Phone rings….. alerts start going off……… coffee hasn’t been made yet….. it’s 2:13 a.m. and the issue requires you to remote login to the server to perform some task; only to find out that the server has already exceeded the maximum number of users. Has that happened to you before? Has me; either other people are on the box looking at something else or someone forgets to go ahead and log off when they are done using the box.

When this occurs I like to use the QWINSTA\RWINSTA operations from the command line to help me identify who is on the box and then graciously log them off. I know there are other methods to complete the same task; however I tend to roll with this one as it is engrained in my head.

To display information about Terminal Sessions you can type the following command in the cmd prompt:

• qwinsta /server:[servername]

This command will give you the session name, username, id, state, type, and device.

This information is good however; how can you get someone off the server? That can be accomplished by using a similiar cmd line; howerver I DO RECOMMEND that you check with the individual prior to just booting them out unless it is an extreme emergency

• rwinsta /server:[servername] [sessionid]

You need to make sure that you capture the sessionid that you saw from the qwinsta function in order to log them off.

I know Windows Administrators go through the Terminal Services Manager route but if you’re like me and enjoy some good command line based tools this can be another option for you; especially when you are woken up at night and the other people logged in could be fast asleep!!