WIndows 10: mulitple logins via RDP and "direct"?

Question

I think the answer is "no, it's not possible", but...

I have a Windows 10 system on a quad core NUC that I log into via Microsoft Remote Desktop -- it makes a great compilation environment for my work.

Recently, my son asked if he could log in using the keyboard and mouse to play Minecraft. Seemed simple enough, but as far as I can tell, Windows 10 only allows one user to be logged in at a time.

So my question: is there a way for my son to log in directly to play Minecraft while I log in remotely via Microsoft Remote Desktop to compile code? I'm not interested in hacking .dll files to circumvent the Microsoft license; I want to know if there's a legitimate way to do this.

Answer 1

You practically answered your own question; Microsoft's licensing does not allow multiple active graphical sessions for "client" (consumer) operating systems.

You would need Windows Server to make this work in general, plus RDS client licenses if you wanted non-admin users and/or more than 2 sessions.

That said: the restriction only applies to Remote Desktop (Terminal Services). You can still log in over the network as long as it's non-graphical, e.g. run your compilation through SSH or through PowerShell Remoting. Most build systems will run from the command line.

(Besides having Enter-PSSession, Windows 10 now comes with OpenSSH server as an official add-on, and for earlier versions there are options such as Bitvise WinSSHd.)