Since I don't need any additional software to make direct RDP connections to local machines, my main interest is in connecting to remote machines not on my LAN. I have read those documents multiple times thinking I must have missed some detail, but I don't think that is the case. Choosing Direct connection over Internet-ID does not work because some machines cannot be found by their name, and their IP addresses can change from time to time. Using Internet-ID seemed like the most desirable method, but again, the connection status in the Viewer seems to change every time I look at it. It just keeps changing status, machines going offline and online again - unresponsive to launching a windows RDP session. Some machines display notification that the host software needs to be updated, in spite of already updating them both via the console and the Viewer. Viewer and Host installations are all beta2 version. Server is installed on an AWS VM, which appears to work.
While I work on making Remote Utilities work properly, the best alternative I've found and am using with remarkable success, is L0gmein Hamachi VPN (not installed on same machine as Viewer) to machines on a trusted remote LAN, and simply connecting to them via RDP. No tools, like screen recording and session notes, but it's super fast, spans multiple monitors, handles remote printing without need to install drivers or any additional configuration, and it rarely fails to connect. The only thing I really want from RDP is shadowing so I can see the console with full control, together with the user, to troubleshoot issues. So far, all of the information I've found after extensive searching appears to be obsolete for the most recent versions of windows 10 pro in 2020. I have used various command line flags, group policies, registry edits, and none of them worked across the Hamachi VPN to another remote LAN. RDP sessions with switches or without, the connection is a tcp session, not the console. So that was a lot of reading and testing to donate. I've also put in a lot of time trying to make RU work as designed.