Programmatically detecting console (administrative) session on Windows Server 2008?

Question

My application is running as service under Windows Server 2008. I'm looking for a way to detect an active console session. This can either be the console or a RDP session started as administrative session ("mstsc /admin").

The console session is called "Console" but I'm lost with RDP sessions. Under Windows 2003 it was easy because a console session was always running with id 0. This changed since Vista so I'm looking for another way to find out.

I've already checked the WTSxxx Win32 API but have not found what I'm looking for.

Can anybody help?

Answer 1

One option is have your service CanHandleSessionChangeEvent set to true then implement OnSessionChange(SessionChangeDescription changeDescription) Then if ChangeDescription.Reason == SessionChangeReason.ConsoleConnect you have had someone connect to the console.

protected override void OnSessionChange(SessionChangeDescription changeDescription)
{
    if(changeDescription.Reason == SessionChangeReason.ConsoleConnect)
    {
        //use changeDescription.SessionId to find if the logged in user 
        //  to that session is an administrator.
    }
}

Answer 2

If you're looking for the id of the session that is currently attached to the physical console, the API is WTSGetActiveConsoleSessionId