About Host behavior on legacy Microsoft OS

With an Impero Host running on legacy Microsoft operating systems like Windows XP it was possible for the Guest to remain connected to the Host during the logoff and logon process. Due to security changes implemented by Microsoft in the architecture of their next generation of operating systems like Vista, Windows 7, Window 8(.1), Windows 10, Server 2008, 2012, 2016, etc., Windows handles user sessions differently. It is necessary for the Impero Host application to unload and reload itself into the correct session when Log Off or Switch User is used either locally or during a remote control session.

During this process, the Guest user does not have screen transfer and control over the keyboard and mouse until the Host is reloaded and the remote session is initiated again. To help improve the usability in such scenarios, the Guest (version 10.0 or newer) automatically attempts to reconnect to the Host machine and re-establish the remote control session without prompting the same Guest user for their login credentials. However, it is necessary that you configure your Guest application for this behavior under Tools -> Program options -> General. in the Connection area define how you want your Guest to auto-reconnect.

We are aware of the limitations this causes in such environments where auto-logon is utilized and where the Guest user may need to interrupt this auto-logon process during a remote control session.  Because the remote control session is disconnected and keyboard control is lost during this process it is not possible to interrupt the auto-logon process in the usual way. Typically the Windows account used in the auto-logon would be a standard user rather than an administrator.  If an administrator needs to logon on to Windows through a remote control session the following strategy could be considered.

Your Windows system administrator could write two Windows scripts that are designed to modify the registry key forceautologon located in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.  When this key is set to 1, Windows will automatically logon with the designated account after a user logs off.  When it is set to 0, Windows does not automatically logon following a log off.  The first script should be designed to disable the auto logon by modifying the forceautologon to equal 0.  The second script should be designed to enable auto logon by modifying the forceautologon to equal 1.  Then when a Guest user first connects to a Host, he/she could execute the script that disables the auto log on.  After the next log off the Host computer will be waiting at the log on screen allowing the Guest to logon as administrator.  Then that computer should be configured to automatically run the second script, that re-enables the auto log, on as soon as a user logs on to Windows.  This enable script could be configured to run automatically as a logon script each time any user logs on.  This would ensure that each time someone logs in to Windows the entry for forceautologon is always returned to the "enabled" setting.