Anydesk Win32 Error 10061

“Connection failed. Win32 Error 10061: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.”

If all else fails, a clean reset often eliminates hidden corruption.

On the problematic remote PC:

The most fascinating root cause of Error 10061 isn't a firewall—it’s power management.

In the modern era, we try to be green. We put our PCs to sleep, or we let the Network Interface Card (NIC) enter "Low Power Mode" or "Green Ethernet" states. When AnyDesk tries to connect to a machine in this state, the software driver on the remote machine is technically listening, but the hardware is drowsy.

Sometimes, the network card wakes up just enough to sense the incoming connection, realizes it doesn't have the full system resources to handle the encryption handshake, and panics. It triggers a RST packet. It "actively refuses" the connection not because it hates you, but because it’s half-asleep and confused.

Error 10061 is not an AnyDesk-specific issue, but rather a low-level Windows socket error. It typically arises from one of the following scenarios: anydesk win32 error 10061

In rare cases, the error message is misleading. If the remote computer is on a carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) or behind symmetric NAT, AnyDesk cannot establish a direct connection. It will fall back to AnyDesk’s relay servers. If relay fails, you might see 10061.

Solution: Enable AnyDesk Direct Connection in settings (Settings → Connection → Prefer direct connection). Or request the remote user to enable TCP tunneling via the AnyDesk router.

Windows Defender Firewall:

netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=all | findstr 7070

If missing, add:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="AnyDesk 7070" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=7070