How to Connect Windows 10 to a CentOS 8 VM via XRDP – Step‑by‑Step Guide

This article provides a complete, step‑by‑step procedure for enabling remote desktop access from a Windows 10 workstation to a CentOS 8 virtual machine using XRDP.

1. Install the EPEL repository

First verify whether the EPEL repository is already present: rpm -qa | grep epel If the command returns no result, install the repository with:

yum install epel-release

2. Install XRDP

Install the XRDP package and accept all prompts (answer y when asked):

yum install xrdp

3. Install TigerVNC server

Install the VNC server component required by XRDP:

yum install tigervnc-server

4. Configure SELinux

Check the current SELinux mode: /usr/sbin/sestatus -v Switch SELinux to permissive mode so that it does not block XRDP: setenforce 0 Verify the change by running the status command again.

5. Disable the firewall

Stop the firewalld service (the command may differ on other distributions): systemctl stop firewalld.service Confirm that the firewall is inactive:

systemctl status firewalld.service

6. Start XRDP and enable it at boot

Start the XRDP service: systemctl start xrdp Check that it is running: systemctl status xrdp Configure the service to start automatically on system boot:

systemctl enable xrdp

7. Connect from Windows 10

On the Windows machine, open the built‑in Remote Desktop Connection client (search for “Remote Desktop”). Enter the IP address of the CentOS VM and connect.

When the XRDP login screen appears, provide the VM’s username and password to obtain a graphical desktop session.

After these steps, you should have a functional remote desktop session from Windows 10 to the CentOS 8 virtual machine.