Install the Okta Credential Provider for Windows

Install the provider by using any of the supported installation methods: standard, silent, and mass deployment.

• Standard installation
• Silent installation
• Mass deployment
• Verify timeout settings

Standard installation

1. Go to the location where you downloaded the installer.
2. Extract the files from the .zip archive.
3. Run setup.exe as an administrator and follow the prompts. Install or repair the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime libraries as required.

4. On the App Configuration dialog, enter a client ID, client secret, and your Okta URL. Click Next after you've entered the information.

   You can get these values from the Microsoft RDP (MFA) app in Okta. Select the General tab, scroll to the Client Credentials section to find the client ID and the client secret. The Okta URL is the URL that your org uses to reach Okta (for example, https://<yourorg>.okta.com).

5. Click Next and Close to complete the installation.
6. In the second App Configuration dialog, select from the following options:
   • Filter Credential Provider: This option provides a workaround when a server has multiple credential providers installed. If selected, the Okta MFA Credential Provider is the only method used to apply MFA to RDP connections. Unauthenticated users can't select which credential provider to use.
   • RDP Only: By default, the installed credential provider inserts Okta MFA between both an RDP and a local authentication event. Selecting this option removes Okta MFA from local (interactive) logons.
   • (EA version only) Display Okta password reset link (self service): Select this to add an option to the Windows sign-on screen that allows end users to reset their password through Okta.

7. Verify the installation by locking the machine. If successfully installed, the sign-in screen shows Okta as a sign-in option.

   The appearance of the sign-in screen varies between different versions of Windows Server.

Silent installation

1. Go to the location where you downloaded the installer.

2. Extract the files from the .zip archive.

3. On the Windows server, run the following command from the vcredist_x64 folder of the unzipped archive:

   vcredist_x64.exe /install /quiet /norestart

4. Run the following command to install Okta Windows Credential Provider silently:

   msiexec /qb /log log.txt /i OktaWindowsCredentialProvider.msi CLIENT_ID="cid" CLIENT_SECRET="cs" OKTA_URL="https://a.b.c"

   You can find the values for each of the parameters as follows:

   • CLIENT_ID: Find this value on the General tab of the Microsoft RDP (MFA) application in Okta. You can also manually edit this value in the RDP agent config file.

   • CLIENT_SECRET: Find this value on the General tab of the Microsoft RDP (MFA) application in Okta. If the client secret is reset, you must reinstall the agent because the secret is encrypted in the agent config file. You can also manually edit this value in the RDP agent config file.

   • OKTA_URL: Your org URL. Must use the format https://org_name.okta.com. HTTPS is required. Also supported are *.okta-gov.com, *.oktapreview.com, and *.okta-emea.com.

5. Modify additional properties. In addition to the parameters you added in the previous step, you can modify the following properties to ensure MFA is enforced:

   Property	Definition	Default value	Suggested value
   FilterCredentialProvider	This property provides a workaround when a server has multiple credential providers installed. If true, the Okta MFA Credential Provider is the only method used to apply MFA to RDP connections. It doesn't permit unauthenticated users to select which credential provider to use. Setting FilterCredentialProvider to true and RdpOnly to false causes the agent to prompt for MFA if required by the policy.	false	-
   InternetFailOpenOption	Sets authentication flow behavior if network connectivity is lost. This property governs proper access if the target machine doesn't have internet access for MFA. If true, a user attempting to authenticate across RDP isn't challenged for MFA and is granted access based on password alone. When false, a user attempting to authenticate across RDP isn't granted access because the credential provider can't reach the Okta service. Set this property to true if internet connectivity is a frequent issue.	false	-
   RdpOnly	By default, the installed credential provider inserts Okta MFA between both an RDP and a local authentication event. Setting this property to true removes Okta MFA from local (interactive) logons. Setting FilterCredentialProvider to true and RdpOnly to false causes the agent to prompt for MFA if required by the policy.	false	-
   WidgetTimeOutInSeconds	The number of seconds before timeout. To prevent the possibility that Windows might close the RDP session, this value must be smaller than the idle timeout set in Windows. The maximum value is 120 seconds.	60	30
   ErrorTimeOutInSeconds	The timeout after which the RDP session is closed when an error message is displayed.	30	30
   EnforceTimeoutVersionAgnostic	Enforce timeout for Windows 2012, 2016 or 2019.	false	true
   SslPinningEnabled	Validate the public key of the Okta server to which the agent is connecting.	true	true
   DisplayPasswordResetLink If you upgraded from the version 1.1.4 to a later version, you must add this property.	Display link to reset Active Directory password.	false	true
   DisconnectSessionOnError	When this property is set to true, Okta attempts to disconnect the user’s session if there’s a timeout or an unexpected error. Under the default value, the user’s session terminates instead of disconnects so that unsaved data may be lost.	false	-

   To modify these properties, edit the file rdp_app_config.json (by default, in the C:\Program Files\Okta\Okta Windows Credential Provider\config folder) or use the following PowerShell script:

   $rdpAppConfig = Get-Content 'C:\Program Files\Okta\Okta Windows Credential Provider\config\rdp_app_config.json' -raw | ConvertFrom-Json $rdpAppConfig.RdpOnly =([System.Convert]::ToBoolean('true')) $rdpAppConfig | ConvertTo-Json | Set-Content 'C:\Program Files\Okta\Okta Windows Credential Provider\config\rdp_app_config.json'

   You can run this script from the same location you ran the installation in step 2, above.

   This script was tested with PowerShell versions, 3, 4, and 5. To determine the version of PowerShell on your system, open PowerShell as administrator and enter:$PSVersionTable

Mass deployment

Use the Microsoft psexec64 tool to execute commands on remote machines. Modify the following command for a mass deployment:

Elements of the command should be modified as follows:

• Replace <IP of the machine to deploy>, <AD admin user>, and <path for installation log> with appropriate values for your organization.
• Replace the <client secret> and <client ID> to match your application.
• Replace yourdomain with the name of your Okta organization.

Configure behavior if network connectivity is lost

After completing the installation, you can configure the behavior of the authentication flow if network connectivity is lost.

To configure this behavior, edit rdp_app_config.json (by default, in the C:\Program Files\Okta\Okta Windows Credential Provider\config folder). Set InternetFailOpenOption to one of the following values:

• true: If internet connectivity is lost, a user attempting to authenticate across RDP isn't challenged for MFA and is granted access based on password alone.
• false: If internet connectivity is lost, a user attempting to authenticate across RDP isn't granted access because the credential provider can't reach the Okta service.

Verify timeout settings

To ensure that MFA works as expected, verify that the Okta sign in session times out before the Windows session.

Note the following:

• By default, the Okta widget timeout session is set to 60 seconds.
• Determine the timeout duration in your Windows environment then set the session timeout duration for the Okta widget to be shorter than the Windows timeout session.
  

  Set up a test in the environment by manually timing the session duration for both Windows and Okta to ensure that the timeout duration specified for each work as expected.

To configure the Okta widget timeout session duration:

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Okta\Okta Windows Credential Provider\config
2. Edit rdp_app_config.json
3. Add the following properties and values to the file, delineating each entry with a comma:
   
   • "WidgetTimeOutInSeconds": 30

   • "ErrorTimeOutInSeconds": 30

   • "EnforceTimeoutVersionAgnostic": false

   You may specify another value for timeout as long as it is lower than your Windows session timeout duration.