How to Restart Windows via Remote Desktop

Album Cover: Eyes Open

"It's hard to argue when you won't stop making sense."
Snow Patrol / Hands Open

Posted on July 07, 2006 11:43 PM in Computers

Warning: This blog entry was written two or more years ago. Therefore, it may contain broken links, out-dated or misleading content, or information that is just plain wrong. Please read on with caution.

If you've ever used the Remote Desktop Protocol to login to a remote Windows computer, you've probably noticed that the Start, Shutdown options you're used to seeing on a local Windows session aren't there. Instead, you'll typically see an option to "disconnect," in effect saving your session for the next time you login, or to "log off," essentially logging off of your remote session without saving the state.

So what do you do if you actually want to restart the remote machine? I did some digging tonight and found the answer kind of ambiguously buried in some disorganized information about Remote Desktop:

The Shutdown command is not available on the Start menu to shut down and restart, when you are using Remote Desktop. To shut down a remote computer when you are using Remote Desktop, press CTRL+ALT+END, and then click Shutdown. Or, use the shutdown command at a command prompt.

So to restart the remote machine, all you need to do is hit CTRL-ALT-END, then Shutdown, and then choose the Restart option you're used to seeing on a local Windows session (rather than the Shutdown option, which is also in the list).

Comments

Review Laptops on December 26, 2006 at 12:49 PM:

I had been trying to figure out how to do this on my own for a couple of days, finally broke down and google'd it. Thanks for the tip!

Alex on February 10, 2007 at 8:30 AM:

Thanks!
It works perfectly.

Hemant on February 15, 2007 at 7:47 PM:

Thanks Buddy !!!

KUDOS :)

Ulysses on February 15, 2007 at 9:00 PM:

How can I log back in to a remote desktop after rebooting? I am using windows xp on both machines. Hamachi is my VPN and then I use windows remote desktop. Is there any way to reboot remotely and then login so that windows will continue to boot and start Hamachi?

Thank you.

Bernie Zimmermann on February 15, 2007 at 9:05 PM:

Ulysses, I'm not sure what Hamachi is, but if it's some sort of application that runs on XP so that you can gain access via VPN, you should see if you can make it run as a service. If it runs as a service and you set it up to start up automatically when the system boots (or in this case, reboots), you should be able to VPN in without the need to login beforehand. I'd suggest looking into that.

Dave on February 20, 2007 at 8:06 PM:

When you are in a RDP session, if you go to the START menu on the Remote Desktop, there should be a menu item "Windows Security". Click that menu item and see what happens... :)

Greg on February 23, 2007 at 8:54 AM:

Thanks for this great tip. I have been trying to figure out how to restart and shutdown in remote session for a while. [been hitting the reset button :) ]

Is there a way to make a shortcut for shutdown and restart in a remote session like the "shutdown -r -t 0" command that can be used in local sessions?

Thanks very much for your help.

pIT on April 19, 2007 at 10:46 AM:

WOW thanks dude!! I tried to figure it out for a week now. no one in and around the office knew how to do this we got peps with MCSE's... It's a good thing I stumbled onto your blog one of my server was spewing errors! I showed IT!
Thanks again :)

Alex on May 01, 2007 at 10:13 AM:

Thanks!

narineh on June 11, 2007 at 9:25 AM:

thanks dude, this rocks!

aeros on July 02, 2007 at 1:28 AM:

hey its not really the end-of-the-world comment but it saved my consultant ass today :-)

thanks a lot dude, such tips, good explained and structured are really helpful for everyone.

YIPPI-KEI-YEI motherfucker

vu manh ha on July 05, 2007 at 9:23 AM:

Please show me the way re-login after restarted server via remote desktop. My company at server is installed window server 2003. My computer at home is installed win xp sp2. After restart server via remote desktop, i can not remote desktop again.

