How can I remote control another terminal server session in Windows 2000?

A. Users and Administrators may be familiar with the software which allows an Administrator to take control of a users desktop in order to, for example, install software or fix a problem. The Citrix Metaframe add-on for 4.0 TSE enabled Administrators to take control or view users sessions without the need for third party software.

The new Windows 2000 terminal server component now allows session shadowing without the need for the MetaFrameadd-on, but now its called 'remote control'.

A condition is that console controlling must have a resolution equal orgreater than that of the session that will be shadowed.

By default Administrators have the ability to shadow other users sessions providing the user agrees to have their session controlled/viewed. By default the ability to remote control a users session is defined on the user object on the ‘Remote Control’ tab and the default is to enable remote control providing the users gives permission.

Its possible to override these user settings by editing the configuration of the RDP connection using the ‘Terminal Services Configuration’ MMC snap-in, yes, as with everything else in Windows 2000, all of the Terminal Server tools are MMC snap-ins (but more on them later).

Under the connections branch, right click on the ‘RDP-Tcp’ connection and select properties. Select the ‘Remote Control’ tab and by default it will say to use the users settings however selecting on of the other options allows you to set the remote control to whatever your wishes.

In order to remote control a session you must be logged on as a terminal server session, you can’t remote control from the console (MetaFrame allows you to do this).

Once you have logged in as an Administrator to remote control a session just: