Create a desktop shortcut to run Ctrl+Alt+Delete?

[martinlest]

Hi. I discovered Microsoft's 'Mouse without Borders' recently and use it to run three monitors across 2 PCs with just one common mouse and keyboard. Very useful.

However, the link will sometimes fail, and it rarely works first off after a reboot (anyone familiar with this?): pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on both machines usually restores the function immediately, but to resort to using the second keyboard to enter that on the remote (slave) PC is a bit of a pain....

Hence my question. I have spent some time Googling this but haven't come up with anything I can readily understand. Is there any way I can create a desktop shortcut which will cause the Windows 7 blue dialogue screen to appear, as does the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination? It would, moreover, have to be set to send the Ctrl+Alt+Del request to the remote PC, not the local one (!), so maybe this is going to be complex/impossible to do in any case.

It would be SO much easier to be able to click on such a shortcut on the slave PC screen rather than having to reach for its (rather distantly located!) keyboard every time. But as I say, it's probably not possible?

Both PCs run Win7 x64 BTW...

Thanks.

 

[LMiller7]

I don't believe what you want is possible, and that by design.

Back in the early days of the NT platform Ctrl+Alt+Del was designed as a trusted keyboard combination. It could not be trapped or simulated in any way. A computer user could be certain that pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del would always display the system login screen which could be brought up by no other method. He could be sure that the login screen was legitimate and not a cleverly designed fake designed to steal login credentials. This was a problem in early Unix systems.

Exactly what Ctrl+Alt+Del does has changed in more recent OS versions but the principle remains the same.

 

[GokAy]

Perhaps use TeamViewer instead of what you are using at the moment?
Or use an actual KVM switch.

By the way, how can the remote desktop apps send the combination?

 

[martinlest]

No, I suspect it can't be done. Actually, the command wouldn't need to be sent to the remote PC: a shortcut which somehow ran Ctrl+Alt+Delete, placed on the remote PC's desktop could easily be clicked with a mouse attached to that 'slave' PC (it's reaching for the keyboard which is a nuisance), but sounds like even that is not possible.

 

[GokAy]

Perhaps a macro recorder?

Best Free Hotkey or Macro Recorder Utility | Gizmo's Freeware
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/make-your-computer-automatically-perform-tasks-for-you/

 

[UsernameIssues]

A single click on an icon on UltraVNC sends "something" to the remote computer. That "something" makes the UltraVNC app that is running on the remote computer simulate a Ctrl-Alt-Del. In TeamViewer, it takes two clicks to make the TV app running on the remote computer simulate a Ctrl-Alt-Del.

So... in theory, an app could create a service that runs all of the time. Each time the user double clicks on a shortcut on the remote computer, that shortcut starts an app that tells the service to simulate a Ctrl-Alt-Del.

https://github.com/synergy/synergy/issues/633

 

[martinlest]

Thanks for the replies. Don't really want to install software like teamviewer just to do this: probably have to reach across to the keyboard (or see why Mouse without Borders keeps disconnecting).

 

[Anak]

Have you tried CTRL+ALT+END?

   Note

Notes

• CTRL+ALT+DEL always goes to the local computer's desktop.

• If you need to send CTRL+ALT+DEL to the remote computer, you must use CTRL+ALT+END.

• To toggle between full screen and non-full screen mode during a Remote Desktop session, use CTRL+ALT+BREAK.

Source: What shortcut keys can I use in Remote Desktop Connection?

 

[martinlest]

Many thanks.. I had seen that in fact, but Ctrl+Alt+End did nothing at all when I pressed the combination. Perhaps I am simply not sending the command to the remote desktop. I'll experiment a bit further.

 

[GokAy]

I don't think CTRL ALT END would work, as you say it is Remote Desktop related. Does this even use RDP?

- What I wonder is would it start responding if you start task manager instead of CTRL ALT DEL?

- You can also try restarting the app on the remote machine with PSTools - PSEXEC module. (You need to start Remote Registry service on the other PC first). You can just write a 2-3 line batch with this command to shutdown and restart the app on remote machine, and double click on your desktop. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx
Or rather write the batch on the remote PC and run it with psexec from your main.

 

[martinlest]

Am having to set up the remote PC again after boot problems, so it'll be a day or two before I can get back to this.. I have PSTools installed already, so I'll look at that and post back soon. Thanks.