Multiple user workstations - logging off

[bitdaf]

Hi,

Need some suggestions on a solution, please. I'm a "new" administrator of a Windows 2003 server enviroment and very inexperienced in this.

In our office enviroment we have a couple of "Common" workstations. These are stations where multiple users can log on and do their thing as needed. These are necessary in our situation as not all users have their own office.

The problem is that we also have to use password protected screensavers - we have had problems with after hours personel messing with the stations - and if the last user doesn't log off and the screensaver kicks in that user or the administrator must be the one to unlock the workstation. This is a problem if another user (non-administrator) needs to log in and use the PC.

No matter how often I harp on logging off or threaten severe pain some users can't pull thier heads out long enough to do so.

I had read about winexit.scr, as part of the resource kit -

http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/winexit.htm,

and had a question about it.

If I use that does it also apply to the server? In other words if I activate it and the allotted time elaspes on the server will it log off the administrator and shut down all programs running on the server like it would all workstations? This would not be desirable for us as we have applications that run from the server....the instructions were not clear as to how that works. Preferably I would like that to work on the workstations only.

Failing that as a solution I would appreciate any tips or alternate solutions for our situation, please.

Thanks
Daf

 

[tim28375]

This may not be what you are looking for but you could set up logon times so that only the correct people are logged on at the correct time.

Also is your users fail to log off they will be logged off automaticaly after there logon time finish

 

[bitdaf]

Thank you for the reply, Tim.

Turns out that I was not understanding the instructions correctly. It's (winexit.scr) is actually meant to be run on the workstations and not the server. Duh! Once I sorted that out it works beautifully.

Thanks
Daf

 

[MarkLappin]

bitdaf,

In Group Policy there is an inactivity time out which will log your users off if they leave the computer idle or don't touch any keys. Where I goto classes our lab admin uses this which for CS students working on big projects is quite a pain ---- a project I recently had was the tower of hanoi problem with some twists and was goign to need about 3 hours to run with the method my group used to code it (we had to code it a few different ways); our lab admin in all his brilliance said "if the machine is idle more then 10 minutes we can log them out" .... so rather then go study or work on calculus we had to sit there and fiddle with the computer for 3 hours or it would just force our log out.

You might want to look at doing something like that, forcing a log out after say 2 hours of inactivity --- or whateve rwould be reasonable. We have 2 common scanners here at work and people do the same thing, don't log out. With a maximum load the scanners will go through their load in under 10 minutes, I have an auto logout set on them for 45 minutes, haven't had complaints about it other then one very very very large OCR job which was taking a long time to run.

Mark

 

[majcher]

MarkLappinRSC, which policy defines the settings you are describing? it is pain for you but it might be usefull for me.

 

[HKNinja]

What happen to the unsaved files when the system force the user to log off?

 

[majcher]

the the changes to the files will be lost