Use the VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution to host desktop environments inside virtual machines that are running in their data center, enabling end-users to gain remote access from a PC or thin client terminal.
Following discussions with a client, I was investigating some options not available in VDI.
Citrix, on the other hand, has the ability to shadow user sessions. In the VDI, there is no capacity to do this. The solution that was used in place was VNC into client virtual machines. This caused a few problems when administrators and help desk staff started to remote into computers.
The solution I found is the windows “shadow” command. This works natively in Windows XP SP1, but you have to apply a registy change to Windows XP SP2:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server] "AllowRemoteRPC"=dword:00000001
I would also set a group policy that allows remote control without asking the users permission, to allow easier administration.
Then goto any XP or 2003 system (logged onto the domain as a user that has permission to remote a session) and type this in:
shadow 0 /server:
And in just a second you should be shadowing the current session and see what the user is seeing. Press
If you use autoIT it can be done in an application with a simple gui.
#Region
$Form1_1 = GUICreate("Shadow a remote XP session", 424, 60, 193, 115)
$Combo1 = GUICtrlCreateCombo("", 16, 24, 233, 25)
GUICtrlSetData($combo1,"v_user1|v_user2|v_user3|v_user4")
$Label1 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("Pick a computer you would like to connect to:", 16, 8, 220, 17)
$Button1 = GUICtrlCreateButton("Connect", 256, 8, 153, 41, 0)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)
#EndRegion
While 1
$nMsg = GUIGetMsg()
Switch $nMsg
Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
Exit
Case $Combo1
Case $Label1
Case $Button1
$combostate = GUICtrlRead ($Combo1, 1)
MsgBox(0, "GUI Event", "Now connecting you to " & $combostate & ", please wait while connecting") ShellExecute ('shadow', ' 0 /server:' & $combostate & ' /V', "c:\windows\system32\")
EndSwitch
WEnd