Force users to Log Off rather than Disconnect....Please help.

[James Crane]

I have a customer which has a need to force users to log off from
their terminal server sessions rather than disconnect. They are
running an application which "geeks out" the terminal server if they
leave their sessions disconnected. I've already set the group policy
setting to "Remove Disconnect option from the Shut Down Dialog", but
this does not prevent them from clicking the X in their RDP session
window, which as you know results in a disconnected session.... The
explaination for the above group policy mentions another policy "Do
not allow disconnected sessions", but this policy is no where to be
found in the Group Policy editor. Where the heck is this policy
located??

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

You can never completely stop users from disconnecting their
sessions (they can always unplug the network cable or switch off
their workstation).
What you can do is this:

* Set a very short time-out limit on disconnected sessions, and
configure them to be reset automatically when the time-out limit is
exceeded. Note that this will kill the disconnected sessions, and
can cause loss of unsaved data in the session. So you should
combine this with user education!

* You can modify the Terminal Server Client to remove the X box in
the upper right corner. This will obviously mean extra work when
you want to update the TS client.

http://terminal.servebeer.com/­php/x_box_disable.php

 

[James Crane]

Thanks for the reply Vera. Unfortunately, neither solution is an
option. If I set the TS to reset the disconnected the sessions, the
applications do not exit gracefully, and the session hangs while
exiting. Also, most of the RDP clients are thin clients, so hacking
the mstsc.exe file is not an option. Where is this "Do not allow
disconnected sessions" policy in Group Policy? Any luck it will
included in a future service pack?

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

As far as I know, there is no such GPO setting. I assume that the
help text refers to the time-out limits on disconnected sessions.
I don't think there ever will be such a setting either, because it is
impossible to stop users from disconnecting by simply switching off
their workstation.
Seems that user education is the way to go here. Make sure that they
have to call the helpdesk when they want to connect again and their
previous session is hanging (by limiting users to a single session).
That will quickly learn them to logoff properly.

I'm amazed though that you cannot reset the session. Even if the
application doesn't die gracefully (that's to be expected when you
reset the session), you should be able to kill the session.

Which application is this? And what exactly do you mean with "the
application "geeks out" the terminal server"?

 

[James Crane]

The application is Timberline. The TS was set to reset the
disconnected sessions. But, since the server does not gracefully end
the connection to the Timberline server, the sessions hang while
saving settings, which eventually causes the TS to stop responding
completely, as described in KB832971 and KB828662.

I guess I just need to drill it into their heads that they need to log
off.....