Session

Step 1. Launch Remote Desktop Connection, before hitting the Connect button, click Show Options to bring up more options.

Figure 1.1

Step 2. Go to the Local Resources tab, and click the More button present under the Local devices and resources section. Now, a new window will open titled Remote Desktop Connection.

Figure 1.2

Step 3. Tick mark the Drives option if you want all local drives to be mapped to the Remote Desktop session. Alternatively, you can also click + icon to expand the Drives list and check the ones you want to be mapped out. As illustrated below in Figure 1.3

Figure 1.3

Step 4. Click OK and it’s ready to connect. This will allow your settings to get automatically saved for next time. However, you can also choose to save it as a separated RDP connection shortcut if you have multiple Remote Desktop computers that need different settings. The Save options are located in the General tab.

Figure 1.4

Step 5. Now, let’s Connect and see how it works out.

Figure 1.5

Step 6. As shown in the above figure, the drives are the local drives mapped on the Remote Desktop session. They work exactly like a network-mapped drive.