Marnio on August 09, 2007 at 5:56 AM:

Thank you for the tip. I had been noticing that I coudl not restart from RDP but never really investigated if it was possible. You made it clear as day. :D..

jean on August 12, 2007 at 9:22 AM:

While using remote desktop (rdp) in some xp machines it won't work the CTRL+ALT+END option because of instead of launching the remote machine's task manager it will open the local pc's task manager, the solution: in the remote machine right click on taskbar then click task manager.
vu manh ha one of the reason you cannot connect via rdp after reboot could be that the remote machine has changed ip address, or the remote machine is not configured to connect to the internet on start up. another reason could be that after reboot ip has changed but this ip is not updated to the domain name server(if used)

santosh choudhary on August 28, 2007 at 7:52 PM:

I was looking for solution, how to shutdown remote system and i got this.Really i like google.

RvdH on August 31, 2007 at 7:39 AM:

CRTL + SHIFT + ESC does the same

nem0sys on September 08, 2007 at 12:21 PM:

click the "Windows Security" button in the Start Menu (just above the log off/disconnect buttons). Works for all windows versions ive come across with rdp.

John Fitzgerald on October 09, 2007 at 10:26 PM:

I was having issues with logging in with RDC after a reboot too. I solved the issue by going into the Windows firewall settings. On the advanced tab select the network adapter and enable RDC there.

matt on October 15, 2007 at 7:48 AM:

What to do if remote descktop hangs? I can close the RD window and then re-connect to the same hanging session. But no reaction on any key(s) or mouse click. Anyone?

Confused on October 27, 2007 at 8:44 PM:

Thanks!! So silly that M$ does not have the options easily avaliable with RDC.

ancient on November 09, 2007 at 3:45 AM:

To access a computer after a restart, Windows service "Terminal Services" must be set to automatic startup.

This solves the issue neatly :)

Gerry on November 18, 2007 at 7:01 PM:

Outstanding work!
GL

Ashu Anand on November 20, 2007 at 4:25 AM:

Thanks Dude for the suggestion.

willie gwolatt on December 01, 2007 at 7:28 PM:

thanks for the help it worked i have been searching for this all day

Peter on December 06, 2007 at 12:22 PM:

Great solution, thanks a million for doing the legwork and passing on the information.

Geoff on December 14, 2007 at 4:51 AM:

Thanks. I've been wondering about that for some time now.
I tried it and it works great.

Basey on December 18, 2007 at 2:02 AM:

Gee C M!! Dude you deserve a metal. And why the heck did Microsoft not make this info easily accessible? 12:30am when a got a call from work is when i realised the simplest things can really make you feel stupid.

David Misleh on January 08, 2008 at 6:13 AM:

I am using terminal services to access my customer's server. From that point I use Remote Desktop to login to their workstations. CTRL+ALT+END gives me the Shutdown or Restart option for the server, not the workstation. I need to restart the workstation.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Q on January 08, 2008 at 8:19 PM:

In the desktop RDP session, try to right click on the task bar and select the Task Manager. From there you should be able to reboot the workstation.

You should also be able to do a Start > Run
type "shutdown -r -t xx" (without the quotes)
xx=how many xx seconds to execute this command
Select the OK button.

kmcniff on January 10, 2008 at 10:53 PM:

When using RDP try using the MSTSC.EXE /CONSOLE command from the start-run. This way the remote connection is at the Console and not a TS session. Many times in a standard RDP session the Terminal Services process stops before the 'session' can send the restart command to the OS kernel, thusly the system 'HANGS' during the shutdown phase of the restart and the Terminal Services is not available, requiring someone locally to log on locally and initiate a local restart or to hit the power button. The other way is to use the shutdown /r /t xxx /m computername. You must have Admin credentials on the remote machine. If you need to use a diferent username and password for the remote machine just map a drive using diferent credentials before running the command and the shutdown command will use those.

kmcnifkmcnifff on January 10, 2008 at 11:04 PM:

Sorry, forgot
You may also use the shutdown -i
This will give you a GUI for the remote shutdown

Sorry I forgot

John Land on January 25, 2008 at 9:36 AM:

To recap & correct my somewhat disjointed summary all in one place, here are 10 ways to get the option to Shutdown or Restart a Remote Desktop:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+END to get to the Task Manager, and then click Shutdown (apparently does not always work).

