Shadow session in RDP

Shadow session in RDP

Sometimes I need to shadow a user’s session and the tool we usually use sometimes doesn’t work. In those cases, we can try connecting to the user’s session using Microsoft Remote Desktop. Here are the steps:

Run the following command to get the users session which will give an output of all active sessions:

query session /server:[PC Name]

Find the session ID with the username you want to shadow. In this instance, I want to shadow the console session which is ID 1, but sometimes I want to shadow someone else’s rdp session. Once you have the ID, run the following command:

mstsc /v:[PC Name] /shadow:1 /control

This will prompt the user to allow you to connect. There is an option to turn that the prompt (/noconsentprompt), but depending on the security settings, you may or may not be able to use it. Using /control option gives you access to control the keyboard and mouse on the user’s session. If you just want to view the screen, then it’s not required.