Send Ctrl-Alt-Delete in a remote desktop session

Posted on March 14, 2009 at 5:37 am

Remote Desktop is a nifty little windows feature that allows you to remotely connect to another PC and manage it as if you were physically at the console. You can read my previous post on how to setup remote desktop in Windows XP.

When connecting to another machine, just about all keyboard actions are transmitted to the remote machine, i.e. pressing Enter, typing, pressing the Windows key, etc. However, that is not the case for some key combinations.

One that has bothered me for a very long time when using Remote Desktop in Windows is when I press Ctrl + Alt + Del while logged into the remote computer. Instead of sending the key combo to the remote computer, it would instead perform the action on my computer!

This was actually intended by Microsoft because there are many cases where you may not want that to be sent to the remote computer. So, by default, Ctrl + Alt + Del will only work for the local computer.

So how does one perform this same action on the remote computer? It’s pretty easy actually! In order to send Ctrl + Alt + Del to the remote PC, just press the following alternate key combination:

Ctrl + Alt + End

That’s it! Pretty easy eh? Unfortunately, I tend to use Remote Desktop rarely and therefore forget this key combo all the time! Also, note that there are a bunch of other keyboard shortcuts you can use in Remote Desktop:

Alt + Page Up – Switch between programs (Alt + Tab is the local command)

Ctrl + Alt + End – Display the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc is the local command)

Alt + Home – Brings up the Start menu on the remote computer

Ctrl + Alt + (+) Plus/ (-) Minus – Minus takes a snapshot of the active window and plus takes a snapshot of the entire remote desktop window.

Those are pretty much all of the remote desktop keyboard shortcuts you will ever need! If you know of anymore, post a comment! Enjoy!

» Filed Under Windows XP

Comments

5 Responses to “Send Ctrl-Alt-Delete in a remote desktop session”

Narendra.s.v said on : March 14th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

Thanks man for sharing the information. I read your previous posts and tried to setup a remote desktop connection and it worked perfectly.

Once again thank you

joyycheng said on : March 16th, 2009 at 4:54 am

Thanks for your share:)

Nick said on : March 17th, 2009 at 2:55 pm

Here are some more special Remote Desktop key combinations:

Alt + Page Up
Switches between programs from left to right.

Alt + Page Down
Switches between programs from right to left.

Alt + Insert
Cycles through the programs in the order they were started.

Alt + Home
Displays the Start menu.

Ctrl + Alt + Break
Switches the client between a window and full screen.

Ctrl + Alt + End
Brings up the Windows Security dialog box.

Ctrl + Alt + Pause
Toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode
(note that this does not set the client desktop to the correct size)

Alt + Del
Displays the Windows menu

Ctrl + Alt + Num -
Places a snapshot of the client’s active window on the clipboard

Ctrl + Alt + Num +
Places a snapshot of the client’s entire desktop area on the clipboard

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Home
To invoke task manager for nested terminal services sessions (two levels deep)

To shut down or restart the remote computer, either bring up the Windows Security dialog , or use Task Manager.

John said on : June 18th, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Actually, the reason why the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combo is always sent to the local machine is not “because there are many cases where you may not want that to be sent to the remote computer”. The real reason is that this particular key combination is a special key combo that triggers the Windows operating system at a low level for security reasons. No software running on top of Windows (none, period) other than the Windows operating system itself can see this key combo when it is pressed and therefore no software running on top of Windows can respond to it.

This is to ensure that someone cannot just create a program that looks like the Windows logon dialog and then steal your password when you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and enter your credentials. The idea is that, you can be sure the only program that can even possibly respond to this key combination is Windows and therefore you are safe inputting your password.

PaulShell said on : October 29th, 2009 at 4:09 am

What if I use remote desktop to connect another remote desktop, like:

A -> B -> C

How can I send ctrl+alt+end to C ?