Taking over console

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.work_remotely (More info?)

Hi,

I'm using Windows 2003 Server and the remote desktop feature. What i want to
do is take over the console session of that machine.
I achieved this using the /console command line switch in the remote desktop
client. Yet after a reboot of the 2003 machine, when nobody's logged in yet,
i cannot connect to the machine using a non-administrator account (i get an
error message). Entering administrator credentials works, but i dont want to
log in as that user.
It looks like i can only take over the console if somebody's already logged
in. Can i tweak some policies to work around this "feature"?

Is there a good solution to this besides maybe enabling auto-login on the
server?


Thanks,

Jo

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.work_remotely (More info?)

news.online.de wrote:
> I'm using Windows 2003 Server and the remote desktop feature. What i
> want to do is take over the console session of that machine.
> I achieved this using the /console command line switch in the remote
> desktop client. Yet after a reboot of the 2003 machine, when nobody's
> logged in yet, i cannot connect to the machine using a
> non-administrator account (i get an error message). Entering
> administrator credentials works, but i dont want to log in as that
> user. It looks like i can only take over the console if somebody's already
> logged in. Can i tweak some policies to work around this "feature"?
>
> Is there a good solution to this besides maybe enabling auto-login on
> the server?

Why do you need to log into the Console Session when no one is using it?
Are you trying to prevent another administrator from logging in locally and
changing something at the same time you are? In other words, why must you
be on the console session?

The /console command is just a way to share the console session with
whomever might be logged into it. It was not intended to allow you to
directly log into the console session if one was not active - as you have
discovered. If you REALLY must have that ability - use UltraVNC or
something - where you are truly remote controlling the machine.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.work_remotely (More info?)

Jochen Mehlhorn wrote:
> I'm using Windows 2003 Server and the remote desktop feature. What i
> want to do is take over the console session of that machine.
> I achieved this using the /console command line switch in the remote
> desktop client. Yet after a reboot of the 2003 machine, when
> nobody's logged in yet, i cannot connect to the machine using a
> non-administrator account (i get an error message). Entering
> administrator credentials works, but i dont want to log in as that
> user. It looks like i can only take over the console if somebody's
> already logged in. Can i tweak some policies to work around this
> "feature"?
>
> Is there a good solution to this besides maybe enabling auto-login
> on the server?

Shenan Stanley Wrote:
> Why do you need to log into the Console Session when no one is using
> it? Are you trying to prevent another administrator from logging in
> locally and changing something at the same time you are? In other
> words, why must you be on the console session?
>
> The /console command is just a way to share the console session with
> whomever might be logged into it. It was not intended to allow you
> to directly log into the console session if one was not active - as
> you have discovered. If you REALLY must have that ability - use
> UltraVNC or something - where you are truly remote controlling the
> machine.

Jochen Mehlhorn wrote:
> Well it's basically a single-user machine. And it should not be
> differentiated between sitting in front of it or using remote desktop.
> Therefore logging in as any user should be possible.
>
> You're right about VNC, it would work the way i need it, but since
> i'm using remote desktop for other machines as well i would like to
> stay with it if possible.
> In my opinion, remote desktop's performance outruns the others as
> well.
> You said it was not intended to log in into console sessions, but
> since i can log in as any user with administrator privileges I'm
> guessing that there's a security policy controlling that somewhere.

I still don't see the point of needing a CONSOLE session - very few things
require a CONSOLE session.

And to put is simply - the /console switch I am pretty sure requires a
console session to already be up to work.

I would think leaving things alone (unless - again - there is some special
reason you NEED to log into a CONSOLE session for something - some
application, etc..) and using Remote Desktop Administration mode as it was
intended is your most secure bet.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html