2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to get to the Task Manager.

3. Right click on the TaskBar and select the Task Manager.

4. For the Classic Start Menu, left click on Start, Settings, Windows Security to get to the Task Manager.

5. For the "new" Start Menu, left click on Start, Windows Security to get to the Task Manager.

6. Create a shortcut to the Task Manager (usually located at C:/WINDOWS/system32/taskmgr.exe) and put it on the desktop or taskbar [my own solution before I found this site]

7. Click Start, Run, type "shutdown -i" (without the quotes), click OK, to get a GUI that apparently doesn't use the Task Manager (this seems to require that Directory Services be running so as to be able to browse for the computer to shut down, or you must manually add the name of the remote computer to be shut down).

8. Click Start, Run, type "shutdown -r -t xx" (without the quotes) [xx=how many xx seconds to execute this command], click OK (I've not tried this myself).

9: Click on a blank area of the desktop or taskbar, press Alt-F4, and the standard Stand By, Turn Off, Restart dialog appears.

10. Various programmatic ways exist as well (batch files, Visual Basic, etc.).

Brad on February 01, 2008 at 2:31 PM:

Thanks for this :)

Kat on February 13, 2008 at 1:09 PM:

If you are on a laptop (this may apply to PCs as well) that is configured with the Smart Card logon option (regardless of whether you use it), then CTRL-ALT-END corresponding shortcut for the remote machine.

Also, Remote Desktop Connection window (that asks for computer name), click on the Options button, and there are a few tabs with configuration options. This will allow the user to set many preferences including keyboard shortcuts.

Ryan Grier on February 22, 2008 at 12:37 PM:

Thanks for the tip. It worked perfectly.

Brandon on March 04, 2008 at 4:47 PM:

Try Alt+F4 with no windows selected. You can WindowsLogo+M to minimize everything if you have stuff open (which isn't the best idea if you are trying to restart).

RYan on March 23, 2008 at 9:22 PM:

Great information! Thanks for posting it.

Dimi on April 02, 2008 at 7:31 AM:

Fantastic source.
CTRL+ALT+END is what i'm searching for, great hint.

Thanks

StrAngel on May 01, 2008 at 10:36 AM:

I made me a little .bat file to solve the problem with restart/shutdown.

To make a bat file to work with you go to
START --> Run --> cmd
and press
Then you get a command window.
Type EDIT and press .
Then a blue window opens. Press ALT+F to make the menu appear, and choose "Save As..." You just save the file on your desktop (or another place of your choosing).

After that you close the command window. Go to the place you saved the .bat file. RIGHTclick the file and choose EDIT.

Ok..so far, so good. :)

Then you just paste the following text into the file and save it:

:START
cls
@echo off
echo.
echo Remote Desktop Client - shutdown or restart
echo.
echo When you use Remote Desktop you do not have
echo the usual restart/shutdown choices.
echo This will RESTART or SHUTDOWN the remote client
echo according to your choice.
echo.
echo 1. Restart
echo 2. Shutdown
echo 3. Abort
echo.
set /p userinp= Choose a number(1-3):
set userinp=%userinp:~0,1%
if "%userinp%"=="1" goto restart
if "%userinp%"=="2" goto shutdown
if "%userinp%"=="3" goto end
echo invalid choice
goto start

:restart
Echo Program: Please wait....
shutdown -r -t 01
goto end

:shutdown
shutdown -s -t 01
goto end

:end

I have made this based on various sources on the internet, and almost no coding has been done by me.
But here it is.

Wish someone could write a Win app that looked a little nicer than this DOS-window.
If someone do that, mail it to me, please.
hotrodny(a)gmail.com

steve on May 18, 2008 at 6:57 PM:

Thanks!! God I love google. It sends me right to what I'm looking for when I have computer questions...

itsho on May 28, 2008 at 10:23 PM:

Thank you ! it worked for me.

