Fortunately there is an easy solution. Windows 2000+ (includes Windows XP and 2003) have two command-line tools called qwinsta and rwinsta that can query and reset a remote session.
For example, let's say that I can't 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. 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 I would type this:
rwinsta /server:12.12.12.12 3
Notice the 3 which is the session ID I found from using qwinsta above.
Yet another option with W2K3 is a new feature that lets you connect to the desktop directly and gain a 3rd session.
If you're like me, you probably noticed that rwinsta and qwinsta seems like strange names. This came from the Citrix Metaframe days which Terminal Services has descended from. It stands for:
qwinsta = Query WINdows STAtionrwinsta = Reset WINdows STAtion
One final comment. Microsoft has replaced these two tools with Query but since qwinsta and rwinsta is fully compatible with W2K WinXP and W2K3 I choose to use it instead.
