I use Remote Desktop to access my home computer from campus all the time. In Windows XP when you connect to a computer it disconnects the existing session from the console (the local I/O) and sends all the data remotely. It creates a logon session (the welcome screen) and that's what you see on the local screen. After you disconnect your remote session (not logoff) the local console remains locked. You have to physically login at the console to bring the session back. This became a problem for me, because when the login screen is up certain programs can't start correctly, because the session has no connection to the video driver. (e.g. video capture applications)
I spent a while searching for a solution to the this problem, and I finally found one. If you want to exit a remote desktop session and return it to the local computer (console) you can type:
tscon 0 /dest:console
if your sessionid is 0. If you don't know your session ID, you can use this nifty command. It runs a program and parses the output for your current session number. (Makes me realize that the NT DOS prompt isn't so chumpy)
for /f "tokens=3" %i in ('qwinsta ^| findstr /b ^^^>') do tscon %i
/dest:console
Either way the desktop is returned to the local machine. The can be handy if you remotely fix someone's machine and you want to return it to the desktop without having to have them login. I realize this may seem like a nearly useless tip, but it is a very simple solution to what can be a frustrating problem.
Another interesting thing about Remote Desktop in WinXP is that concurrent sessions were enabled during the development of Service Pack 2 (SP2) but it was pulled before the final release. Luckily there is still a way to hack it into place. Basically you can login to one account onto a WinXP pro installation while someone else is using a different account at the console. It's not exactly the Terminal Server edition, but it's nifty if you remote desktop into a computer someone else might use. You can follow the directions at this website to enable the feature. Slight warning: you need to replace some files in safe mode to get this to work.
Posted by ramk at February 17, 2005 10:21 PMI remote in to my business computer all the time. This is just the fix I needed. Thanks.
Posted by: Andrew at February 18, 2005 09:50 AM