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How to access and interact with the RDP Task Manager

The Task Manager allows IT administrators to perform some limited management tasks, regardless of whether the session is a local Windows OS or a remote desktop.

Rob Bastiaansen
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Published: 07 Feb 2025

Managing remote desktops presents unique challenges that are different from typical endpoint and OS management practices, and utilities such as the Task Manager provide a familiar tool for IT to work with.

A very common use case for remote desktop protocol (RDP) is to have multiple users connect to a Windows Server to use a desktop session from that host. This allows organizations to centralize compute resources, maintain centralized security and centralized application and data management.

IT admins should learn how to access the Task Manager so they can perform the administrative functions that Windows allows.

How to access the Task Manager from an RDP session

As with local Windows sessions, admins can access Task Manager by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del, entering "Task Manager" in the Start Menu or executing taskmgr.exe from the Command Prompt.

Within the Task Manager, admins can view the sessions for logged-in users by clicking More details at the bottom and then selecting the Users tab.

How to manage RDP sessions with the Task Manager

For each user, admins can access a menu by right-clicking the username. This will allow admins to perform several actions for that user session:

  • Connect. Admins can connect to the active user session. This action will prompt the admin for the user's credentials.
  • Disconnect. With this action, admins can disconnect the user session. However, the user can reconnect again on their end.
  • Sign off. This action will log the user out entirely. All activities and processes will end for the session as well.
  • Send message. An admin can send a pop-up message to the user's active session window.
  • Manage user accounts. This action will open the Windows Server's user management application.

For every user that connects with RDP, a Windows session launches. This also means that the user profile will be loaded under the C:\Users folder on the server and applications will launch. With a disconnect, this all remains in place. However, a sign-off will end the user's Windows logon session entirely just like when a user performs a sign out themself.

For each user session, the processes for that user are also listed in Task Manager. Right-clicking a process will open a menu that allows IT to access more details and possible actions pertaining to that process (Figure 1).

The right-click menu that shows available actions for an RDP session process.
Figure 1. The pop-up menu that displays the available actions after right-clicking an RDP process.

This Task Manager is the one that exists on the server, but each user can also access their own Task Manager to manage their session and processes. Type "Task Manager" in the Start Menu or taskmgr.exe while in the remote desktop session to access this utility.

The Ctrl-Alt-Del shortcut won't work in this case because that would open Task Manager on the user's computer and not in the remote desktop. To accomplish that task in the same way, users must use the key combination Ctrl-Alt-End.

The Windows session will offer an option to open Task Manager in the remote session on the Windows server. It will only show that user's session details and processes, not those of the other users with sessions on the same server.

Another method to manage user sessions from a Windows Server is to use command prompt. The command query session shows the active sessions on the server. The actions on these sessions are limited but IT can use the command reset session to end a user session (Figure 2). This will not perform a sign-off, so applications will not shut off and data won't save. Use this when a session cannot terminate from Task Manager.

A screenshot of the command prompt showing a query about an RDP session and a command to terminate it.
Figure 2. An administrator-level command prompt showing the command to terminate an RDP session.

Another possibility for RDP session management is to shadow a user's session. This allows administrators to see the user's screen and even control it when necessary. Find the session ID with the query user command. In Figure 3, user Rob has a session with ID 5. To shadow and control Rob's session, execute the command mstsc /shadow:5 /control.

A screenshot showing the administrator taking control of a user named Rob's RDP session.
Figure 3. The command prompt entry to take over and shadow a user's RDP session.

The control option allows admins to view the user's session but also to control it. IT can access all possible options for the mstsc executable with the /? Parameter (Figure 4).

A screenshot of Windows showing the possible actions that IT can take from the mstsc executable.
Figure 4. The list of possible actions targeting RDP sessions that administrators can take from the mstsc executable.

The option noConsentPrompt would allow admins to see or control the user's session without the user first having to allow the remote view or control request. Admins can only use this option if it is enabled in the policy settings on the Windows Server.

Without this option, which is the default behavior, the user will be prompted to allow the remote view or control request. This is most likely a strict requirement due to privacy regulations for most organizations in most countries. With a successful shadowing of a user's session, the window title bar will show the username and the server where the RDP session is active.

Rob Bastiaansen is an independent trainer and consultant based in the Netherlands specializing in VMware and Linux. He writes articles for several print and online publications, and is founder of VMwarebits.com, a site dedicated to technical content related to VMware.

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