Restore user after Remote Desktop

[csteinhilber]

I manage several stand alone kiosks; networked, running XP Pro, and set to login to a local user account on startup.
Currently each kiosk has a keyboard/mouse to facilitate updates and general maintenance control.

My dream is to be able to run all the kiosks without keyboards and manage them from a central workstation.

I thought Remote Desktop (RDP) would be a great solution. Except for the fact that if I connect to a kiosk via RDP, when I disconnect the remote system doesn't appear to restore the local user. So the system remains at the CTRL-ALT-DEL login screen and eventually drops into the system screensaver... rather than going back to my kiosk software.

Is there a way to have the system revert back to a given user once RDP has disconnected?

I've tried TightVNC as an alternative, which seems to do what I want in that the system reverts back to running my kiosk software... but I've had ample connection and control problems with it was well. So it doesn't seem like a viable solution.

I've also thought about restarting the system when I want to disconnect RDP... but this seems like overkill (especially after minor updates).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!
-Carl

 

[linney]

It is not clear to me whether you are seeing a Logon at Startup or are already using Automatic Login, ignore the following if you are using Auto Login now.

Maybe you need to think about setting the machine up for Automatic Login, as a possible workaround, if it is viable, and if you are happy with the security risk?

How to automatically log on to a user account in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282866&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

315231 - How to turn on automatic logon in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315231&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

XP Home, Eliminate User Login requirement?
thread779-880540

305281 - The "Welcome" Logon Screen Does Not Appear

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305281&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Automatic Logon to a Windows Machine (Windows NT/2000/XP)

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/13/

How to implement autologon for WinXP
FAQ779-1381

 

[bobbyforhire]

If you are looking for total remote access i would recomend that you check out DamewareNT. I use it all the time to remote into pc's and it's not like RDP/TS you are right on the pc and don't have to worry about logging out or anything like that.

 

[csteinhilber]

@linney: Thanks for all the info. The systems are already set to auto-login at boot-up. So when they boot, they go directly to the desktop for the user. But if I RDP to it, then disconnect, the login prompt appears on the remote machine and I can't get rid of it. Perhaps I have something set wrong in RDP. I'll take a closer look. All the KB articles are interesting, though. 3 years ago when I started this, all I could find was a freeware utility to set up auto-login.

@bobbyforhire: Thanks for the suggestion. I'd rather not go with yet another 3rd-party solution. DamewareNT sounds much like TightVNC as it is. And resources are pretty tight on these machines. But thanks.



-Carl

 

[csteinhilber]

Sorry... by "login prompt", I mean the dialog that says to "press CTRL-ALT-DEL to login"... not the actual prompt in which one would enter the login info.


-Carl

 

[csteinhilber]

Further clarification:

The system auto-login logs in as LOCALMACHINENAME\juser.

When I RDP in, I connect as that same user (LOCALMACHINENAME\juser).

When RDP disconnects, the dialog on the remote machine says "The system is locked... it can only be unlocked by LOCALMACHINENAME\juser", and it DOES have the user/password/domain fields. The user field is prefilled LOCALMACHINENAME\juser, and the domain is preset to LOCALMACHINENAME... it's just not logged him back in.




-Carl

 

[linney]

Can the "press CTRL-ALT-DEL to login" be controlled by Group Policy in Computer Configuration/ Windows settings/ Security Settings/ Local Policies/ Security Options?

 

[vanka25]

From my limited experience with XP in a kiosk setup; the auto-login works only when the computer is booting up - not if a user has logged off. One solution to your problem is that when you are done working on the kiosk over RDP, instead of logging of when you end the session - reboot. That way the kiosk user account will auto-login.

 

[vanka25]

There is one thing I forgot to mention though, XP stores the last user that was logged on in a key in the registry. If you log on as a different user than the kiosk user account (very likely I assume); than when you restart that will be the default user and auto-login probably will fail as auto-login was not defined for that user. Try to set the last user registry key to read only. This assumes that my suggestion is what you were looking for.

 

[csteinhilber]

@linney - interesting... I hadn't thought about a group policy. There look to be several policies that might do the trick. Namely "Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL". I'll have to play around a little more.

@vanka25 - as I said in my original post, rebooting seems like overkill. Particularly if I'm just RDP'ing in to check a setting rather than actually change anything. Then I have to reboot and the kiosk is unavailable for 3 minutes. I just want to RDP in, do what I have to do, then disconnect and have the system go back to what it was doing as if I was never there.



-Carl

 

[kjems]

Seems like a common problem - i also havent found a solution.

I have 4 computers in an exibition without keyboard and mice. They are powerfull computers - do you think i will be able to control them only with TightVNC?

http://www.teamviewer.com

is another remote-software - any experiences anyone?

Kindly

Jesper

 

[WyomIAN]

Did you resolve your issue?

The best, and perhaps only, solution to this is to create a batch file on the host computer (your kiosk) that contains a single line:

tscon.exe 0 /dest:console

Then, when you want to terminate the remote machine's connection, run this file on the host rather than disconnecting from the remote client. This will effectively continue to the user session on the host.

Hope you had already found this answer, but if not hope you find this reply.

Be well.