Switching sessions and Remote Desktop users
Open the session of a user who is on Remote Desktop, pick a session when several people are signed in, move a live session to another user's desktop from the Sessions menu without reconnecting, and bring a disconnected session to the screen.
A Windows computer is not always one person at one screen. The user may be working on it over Remote Desktop from home, a server may have several administrators signed in, and a Remote Desktop session host has a session for everyone. Remote control follows that: it opens the session that is really in use, lets you pick another, and moves a live session between them without starting again.
Which session a remote session opens
When you click Remote in, the agent looks at the sessions on the device and picks:
| On the device | What opens |
|---|---|
| Someone signed in at the console | The console, as always. Any Remote Desktop sessions are offered too. |
| Nobody at the console, one person on Remote Desktop | That person's Remote Desktop session. A notice says whose it is, with Open the console instead. |
| Nobody at the console, two or more on Remote Desktop | Pick a session to open, with a button for each person. |
| Only a disconnected Remote Desktop session | The console's sign-in screen, where they can sign back in. The disconnected session is shown as such. |
The session policy's consent rules apply to the person whose session opens, exactly as at the console: with Ask them they are asked in their own session, with Tell them they are told. See Remote control.
A Remote Desktop session is captured without graphics acceleration, and the viewer says so. It does not follow the console: it ends when that person signs out, or when their session stays disconnected for more than 10 seconds (a client reconnecting after a blip keeps it).
Before any of this, the device page and the connecting card already tell you who is signed in and how present they are. See Who is signed in and whether they are there.
When the screen does not come up
If the picture has not arrived within 10 seconds (the wait for someone's approval is not counted), the card changes to The screen has not come up yet. It says why when it knows (a Remote Desktop session, a disconnected session), lists the sessions it can open instead, and offers Try again. The picture arriving clears it.
The Sessions menu
Once connected, both the browser viewer and the desktop viewer have a Sessions menu. It lists every session the device knows: the console and each Remote Desktop session, with the person, whether it is active, locked or disconnected, and how long it has been idle. The one you are on is ticked.
- Open Sessions.
- Pick another session.
The picture moves there without ending your session or opening a new one: the same session carries on, with the same recording, ticket and notes. If the policy says to ask, the person in the session you picked is asked first, and the viewer says it is waiting for them. Open a new session starts a fresh one when you want that, and is never chosen for you.
Every switch goes on the device's timeline and in the audit log, for example ...'s remote session on ... was switched to ...'s desktop, saying whether the person agreed or the policy let it through without asking.
Note: Only one move at a time: picking another session while a move is still going is refused, and you stay where you are.
Disconnected sessions
A disconnected Remote Desktop session has no screen of its own, so picking it from Sessions brings it to the console's screen first, as an administrator would with Windows' own tools, and then shows it. The console's own session is disconnected by this and stays signed in, so it appears in the list as a disconnected session that you can bring back the same way. The menu says so under the row: Picking it brings it to the console screen, and the console's own session is disconnected.
If Windows refuses (no rights, or a policy forbids it), the viewer says why and you stay where you are. A session opening from Remote in never opens a disconnected session by itself: connect first, then switch.
Linux and macOS
On Linux the menu lists the graphical seats, and on macOS the signed-in users, so you can see who is there. Only the session in front of the screen has a picture, so that is the one shown; picking another says why it cannot be shown rather than pretending to move.
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