SS on June 05, 2008 at 11:35 AM:

Thanks for the valuable tip.

finkbine on June 06, 2008 at 11:00 PM:

very good post, very helpful for my research, thank you very much!!!

Cm on June 15, 2008 at 12:15 PM:

So helpful, Thanks

Rishii on June 20, 2008 at 7:40 PM:

So far I like to using the task manager to shutdown/restart my server.
Just right click on the taskbar and select that task manager.
And within there there is a menu to called shutdown with all the options you need.

Jon on June 24, 2008 at 3:17 AM:

Thanks, very clear and helpful.

Reza Kobari on August 08, 2008 at 7:54 AM:

Very helpful.
Thank you!!!

Non on August 12, 2008 at 8:05 AM:

THANK YOU! This really saved me today. I'm glad you posted it!

Aditya on August 12, 2008 at 12:40 PM:

Thanks. There used to be a 'Shutdown' menu in Task Manager, which I don't see anymore (maybe Windows XP SP3 removed that option).

Hef on August 27, 2008 at 3:44 AM:

if you open start > run > "cmd" on the remote machine you can just use "shutdown -r -t 00" for restart and for straight shutdown you can use "shutdown -s -t 00" where "-t xx" is the time delay in seconds.

duh.

tender on September 03, 2008 at 8:35 AM:

wow! thanks!

spoonyfork on October 09, 2008 at 11:01 AM:

Thank you so much for this.

Joe on October 20, 2008 at 8:05 AM:

Thank you help at the right time -- may the force be with you.

sunil on October 30, 2008 at 7:24 PM:

Thanks very much.

D Palmer on November 03, 2008 at 1:48 AM:

****************************************
CTRL+ALT+END is what i'm searching for, great hint.
****************************************

Thanks,
DP

Ram on November 24, 2008 at 1:15 AM:

CTRL+ALT+END is working fine
Thanks a lot.............

Mary on January 02, 2009 at 9:51 AM:

On the remote desktop bring up taskmanager and there is an option to shutdown or restart right in there.

Justin on January 05, 2009 at 9:47 AM:

thanks a bunch! this really helped out!

Tommyt on January 24, 2009 at 12:27 PM:

Thank you so very much for this very important tidbit!!!

I have to remotely rebbot machines on occaision, this is lifesaver.

Now, download Malwarebytes and clean your machine!

tt

Larry on February 02, 2009 at 9:32 PM:

An excellent tutorial on 3 methods to shutdown or restart remote Windows machines.
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/remote-shutdown-command/
I've tried most of the tips and they work nicely, including commandline network restarts which even worked from XP to a Vista machine. As to not being able to log back into an RDP connection immediately after a restart, give it a minute or two to reestablish the network connection.

Bhoopendra Singh on February 05, 2009 at 12:38 PM:

Thank you guys... it really saved my lot of time and thanks to google offcourse. :D

Ashish Mehta on February 09, 2009 at 9:40 AM:

Thanks man!...I was hunting for this shortcut

KC8RWR on March 25, 2009 at 10:19 AM:

Thank you for mentioning the shutdown command. I didn't think Windows had one for some reason. Most hits on Google only mentioned Ctrl-Alt-End which wasn't usefull because I have to work through multiple nested remote desktop sessions sometimes.

Another page mentioned Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Home for 2 nested sessions deep but it didn't work. Even if it did what would one do if 3 deep? "shutdown -r" is much better.

basu on April 20, 2009 at 9:29 AM:

thank u very much.. this was useful to restart a machine for our demo

thanks to google for landing me on ur page...

regards
Basu

Carl on April 27, 2009 at 11:12 AM:

One other method to remotely shut down or restart a host computer and works no matter how many nested connections you have using XP (not sure of Vista). On the desktop of the computer to be restarted, right click on My Computer and choose Manage. Click on Action and choose Properties, then the Advanced Tab.

Choose the Settings button under Startup and Recovery. Near the bottom of that dialog box you'll see a Shut Down button, where you'll find a complete list of options for shutting down or restarting. If you need one of these options, it's worth drilling down this far to get there.

