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Windows Server

Closing terminal server sessions remotely

I had another occasion today where “The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed connections” due to abandoned sessions and was unable to remotely gain access to a server using Terminal Services because both sessions are used up. I can use another server to check the status of the first one, or in my case I can connect into a client computer remotely. As long as the logged in user has administrative rights on the non-accessible machine I would run this:

qwinsta /server:12.12.12.12

Where 12.12.12.12 is the IP address or name of the non-accessible machine.

This will display something like this:

> qwinsta /server:12.12.12.12
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
console 0 Conn wdcon
rdp-tcp 65536 Listen rdpwd
rdp-tcp#470 Bob 1 Active rdpwd
rdp-tcp#471 Jane 3 Active rdpwd

Now I know that Bob and Jane are the two that are logged in. Since Jane left the office 20 minutes ago I know that she forgot to log off. I don’t know where Bob is but I only need one session so I’ll ignore him for now.

To disconnect Jane’s session (number 3 as shown above) I would type this:

rwinsta /server:12.12.12.12 3

Strange names?. This came from the Citrix Metaframe days which Terminal Services has descended from. It stands for:

qwinsta = Query WINdows STAtion
rwinsta = Reset WINdows STAtion

By Mik Canavan

I'm a tech obsessed and self-confessed geek. As the Technical Director at Fivenines UK, I'm lucky that I get to faf with gadgets, design websites and fix servers...

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