I know I can look at the properties of the computer and it will show me the last logged on user, but is there a way to see if a user is currently logged in? Sometimes we need to remotely access a machine and don't want to interrupt the students (we're a school dsitrict) and with Altiris I can see right from the console whether somebody is logged in or not, and even who is logged in. But with SCCM I cant seem to find a way to do that. Any thoughts greatly appreciated, thank you!Brian Stein

ConfigMgr is not a real-time monitoring system so although it does inventory the current (and last) logged on user, this information is delayed based upon the hardware inventory cycle and heartbest discovery schedule. Although I don't have an exact solution, I could see you easily creating a small script to retrieve this information.Jason | http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/members/jasonsandys/ | Twitter @JasonSandys

Hi, There is now builtin feature for this but check out the SCCM Right Clikc tools by Rick Houchins, these tools add a right-click option for you in the console to see who is logged on locally on a computer. http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rhouchins/archive/2008/04/09/sccm-right-click-tools.aspx Maybe that could be a soluiton, I use it all the time. Regards, Jörgen -- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

So it looks like we do have Right Click tools installed and I now do see what you're referring to - 'Who is logged on locally' - however when i try that it gives me an error on my windows 7 machines saying 'Error opening HKEY_USERS for <computer name> press any key.....' It looks like it runs a sysinternals command for this. Thoughts?Brian Stein

The problem with the right-click tools is that they don't actually use ConfigMgr for these types of tasks (I wouldn't call them built-in) -- they are just console shortcuts to run scripts that directly connect to the remote client system -- something that ConfigMgr never does. Thus you must ensure that the user running the console has local admin privilieges on the remote system, that no intervening firewalls are blocking traffic, that the client name is resolvable, etc. Basicaly, normal remote connectivyt things that, like I said, ConfigMgr does not ever do. So you need to start by troubleshooting al of these things. You can actually look at the scripts that the right-click tools are using and then manually use them to help identify the issues.Jason | http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/members/jasonsandys/ | Twitter @JasonSandys

The right-click tools run the Sysinternals tools psloggedon (via a batch file). PsLoggedOn determines the logged on user as the user that has their profile loaded into the Registry. Since in Windows 7 (and Vista) , by default, the Remote Registry is not started automatically you would need to make sure this service is started on the remote machine (e.g. starting it in the Computer Management snapin – again via the right-click tools if you want) before using 'Who is logged on locally' (as well as checking firewall, permissions, basic connectivity, etc). If you didn’t want to start this then you could check the machine for the user with an instance of explorer.exe open, which in most cases would indicate a logged-on user. However as others have mentioned there isn’t any real-time checking functionality built into the console for this kind of thing.

Potentially offtopic: When I need to look at an individual computer, I don't use right-click tools in the console. Instead, I use Roger Zanders SCCM Client Center (it's free, just search for it and download it). There are lots of remote query and remote actionable items in Client Center, but for your specific need, after you connect to the remote PC using Client Center, select "inventory Actions" on the left, then the pull-down menu "Adhoc Inventory", and select Logged-On Username.Standardize. Simplify. Automate.

Thank you all for the great info! Remote registry was one of the issues I was having, though in all the right click tools logged on locally still is not the greatest. I am going to also look into the Roger Zanderds SCCM Client Center as well - thanks Sherry! Just curious, any chance the Client Center can address one of my other questions in another thread I have, mainly the ability to shutdown and/or reboot multiple machines at one time? Thanks! Brian Stein

Hi, Have a look at SCCM Collection Commander, using that you should be able to shutdown all computers in a collection. http://smscollctr.sourceforge.net/ It was a while since I used it but the option is in there. Regards, jörgen-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

Hi, Have a look at SCCM Collection Commander, using that you should be able to shutdown all computers in a collection. http://smscollctr.sourceforge.net/ It was a while since I used it but the option is in there. Regards, jörgen-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

Thanks all. I am going to look into the Collection Commander. Thanks again!Brian Stein