Unlock computer when switch user is turned off?

[orourkev]

How do you unlock a computer (Win7 Enterprise) that has been locked by the previous user and "Fast User Switching" has been turned off? A little more details:
The desktop reads, "Press Ctrl, Alt, Delete to unlock this computer" and below that its displays the user who is currently logged in and locked the computer. When you do press Ctrl, Alt, Delete to unlock the computer you are presented with an icon of the user account, the user's domain\username and a button labeled "Cancel."
There is also the button in the lower right corner for "Ease of Access."
In this situation, how do you unlock that user account or log that user off?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Welcome!

To unlock the account, you will need to type in the password.

To log on to a different account, click "Cancel".

 

[orourkev]

you didn't try what you are suggesting

Yes, typing the password would be obvious. However, I posted the question because I wanted to know how to do it if we don't have the password.
Pressing cancel just brings me back to the current "locked" user asking me for the password to unlock it because, as I stated in the first post, "Fast User Switching" is turned off. So there is no way to log on as a different user....at least that I can find.

 

[richc46]

I do not think there is an easy solution. If there were it would defeat the purpose.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try these 2 tutorials:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73104-user-account-password-change.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56864-user-account-password-change-winre.html

 

[Barman58]

From the description of your issue this is in a domain environment and these settings have been installed by the system administrator. In this case the only one who can provide you with a solution is the said system administrator.

I apologize if you are the system administrator and this has occured accidentally but we must respect the right of the administrator of a system to control things the way they deem fit for there purposes.

 

[orourkev]

I do not think there is an easy solution. If there were it would defeat the purpose.

There's always a workaround. System Admins are able to configure most items on a Windows box.

 

[richc46]

I agree that there is a way, but do not think that it will be easy. Just like using the computer when you forget your password, there is a way, but not easy.

 

[orourkev]

I do not think there is an easy solution. If there were it would defeat the purpose.

Remember in XP, when a computer was locked an admin could simply enter their credentials? Then XP would remind them that the current user would be logged off and lose any unsaved data. Remember that process? How do you do that in Win7 without Fast User Switching?

 

[orourkev]

Try these 2 tutorials:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73104-user-account-password-change.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56864-user-account-password-change-winre.html

Thanks for the suggestions...
The first one requires you to log in, so since the computer is locked that won't work. I don't want to change a password, just access the computer by unlocking it so we don't have to do a hard power down.

The second one is a nice tool, I'll use that in the future...but again, I don't need to change a password. I need to access the computer when someone else has left themselves logged in and the computer is locked.

 

[orourkev]

I found the answer

You can use terminal services to remote into the locked computer. In Win7 click Start and type mstsc in the search box. At the top of the start menu those very smae letters will appear with an icon. Highlight it and press enter. A dialogue box opens titled, "Remote Desktop Connection." Type in the name of the computer, your credentials and eventually you are reminded that a user is currently logged in. You are asked if you want to continue because that will log them off! Hurray.
This way you do not have to hard power down the system, which is a real time saver in our environment. Not to mention the stress it puts on the O.S. and hardware of repeated hard power downs. We have over 18,000 students on our district...that's alot of locked user accounts.

 

[severedsolo]

why not just turn fast user switching back on? i appreciate its not what your asking but it would fix your problem,

failing that, nag said user who is causing the problem to log off when their finished

 

[hokieman91]

Your problem is EXACTLY what I am trying to find a solution for - I want to deploy Win 7 in a lab where students from 8th grade to 12th will access it throughout the day. I MUST disable fast user switching since NONE of the students (or very few) take the time to log off the box - in XP, it was easy - just have the lab admin log off their locked session and whatever they lost, they lost - there MUST be a way to do this is Win 7??!!! Why would I want to bog the machine down with potentially 10 to 12 concurrent sessions and make the machine basically useless after that many people have logged in and claimed all the RAM??
I want to migrate off XP but this is HUGE for me

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try this hokieman: Fast User Switching - Vista Forums

Welcome to SF by the way!

 

[Thorsen]

QUOTE: In Windows 7 click Start and type mstsc in the search box. At the top of the start menu those very smae letters will appear with an icon. Highlight it and press enter. A dialogue box opens titled, "Remote Desktop Connection." Type in the name of the computer, your credentials and eventually you are reminded that a user is currently logged in. You are asked if you want to continue because that will log them off!
-------------------------------------
hokieman91 this is exactly what orourkev was trying to do. So from the admin's computer, you would type mstsc and then you can type in the admin user/pass and enter the computer. the other user would be logged out and you logged in. then you log out and the system is free again.

 

[hokieman91]

Thx for the suggestion and this is a partial solution - I was just trying to prevent having all the machines keeping the port for mstsc open. Also, when the remote user logs into the locked machine, the locked user's session is still running (verified that after logging in and checking task manager) - this method does give back the CTRL-ALT-DEL but it seems the only way to clear out those sessions is still to reboot the box

 

[jdureta]

I had this problem, remote desktop is disabled on the computer that was locked by another user, so I cannot establish any session from remote. I was able to log out the current user by re-starting the locked machine remotely by "shutdown -m \\machinename -r". After it rebooted, I was able to login as myself.

 

[justusthane]

Also, when the remote user logs into the locked machine, the locked user's session is still running (verified that after logging in and checking task manager) - this method does give back the CTRL-ALT-DEL but it seems the only way to clear out those sessions is still to reboot the box

By now you've probably either figured this out or come up with a different solution, but once you've remoted in, you should be able to bring up Task Manager, switch to the Users tab, and log off whoever you want.

Edit: I just tried what I preached, and it doesn't seem to work. I get an "access denied" error when trying to log off the inactive user through Task Manager, even though I'm admin. Strange. Curious if anyone else has found a solution to this.

 

[hokieman91]

Thanks for the reply - I actually thought I could also initially do this with RD (bummed I couldn't)

We have learned to live with this and it actually has proven to be useful on more than one occasion but it would have still been nice to have been given that choice since there are still plenty of areas around my campus that I would love to turn that feature off~

 

[CPTaylor]

Unlocking Win 7 when locked on another user

I don't know how this works exaclty but if I do CTrl-Alt-Del a number of times, I eventually get the option to log in as a new user. This has worked for me a number of time on my library's loaner laptops. I'll have to pay more attention next time to see if it's a set number of repetitions that makes it work.