How do I find out which remote desktop sessions are active?

Question

How do I find out which remote desktop sessions are active on a Windows Server 2003 box?

Answer 1

The commandline way, which you can even remotely use, is

qwinsta /SERVER:{servername}

which will list the current sessions and their status, and with

rwinsta /SERVER:{servername} {sessionid}

and the proper privileges you can disconnect a session, particularly useful when the limit has been reached and you are not connected.

{sessionid} is the ID number listed in qwinsta's result

Answer 2

Start -> Administrative tools -> Terminal Services Manager

Click on your servers name and it will list the active sessions on the right, there is also a field for the session state. Another tab called 'Sessions' will show active users, listeners and the console sessions.

Answer 3

If you have a remote desktop open to the server in question, you can see other sessions on the same server in the Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc).

Answer 4

I'm a developer who was unable to RDP to a server because all available sessions were in use. I don't have Terminal Services manager, so none of the answers above applied. I use powershell for this kind of Windows service management, and I had success using the PowerShell module PSTerminalServices, which is from a MS employee (or group). Hit the link to install the MSI, then run the following from PowerShell:

Import-Module PSTerminalServices
Get-TSSession -ComputerName _MyRDPServer_ | Out-GridView

Answer 5

Using Task Manager you can click on the Users Tab to see which sessions are running. Right-click on a User to disconnect or logoff.