Jtdylktuy

I have been using the command tsdiscon happily for disconnecting from a remote desktop connection. I have made a "bat-file" with this line, and have assigned a shortcut to this function. Now, I have trouble using the command on Windows 10 machines.

Old usage

With tsdiscon, I can happily sign off from RDP connection in two cases:

1. When I am in the RDP session, I will exit the RDP session


2. When I am at the local machine, the RDP session will also get terminated. Yet, nothing will happen to the local machine

Current problem

Lately, maybe due to Windows 10 updates, issuing this command in the remote desktop session will sign off not only from the RDP session, but also the local machine. This is a bit annoying. Correspondingly, when I issue the command tsdiscon in both cases:

1. If I am in the RDP session, I will get not only signed off from the that remote session, but also the local machine


2. If I am at the local machine, I will get signed off on both machines as well.

Solution?

Can I pass in the specific session name that I would like tsdiscon to terminate? Or, should there be a certain parameter that stipulates at which scope this command shall take effect?

So far, same command (tsdiscon) is working in the same old way on Windows 7 machines. It become buggy when I start to use a Windows 10 machine to start remote desktop session.

This is an attempt to answer my own questions asked almost 2 years ago. I am still using RDP on a daily basis, and have spent more time reading about the tsdiscon command.

Shorter answer

First, let me answer the original question. According to its documentation, the tsdiscon command does take a range of parameters, including SessionName and SessionId. Issuing query session command through the command prompt shall reveal these two fields.

PS C:WINDOWSsystem32> query session

 SESSIONNAME       USERNAME                 ID  STATE   TYPE        DEVICE

 services                                    0  Disc

>rdp-tcp#84        Your_Username             1  Active

 console                                     3  Conn

 rdp-tcp                                 65536  Listen

Up to an hour before typing up this answer, I have been confused by where should one issue the tsdiscon command: the original confusion in the question signifies a particular misunderstanding ==> the tsdiscon command is not supposed to be issued from a local machine when this local machine is a personal computer. This is more true when I am the single user of this local personal computer. I bet the intended usage of tsdiscon is for server admin to kick people off from their server :)

Still, I think it is worth the time to discuss how to properly get back from remote RDP sessions. For now, I am taking a AutoHotKey-approach that comes in two parts: 1. to get back from RDP session; and then 2. to kill the local session of RDP from the local machine.

Better way out

Part 1: getting back from the remote RDP session

For now, I have devised the following shortcut to get me back from a RDP session. While keeping the identical script running both the local machine and the remote RDP-connected machine, pressing Ctrl + CapsLock (Ctrl first, then Capslock) shall "hide" the RDP session, and almost always restore keyboard focus + mouse focus back to the local machine.

; The following are AutoHotKey scripts.

#IfWinActive ahk_class TscShellContainerClass

    ^Capslock::

        Sleep 50

        WinMinimize

    return

#IfWinActive

; Make-shift script as suggested by: https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=25432

; May solve the awkward loss-of-focus when returning back from RDP

^Capslock::

    WinGetClass activeclass, A

    WinGetTitle activetitle, A

    MsgBox, 48, Warning, %activetitle% ahk_class %activeclass%, 0.666666

return

Simple solution to "kill" RDP session

As the Ctrl + CapsLock shortcut should be working 99% of the times, I then simplify the task as: kill the existing RDP session. Again, AutoHotKey comes handy, as I may have multiple RDP sessions to different machines running, and I shall only need to kill one of them.

#+y:: 

    WinClose, <Session 1: name_of_the_saved_RDP_config_file> - Remote Desktop Connection

    WinClose, <Session 2: name_of_the_saved_RDP_config_file> - Remote Desktop Connection

return

One would need to carefully substitute the <Session 1...> portion of the AHK script. It needs to match the Window-Title of the RDP session when it is active. I usually look it up using the following procedures:
1. Open an RDP session in a Window, i.e. without having it span all active monitors
2. Open "Windows Spy", an AHK-utility that reveals all identifiers for a "window": full set of identifiers include Window-Title, process_name and win_class_name.

PS: during my weekly home(-code-)improvement session, I headed out to solve the tsdiscon issue again. With very similar query terms, I am happy to re-discover this old question. With a bit more careful reading of the documentation, it became apparent that I should not bet on one single command to handle all usages of mine. Thus come this pro-longed answer. Hope it can help people who play with RDP a lot.