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On Windows 10 Pro Desktop I'm looking for a local setting to limit the number of user sessions allowed to be running to 1.

This is not through use of remote desktop client. It's physical access to the desktop and multiple users accessing it.

For example, when the desktop is locked for User A then User B may sign into the workstation at its keyboard. User A's session is still active in the background using memory/disk resources and can be switched back to, as seen on the Task Manager Users tab (can click Signout there), or by Windows Start Switch User icon to switch back to a session. A number of users can be logged in and switch between their sessions.

A number of users eventually eat up too many resources slowing the machine. Users don't bother to log off. This is the core of the issue. I want to automate it rather than teach it.

I'm looking for a way to tell the machine to not keep other user sessions, or to limit the total to 1 (the current) effectively causing the others to be logged off instead of sit in the background. Either way the outcome would be no pile-up of user sessions on the machine.

It's for a boardroom computer which suffers the issue of too many user sessions over time. I'm looking to limit only shared boardroom computers to 1 session.

An Active Directory server is available on premises.

John K
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1 Answers1

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What you are asking to do is to disable “Fast User Switching.”

It can be done with GPO, or registry tweaks.

Set the “Hide entry points for fast user switching” GPO in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon.

Or, create the following DWORD in the registry: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\HideFastUserSwitching=1

Appleoddity
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  • The next logical bit is how to forcibly log off the user who locked the screen and left, so that the machine is usable by the next user. I expect the OP won't consider this a complete solution without it. – Michael Hampton Aug 18 '18 at 13:48
  • @MichaelHampton it’s been a long time since I used this. I remember a time where I was prompted to log off the other user when I logged in. Is that not the case any more? – Appleoddity Aug 18 '18 at 15:22
  • You could combine this with a scheduled task to query session, filter for 'disc' and logoff [session#]. – Greg Askew Aug 19 '18 at 18:48