JSI Tip 5429. How do I connect to another existing Terminal Services session by using the TSCON command in Windows 2000 Terminal Services?

The TSCON command will connect to another active or disconnected session. When you connect to another session, you are disconnected from your previous session.

NOTE: See How do I use the TSDISCON command to disconnect a Windows 2000 Terminal Services session, and subsequently reconnect, without loss of data in the running programs?

When you open a CMD prompt and type TSCON /?, you receive:

Attaches a user session to a terminal session.TSCON [sessionid | sessionname] [/SERVER:servername] [/DEST:sessionname] [/PASSWORD:pw] [/V]  sessionid          The ID of the session.  sessionname        The name of the session.  /SERVER:servername The name of the Terminal server to connect to (default is current).  /DEST:sessionname  Connect the session to destination sessionname.  /PASSWORD:pw       Password of user owning identified session.  /V                 Displays information about the actions performed.

NOTE: To connect another user's session, Full Control permission is required.

Example:

Open a CMD prompt and type query session. You will receive a display like:

SESSIONNAME   USERNAME        ID      STATE    TYPE    DEVICE console      administrator       0   active   wdcon    rdp-tcp                      65536   listen   rdpwd>rdp-tcp#1    user1               1   active   rdpwd rdp-tcp#2    user1               2   active   rdpwd rdp-tcp#3    user2               3   active   rdpwd rdp-tcp#4    user3               4   disc     rdpwd   rdp-tcp#5    user1               5   disc     rdpwd                                  6   idle                                  7   idle

where rdp-tcp#1 is the current session, session ID 1, owned by user1.

To connect to session 2, type tscon 2 /v, which will return Connecting sessionID2 to sessionname rdp-tcp#1.

To connect to session 1, from session 2, type tscon 1.

To connect to session 5 to session 2, from session 1, type tscon 2 /v /dest:rdp-tcp#5, which will return Connecting sessionID2 to sessionname rdp-tcp#5. Session 2 is connected to session 5, and session 5 is disconnected.

To connect to session 4, owned by user3, type tscon 4 /password:User3Password. Your current session will disconnect and you will be connect to session 4.