This option is also available on your local machine, although less necessary, in that case.

Saevar Einarsson on May 21, 2009 at 6:24 AM:

I just open cmd and type shutdown -r
Works 4 me :)

aris@slohost on June 17, 2009 at 1:00 AM:

Thanks for the post. It works great (i tested it on windows xp home edition).

I used cmd and then "shutdown -s" and it shut down my remote computer.

Thanks again.

Syed on June 26, 2009 at 12:14 AM:

That's amazing. I have been struggling for days. Thank you very much.

Anonymous on June 30, 2009 at 9:56 PM:

Thanks for the post. Previously I used the hard way by executing the "shutdown" command from the run menu. There is a funny thing that happened last time I tried it:

I executed a "shutdown -r" command on a remote computer that was a couple of thousand miles away. I was expecting to reconnect to it in 2 minutes or so, but it never came back...

Next day I came to know that the computer stopped at the POST screen, showing "Press F2 to continue" message and the sysadmin had to attach a keyboard to the computer to make it go past the POST screen. Beware.

Nag on July 01, 2009 at 2:36 PM:

Yes. Its working. thanks a lot.

Arun on July 09, 2009 at 12:13 AM:

Microsoft is fucking retarded. Thats why someone had to even start this forum and i had to google it.

Jim on July 24, 2009 at 4:07 AM:

Brilliant!!

TomSquatch on July 31, 2009 at 9:40 AM:

Alt+F4 will also take you to shutdown options.

Steve on July 31, 2009 at 9:12 PM:

Great thread.

Anyone know how to nest RDP sessions with all control bars staggered alongthe top I have seen it but not found out how yet!

Steve on August 01, 2009 at 4:40 AM:

Great thread.

Anyone know how to nest RDP sessions with all control bars staggered alongthe top I have seen it but not found out how yet!

Bert on August 08, 2009 at 8:27 AM:

Great help - couldn't figure it out - you made it clear and saved my day!

Saravanan on August 10, 2009 at 1:43 AM:

Thanks for the tip. You saved my day. I was able to restart the remote machine when it got hung

jason on August 22, 2009 at 8:23 PM:

Thanks, Bernie, for the info ... I just wanted to say thanks for this information and to let folks know that this does in fact work (and quite well) on Windows 7 RC.

Cheers!

doman on September 11, 2009 at 4:19 AM:

why not just open run field from start menu and enter `cmd`, then in command prompt enter `shutdown -r`, thats all. System restarted, simple as that.

MM on September 24, 2009 at 2:16 AM:

Thanks mate.This info is very helpful.

-Murali

Steve on October 06, 2009 at 7:37 PM:

Thanks!

zaanen on October 25, 2009 at 1:53 PM:

for a simple reboot go to start -> run and type "shutdown -r" the machine wil reboot in 30 seconds.

Chris on October 29, 2009 at 9:12 AM:

Thanks! Btw I like your blogs aesthetic

Bernie Zimmermann on October 30, 2009 at 1:47 AM:

Thanks, Chris.

Optimus Prime on October 31, 2009 at 6:18 AM:

Works on Win7 still. Thanks for the tips!

hammad on November 10, 2009 at 10:10 PM:

WakeOnLanGUI by Brian Slack
http://www.depicus.com/download.aspx?product=gui

Psshutdown (Microsoft Sysinternals)
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/PsTools.zip

Winsent (if ud like to send messages but having prob. with vista MSG command)
http://wareseeker.com/Communications/winsent-1.1.10.128.zip/430735

Manjunath j on November 14, 2009 at 11:14 AM:

Thanks, for the command to restart RDC machine : Ctrl+Alt+End.

Scott Swanson on November 15, 2009 at 7:34 AM:

Thanks for the tip. I needed it to avoid driving in to the office on Sunday (after having to go in on Saturday already).

I had to exit Trend Micro Internet Security Pro before it would work. If someone else has trouble (shutdown/restart doesn't work from Remote Desktop), try closing antivirus, antispam, etc., applications.

