determine if computer is in use locally before accessing with remote desktop

Question

We often access client machines using remote desktop. Sometimes, when we think their machine is free, we find out (since we use their username to login) that we just kicked them off while they were in the middle of doing something. How can we determine if someone is sitting at the remote pc - locally - using it - before we access it using their username & pw with remote desktop?

Answer 1

Microsoft has a free tool called Remote Desktop Service Manager that does exactly what you are looking for. It will allow you to monitor and manage local and remote desktop connections to machines.

You can graphically see who is connected to which machine, as well as log them off, disconnect or reset their sessions. You can see what processes they are running, as well as send them a message.

This tool is great for those admins who forget to disconnect their sessions on servers and leave you unable to log in.

This tool is part of the Windows Remote Administration Pack. The WRAP can be a bit confusing when you first install it. The install adds the feature to Windows, you have to go into Add or Remove Features to enable the tools.

Answer 2

You need to have another type of access, for example command line access or try to run a command with SysInternal's PsExec.

Execute this command:

query session

It will show you if someone is actively using Desktop or not and even will show you if there is a RDP connection or not