Controlling Windows Remote Desktop

[TurboBob]

Hi Folks

I am trying to overcome a problem I am having with remote desktop.

Basically I have 2 machines running in different locations. I use remote desktop to access one of them (the "Remote Machine") from the other.("My PC")

The "Remote Machine" is performing automated tasks that require the screen to be active, not the user login screen.

When I do so the Remote Machine logs off and presents the normal windows login screen.
When I am finished reviewing the remote machine I log off and then I need to log back into the
"remote" machine. It has no monitior but I can log in by pressing the enter key which sends a keypress to log into the user account( there is only one). In fact I do this the other way around. I press the enter key on the "Remote Machine" and this logs the user back in - terminating the remote session on "MyPC".

The problem is I have to physically go to the Remote Machine to press this enter key.
This is a hassle - One solution is to remotely re-boot the remote pc but the lead time involved is too great.

I am unable to fix this problem by tweaking setting or registry hacks so I guess the solution must be to cause the remote user to log back in programatically.

I am an experienced VB user but I have never worked outside the windows environment. Ideally I would like to programmtically send a keystroke "{enter}" to the login screen but this doesn't work.

If anyone could point me in the right direction I would be grateful

[dglienna]

You might like this:

https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx

[TurboBob]

You might like this:

https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx

This Live Mesh is very impressive. It give you access to all your pcs using the net and your live id. This is really useful if you are at work and need to get at your machine at home. It works a lot like remote assistance but is a lot easier to set up.

Thanks for you help

It doesn't fix my problem though as the remote machine still blanks to the user login screen when I log off and it is much less reponsive as it is web based.

[dglienna]

For XP, you can use TweakUI to auto-login, if that's what you want. Doubt you can with Windows 7, though.

EDIT: Why log off at all, then?

[TurboBob]

For XP, you can use TweakUI to auto-login, if that's what you want. Doubt you can with Windows 7, though.

EDIT: Why log off at all, then?

Thanks for replying dglienna.

When I log in on the main machine the remote machine goes to the user log in screen. This has to happen cos 2 users can't log in to a windows machine at the same time. I don't mind this.
The problem arises when I am done previwing the remote machine's activity and I want to return control to it's default "User".

I have to log off here because I want to use my main machine to do other things. Staying logged into the remote machine would be ok if the remote was just processing data (which would also happen even if the login screen is showing)

My program is using screen scraping techniques that require the active window to be live and on screen.

Just had a thought though, If the user log in screen is a window and has a handle then I might be able to use Sendmessage()


PS: Remote assistance lets you have both machines showing the live window at the same time
but performance is degraded to a point that the remote can't handle the app.

[dglienna]

Sounds like you need a server. Or maybe you could use Virtual PC?

[sotoasty]

We use UltraVnc for this. That way, you can log on to the system, and anyone can remote in using viewer. It will not log the current user off, so you can do all the task you need. Then when you are done, just disconnect.

[TurboBob]

That does it Sotoasty Thanks for that.


You were on the right track dglenna thanks also.

BTW the 101 code articles are great.