Good luck,

Scott

Sridhar V on November 18, 2009 at 5:50 AM:

Thanks for the tip. It helped.

DL on November 19, 2009 at 10:54 AM:

This works wonders thanks!

Erich Cervantez on December 01, 2009 at 5:48 PM:

I found that CTRL+ALT+END didn't work when connected remotely to a Windows 7 Professional machine. I had the option to logoff but not restart.

I saw on here that ALT+F4 would give you the restart options and that finally worked...thanks a bunch.

Kevin Russell on January 05, 2010 at 9:20 PM:

On Vista and Win7 when connected remotely (via RDP/Remote Desktop), choose to LOG OFF first (down under the START button and click the arrow next to Turn off and choose 'Log off'). This will take you back to the Windows welcome screen. You will then see in the lower-right a red-type 'shutdown' button. Click the ARROW next to this and choose either 'restart' or 'shutdown' from here. I use it all the time on clients with Vista/Win7.

Anand Lathigara on January 18, 2010 at 6:58 AM:

Thanks, It's worked on my windows 7 x64 build 7600

Thank you so much.......

JHW on January 20, 2010 at 8:35 AM:

Thanks! I'd always entered shutdown -r from the command prompt to do this in the past, but the remote system locked up today and would not let me do anything. Ctrl-Alt-End still worked to force a restart, though.

Sam on February 08, 2010 at 3:53 AM:

You guys are all wrong! According to Murphy's Law, to restart a computer through RDP, all you need to do is wait and it will happen by itself, eventually. According to Socrates, you'll have regrets whether you restart it or not. According to Satre, restarting it won't change the nature of your existence. According to Descartes, if you manage to restart it then you have proven your existence. According to Michael Jackson, you gotta be restarting something. According to Moses, thou shalt not restart the server. According to Britney Spears... no that's going too far. Smooth colours Bernie, good work.

Dan on February 08, 2010 at 7:07 AM:

start -> run -> cmd

shutdown /r

will shutdown the computer within a minute (be patient) and reboot it.

herk on March 04, 2010 at 3:11 AM:

thaks for the tip

Jethro on April 22, 2010 at 8:03 PM:

Thank you!

Dan on April 29, 2010 at 12:45 PM:

Thanks!

Mychol Scully on May 02, 2010 at 9:41 AM:

Thank you for sharing this tip! Often the most useful tech tips ARE the simplest!

Roko on May 02, 2010 at 10:33 PM:

Just do Alt+F4 and select shutdown or restart, does the same with less key's :-)

Sarfaraz Khan on May 10, 2010 at 1:35 AM:

all service restart your network problem solve

@echo off
echo
sc config dhcp start= auto
sc config dnscache start= auto
sc config spooler start= auto
sc config server start= auto
sc config browser start= auto
sc config wuauserv start= disabled
net stop wuauserv
net stop dhcp
net start dhcp
net stop dnscache
net start dnscache
net stop spooler
net start spooler
net stop server
net start server
net stop workstation
net start workstation
net stop browser
net start browser
shutdown -r -t 2

HD on May 20, 2010 at 12:19 AM:

awesome!

vel on May 27, 2010 at 3:32 AM:

if i using remote desktop connection.suddenly the remote desktop pc is going to shutdown.how to start up the remote pc

Cozmos on June 28, 2010 at 9:14 PM:

This still works with windows 7.
Good tip ;-)

Goodonya on July 18, 2010 at 3:11 PM:

2010 and still helps a brother out of a jam. Thanks fella.

notrevo on July 19, 2010 at 6:09 PM:

Do you people even read these messages. No special codes/commands are needed to restart/shutdown through RDP. Just go to Start> Windows Security thenclick the power button on the left.

Kevin on July 25, 2010 at 7:30 PM:

Alt-F4 -> Restart allowed me to restart my remote Win7 box from Linux (rdesktop). Thanks for this thread!

me on August 13, 2010 at 9:02 AM:

what a waste of time...

write this i cmd/run

shutdown -r (reboots)
shutdown -s (shutdown)

Rocky rox on August 23, 2010 at 2:18 AM:

Thx fella, Alt+F4 rocks

Joel on August 27, 2010 at 12:29 PM:

thanks, worked great!

