Allow Multiple user RDP sessions of Power BI desktop application

[Fifathim17]

unable to open an application on their Windows VM when using multiple RDP sessions. They can access the application in the first session, but it fails to open in the second and third sessions.

AS I dont have publick documentation of it is being supported or not but since we support and allow multiple session in single client or server. need public doumention if this is not supported in future. 

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @Fifathim17 ,

Could you please confirm if you've submitted this as an idea in the Ideas Forum? If so, sharing the link here would be helpful for other community members who may have similar feedback.

If we don’t hear back, we’ll go ahead and close this thread. For any further discussions or questions, please start a new thread in the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum  we’ll be happy to assist.

Thank you for being part of the Microsoft Fabric Community.

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @Fifathim17 ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community.

As mentioned by @burakkaragoz  , Power BI Desktop is not designed or supported for concurrent use across multiple RDP sessions on the same server or VM. While Windows allows multi-user sessions, Power BI Desktop often fails to work reliably in such scenarios due to how it manages user-specific resources.

Currently, there’s no official Microsoft documentation explicitly stating this limitation. However, it has been acknowledged in past community discussions and reflects the intended design of the application.

For supported multi-user scenarios, we recommend using Power BI Service for cloud-based collaboration, Power BI Report Server for on-premises needs, or separate VMs per user if Desktop access is required.

Since this limitation isn’t documented publicly, we encourage you to share this feedback in the Power BI Ideas forum: Fabric Ideas - Microsoft Fabric Community. This helps bring visibility to the product team for future documentation or feature consideration.

Hope this helps. Please reach out for further assistance.

If this post helps, then please consider to Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly and a kudos would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @Fifathim17 ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If my response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution and give a 'Kudos' so other members can easily find it.

Thank you.

[burakkaragoz · Accepted solution]

Hi @Fifathim17 ,

Power BI Desktop isn't officially designed to support multiple concurrent RDP sessions on the same Windows VM. While Windows Server allows multiple sessions, Power BI Desktop is a single-user application and doesn't handle multiple interactive sessions well — especially when launched simultaneously.

There’s no public documentation explicitly stating this limitation, but in practice, only the first session can reliably launch the app. The others often fail due to how the app handles local resources and user context.

If you need multi-user access, consider:

• Power BI Report Server for on-prem scenarios
• Power BI Service for cloud-based sharing
• Or using separate VMs per user if Desktop access is absolutely required

Hope this helps clarify things a bit.

If my response resolved your query, kindly mark it as the Accepted Solution to assist others. Additionally, I would be grateful for a 'Kudos' if you found my response helpful.

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