uninstall remote desktop connection on windows 10

my remote desktop connection has suddenly stopped working on windows 10.
1) how does one uninstall and reinstall it in windows 10? I've searched on google but can't find a solution (that works) anywhere.
2) are there any (free) alternatives to windows' own remote desktop connection?
I use RD to connect to virtualbox guests on my LAN and that's all I need it for. Thanks for any help.

Kari said:

What are the error messages you get? What do you mean with "remote desktop has stopped working"?

"This computer can't connect to the remote computer.
Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the remote computer or your network administrator."

thanks for your response. There is nothing wrong with the remote machine i'm trying to connect to. It's on the network and ready for incoming connections. If I use another windows machine on the same LAN it can connect to the remote machine no problem. The problem lies with the windows 10 machine but the failure message gives no clue as to why it can't connect.

Have you tried using the IP address of the computer to remote to. Could be the DNS is not updating on the Windows 10 machine.

yes I only ever use the ip address when trying to connect to the remote machine, and it always works fine from a different windows computer on the same LAN.

Can you ping the PC that you cannot Remote into? Check your Firewall and see if Remote Desktop is blocked? The free alternatives are TeamViewer and VNC.

yes I can ping the remote machine. The remote machine is a command-line-only server, there's no gui so teamviewer can't be used. I've checked the windows 10 firewall and made sure remote desktop is enabled but still it won't work. It's hopeless. I also tried vnc but that doesn't work either, I don't think vnc is designed to work with virtualbox guests.
I think the only thing I can do is uninstall and re-install remote desktop but as yet I can't find any way to do that.

On the windows 10 box, are you using a local account or a Microsoft account? If you're using a Microsoft account, switch to a local account and see if that will make a difference.