Patrick on September 08, 2010 at 10:26 PM:

Thank You! It works on my vista

Cosmas on September 16, 2010 at 4:26 AM:

Thanks it works !!
(Athens Greece)

Karin D on September 19, 2010 at 8:05 AM:

Thanks for posting this! Saved me a trip to my office!

Richard M on September 26, 2010 at 1:41 AM:

Thanks! Very helpful!

Gordon on October 05, 2010 at 9:36 AM:

Thanks for the tip

kapil pipaliya on October 24, 2010 at 11:52 AM:

It works on Windows 7.
Thank you!!!

Lightwave on October 26, 2010 at 8:05 PM:

I didn't see this posted anywhere, so I wanted to share it. If you're buried in nested RDP sessions (going from server to server), when you press the start button sometimes you don't know which start button it is, and sometimes you don't have a mouse, so just go to start, run, then type taskmgr and you'll get to the current computers task manager. Hopefully somebody can use this info.

Ray on November 27, 2010 at 12:15 AM:

Windows Remote protocol is pretty cool but I like the online service, LogMeIn

Nemanja on December 03, 2010 at 1:02 AM:

TnX for sharing this useful tip! Works perfectly!

DP on December 03, 2010 at 9:45 AM:

Thanks for the info

Ghazanfar Latif on December 18, 2010 at 8:36 AM:

Thanks :)

Mithat on December 26, 2010 at 2:57 AM:

Thanks for the tip, worked for me! :)

Tobias on December 31, 2010 at 3:20 AM:

Thanks a bunch!

Gova on January 04, 2011 at 7:36 AM:

Alt-F4 -> Restart allowed me to restart my remote Win7 box from XP laptop. Thanks.

drgian on January 06, 2011 at 11:16 AM:

not sure why, but this gave me no shutdown option either. I ended up issuing the command line shutdown /r (for restart) and that worked great.

Chon on January 07, 2011 at 7:54 AM:

Four years later and this still works!!!

Anon on January 18, 2011 at 8:03 AM:

The post is a bit old but amazed that such worked! Thanks!

Datta on January 19, 2011 at 4:21 PM:

Thank you, shutdown command worked.

Kim on February 02, 2011 at 6:04 AM:

Still works perfectly in 2011. Thank you, and thank you Microsoft. Of course, it could be a tad more obvious :-)

Alok on February 04, 2011 at 7:04 PM:

Thanks a lot for this information.

Duane on February 11, 2011 at 6:48 AM:

Thanks!

Derek on March 02, 2011 at 3:31 PM:

Love this post.

Derek on March 06, 2011 at 3:49 PM:

WOW another Derek posting! I just started using RDC within the last week and this post saved my bacon today at 6:30PM on a Sunday night :-)

Thank you

ameche on April 01, 2011 at 2:54 PM:

Brilliant.....thank you very much!

Don on April 18, 2011 at 12:49 PM:

Thank you!!!

John Wulf on May 18, 2011 at 1:06 PM:

Needed this today, your description here was perfect!!!
Thanks tons
JW

Alex Y. on May 24, 2011 at 1:38 PM:

Thanks.

katrin on June 03, 2011 at 7:56 AM:

Works perfectly for Windows 7, thanks!!!

Nick on June 21, 2011 at 10:42 AM:

Thanks for posting this. I am remoting into a computer in the office from now and it is acting quite sinister! Great tip!

Noel on July 12, 2011 at 6:55 AM:

Thank you.

Harry on July 15, 2011 at 8:51 AM:

Hi,

I set the script to restart all servers in our domain. A guy raised a request that his servers can be restarted only via console. I wonder if there is any difference in just restarting the server via script (remotely) or via console? I dont see any difference at all.

Anyone have any suggestions please help. Currently im using just a shutdown batch file to restart servers remotely.

