RDP Session Cancelling Streaming Video and Second Screen

[tunedout]

Hello All,

I have a different sort of problem involving Dual screens on a machine and one of them shutting off when I RDP into it. Here is what is happening:

I work at a small private college and recently set up a viewing display (42" flat screen t.v/monitor) that supports native resolutions like 1280 X 800 (which is what I am running). This display is being used to show student notices and student work (which involves a constant wrap of animation). For this reason I need the display to be running at all times, instead of going blank when I log in to update something or add new media to display.

The machine is an old Lenovo laptop that is hidden behind the T.V and connected to the network via Ethernet drop on the wall (also behind t.v so it all seems, seamless). I can log in via Remote Desktop but when I do so, it shuts off the second display (T.V). When I log off, it does not come back on.

I would like to know if there is a way to log onto the laptop through RDP from my workstation (on a separate floor), without cancelling the second display in the process. Even if I could get it to work in such a way that would disable the screen while I was connected, but let it resume afterwards.

I currently have the machine set to:

Laptop Physical Screen: 1280 x 800
Laptop Second Display (t.v): 1280 x 800 (Extended) - this is where I show the media.

The T.V is connected to the Laptop via VGA.

I have tried setting the screens to not go to sleep and never turn off through power saving settings with no luck. Surely there must be a way to allow this to work?

Feel free to ask any questions about the set-up if you need more info.




Thanks a lot in advance!




Tuned

 

[arson94]

Is the laptop you're rdp'ing into running XP? If so, you may just need to update the rdp client on the laptop.

http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-vista/how-to-use-remote-desktop-with-dual-monitors-in-xpvista/

I would test this stuff myself but I don't have a computer with dual monitors to rdp into unfortunately.

 

[tunedout]

Thanks for the reply but no, it is Win 7 X64


Tuned

 

[arson94]

Well I just tried using a Win7x64 computer with one monitor to remote into another Win7x64 computer with dual monitors. When I used RDP to remote into the dual monitor computer, Windows locks the current user at the ctrl+alt+del login screen and therefore the second monitor is blank. On the the single monitor computer, it just put everything between the two monitors into the one monitor. Then when I closed the rdp session, I had to manually log back into the dual monitor computer and everything was set back to how it was before I remoted into it.

Is this the behavior you're currently experiencing? If so, is your questiong actually how to basically prevent Windows from locking the computer at the login screen when a remote session is established like this?

I'm making sure because I think I was trying to help with the wrong problem originally lol...

 

[tunedout]

Well I just tried using a Win7x64 computer with one monitor to remote into another Win7x64 computer with dual monitors. When I used RDP to remote into the dual monitor computer, Windows locks the current user at the ctrl+alt+del login screen and therefore the second monitor is blank. On the the single monitor computer, it just put everything between the two monitors into the one monitor. Then when I closed the rdp session, I had to manually log back into the dual monitor computer and everything was set back to how it was before I remoted into it.

Is this the behavior you're currently experiencing? If so, is your questiong actually how to basically prevent Windows from locking the computer at the login screen when a remote session is established like this?

I'm making sure because I think I was trying to help with the wrong problem originally lol...

What you just described is Exactly what is happening, except I am not seeing both the screens in my RDP session.....

Can I run the commands, in the thread you referenced, from a command line on the remote laptop to fix the locking at login screen? Also, if I just disconnect instead of logging off, won't it leave the user logged in? (I am actually using a program called mremote to log into the machine, it does not prompt me when I "disconnect", if I want to log off or not, like Remote Desktop does).

EDIT*: When I log in using Remote Desktop OR mremote, It shows the content I had on the "Extended" Display(laptop), on the single screen I get on my local machine, on top of the desktop.

So, VLC media player (on 2nd display before I remote in) is now on the first display when I remote into the laptop, when I log off, it locks the computer and does not resume showing the second display.

I think you are on to something



Thanks again




Tuned

 

[arson94]

What you just described is Exactly what is happening, except I am not seeing both the screens in my RDP session.....

Can I run the commands, in the thread you referenced, from a command line on the remote laptop to fix the locking at login screen? Also, if I just disconnect instead of logging off, won't it leave the user logged in? (I am actually using a program called mremote to log into the machine, it does not prompt me when I "disconnect", if I want to log off or not, like Remote Desktop does).

EDIT*: When I log in using Remote Desktop OR mremote, It shows the content I had on the "Extended" Display(laptop), on the single screen I get on my local machine, on top of the desktop.

So, VLC media player (on 2nd display before I remote in) is now on the first display when I remote into the laptop, when I log off, it locks the computer and does not resume showing the second display.

I think you are on to something



Thanks again




Tuned

From what I can find, Windows only allows on active user at a time. It will always lock the local screen when a remote session is intiated if you login as the same user that is currently active. If you login as a user different than the current user, then the current user is logged off. If you login as the same current user, run 'tscon 1 /dest:console' in elevated cmd prompt and your remote session will be disconnected and the screens will be unlocked on the remote computer and everybody will be able to see it again.

Windows server will allow more than one active user concurrently so you'd be able to login as a different user without logging off the current user, but I think it will still lock the screen so nobody can spectate your actions. I think I see that there's a hacked dll files to allow Windows to behave like Windows server to allow multiple concurrent active sessions, but I can't find the exact hack at them moment and I'm not sure that's something you be able to do anyway without violating your employer's policies.

To sum it up, you can log in as the same active user and disconnect with 'tscon 1 /dest:console' in elevated cmd prompt to return the local desktop back to both monitors so that the screen isn't locked. It will just be locked until you disconnect. Sorry I couldn't find a way to allow the screen to remain unlocked during your remote session. That's just by design in RDP. You could use VNC (or several other 3rd party remote programs) or even Remote Assistance in Windows 7. However, Remote Assistance I think would require a request to be sent from the laptop to your workstation to initiate the process.

'tscon 1 /dest:console' is still pretty cool though I think lol.

 

[tunedout]

From what I can find, Windows only allows on active user at a time. It will always lock the local screen when a remote session is intiated if you login as the same user that is currently active. If you login as a user different than the current user, then the current user is logged off. If you login as the same current user, run 'tscon 1 /dest:console' in elevated cmd prompt and your remote session will be disconnected and the screens will be unlocked on the remote computer and everybody will be able to see it again.

Windows server will allow more than one active user concurrently so you'd be able to login as a different user without logging off the current user, but I think it will still lock the screen so nobody can spectate your actions. I think I see that there's a hacked dll files to allow Windows to behave like Windows server to allow multiple concurrent active sessions, but I can't find the exact hack at them moment and I'm not sure that's something you be able to do anyway without violating your employer's policies.

To sum it up, you can log in as the same active user and disconnect with 'tscon 1 /dest:console' in elevated cmd prompt to return the local desktop back to both monitors so that the screen isn't locked. It will just be locked until you disconnect. Sorry I couldn't find a way to allow the screen to remain unlocked during your remote session. That's just by design in RDP. You could use VNC (or several other 3rd party remote programs) or even Remote Assistance in Windows 7. However, Remote Assistance I think would require a request to be sent from the laptop to your workstation to initiate the process.

'tscon 1 /dest:console' is still pretty cool though I think lol.

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome

This is great, this is good enough for me my friend. Thank you a bunch!

 

[tunedout]

Best answer selected by tunedout.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr