The WinRM client cannot process the request. The authentication mechanism requested by the client is not supported by the server or unencrypted traffic is disabled in the service configuration.

- October 08, 2018

This post describes how to fix the error:

The WinRM client cannot process the request. The authentication mechanism requested by the client is not supported by the server or unencrypted traffic is disabled in the service configuration. Verify the unencrypted traffic setting in the service configuration or specify one of the authentication mechanisms supported by the server.

Screenshot showing error The WinRM client cannot process the request. The authentication mechanism requested by the client is not supported by the server or unencrypted traffic is disabled in the service configuration.

Cause

This error can occur when you try to connect to a machine using PowerShell Remoting and the authentication mechanism specified is disabled in the WinRM configuration of that machine.

You can check the WinRM authentication settings by running the following command on the machine you are trying to connect to:

winrm get winrm/config/service/auth

Screenshot showing WinRM authentication settings

Resolution

To resolve the issue, enable the authentication mechanism you are trying to connect with.

In my case, the 'Disallow Kerberos authentication' policy (located in Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Remote Management (WinRM) > WinRM Service) was Enabled which resulted in the WinRM Kerberos authentication setting being false. So, I resolved the issue by setting this policy to Not Configured or Disabled.