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John K
Asked: 2018-08-18 06:36:25 +0800 CST

Disable Fast User Switching

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On Windows 10 Pro Desktop I'm looking for a local setting to limit the number of user sessions allowed to be running to 1.

This is not through use of remote desktop client. It's physical access to the desktop and multiple users accessing it.

For example, when the desktop is locked for User A then User B may sign into the workstation at its keyboard. User A's session is still active in the background using memory/disk resources and can be switched back to, as seen on the Task Manager Users tab (can click Signout there), or by Windows Start Switch User icon to switch back to a session. A number of users can be logged in and switch between their sessions.

A number of users eventually eat up too many resources slowing the machine. Users don't bother to log off. This is the core of the issue. I want to automate it rather than teach it.

I'm looking for a way to tell the machine to not keep other user sessions, or to limit the total to 1 (the current) effectively causing the others to be logged off instead of sit in the background. Either way the outcome would be no pile-up of user sessions on the machine.

It's for a boardroom computer which suffers the issue of too many user sessions over time. I'm looking to limit only shared boardroom computers to 1 session.

An Active Directory server is available on premises.

windows-10

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    What you are asking to do is to disable “Fast User Switching.”

    It can be done with GPO, or registry tweaks.

    Set the “Hide entry points for fast user switching” GPO in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon.

    Or, create the following DWORD in the registry: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\HideFastUserSwitching=1

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