Regards,
Harry

Raj on July 21, 2011 at 8:47 PM:

Thanks! helpful tip.

Bhargav on July 22, 2011 at 11:36 AM:

Thanks a ton.

JadooSEO on August 18, 2011 at 11:45 PM:

This does not work for my VPN, how do you do it on windows VPN?

Mark on August 30, 2011 at 5:22 AM:

I always forget, thanks again!

Nikhil on September 02, 2011 at 7:53 AM:

Alternate way: Open command prompt run following command
shutdown -r -t 00

DanS on September 02, 2011 at 9:01 AM:

I couldn't send the CTRL+ALT+DEL, but the shutdown -r command works from the command prompt. Thanks for the tip!

heckubiss on September 08, 2011 at 8:27 AM:

"So to restart the remote machine, all you need to do is hit CTRL-ALT-END, then Shutdown, and then choose the Restart option you're used to seeing on a local Windows session (rather than the Shutdown option, which is also in the list)."

um.. yah thats wrong.. it caused my main PC (not remote) to shutdown. Like DanS said. the command prompt one works.

not sure if this is because the post was written 2 years ago or it just never worked..

Karl on September 09, 2011 at 10:38 AM:

This is an alternative I found elsewhere:

Click on the remote desktop and type Alt+F4. This will call up the shutdown dialog, where you get the usual shutdown options like "Shut down", "Shut down without installing updates", "Restart", "Stand by", and "Hibernate".

Karl on September 09, 2011 at 10:49 AM:

heckubiss

CTRL-ALT-END works fine.... CTRL-ALT-DELETE.... does not. I believe you used the later. Try using CTRL-ALT-END. ;-)

pp on September 14, 2011 at 6:28 AM:

THANKS!!!!! great tweak

bleh on October 07, 2011 at 7:42 AM:

cool thank you. so useful. :)

addhe on October 20, 2011 at 5:42 AM:

u bitch...lolz... thanks buddy.. you saved my time

Ed Duffy on October 25, 2011 at 12:45 AM:

Outstanding!
Thanks.

chris on November 02, 2011 at 2:41 AM:

hello pls can someone help me.

i am away from my computer but connected using my remote desktop.

But my rdp hanged nothing i press inside the rdp works.

like its freezed or something.

what can i do ????

LyP on November 08, 2011 at 2:49 PM:

Nice tip!! Nicely written! Much appreciated!

erlend on November 20, 2011 at 2:26 PM:

thanks.
you saved me a long night traveling back to the office to restart.

Brad on November 21, 2011 at 5:16 AM:

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Trooper on December 03, 2011 at 1:24 AM:

Can't believe this was posted in 2006!! This is still valuable advise for newbees like myself. Thanks for keeping this post up for all this time.

Worked like a charm!

hirman on December 29, 2011 at 8:32 PM:

It works : Ctl+Alt+End

Thank you...

Flux on January 12, 2012 at 2:13 PM:

Perfect! Many thanks!

Mike on January 17, 2012 at 12:45 AM:

Thanks a lot for the help. You're explanation was to the point and easy to follow. You may want to make an update that indicates on Windows 7 the restart will NOT be in the list, but rather down in the bottom right corner in the red pull up menu. Otherwise this was exactly what I needed! Thanks for your contribution.

Arun on January 20, 2012 at 3:15 AM:

Nice and Quick. thank you very much.

Ju on January 31, 2012 at 12:43 PM:

On a mac, it is Ctrl + Option + Delete. It brings you to a page where you can select Restart at the bottom right of the screen.

David Klassen on February 28, 2012 at 11:21 PM:

Karl and Roko:

ALT-F4

many thanks!

Joe on March 16, 2012 at 5:05 AM:

Thanks Heaps , worked well..

Joe

bsct on April 03, 2012 at 1:07 AM:

thanx!

The Sun on April 11, 2012 at 12:08 AM:

Thanks, tried and worked!

Radu on April 13, 2012 at 7:18 AM:

Thanks!!

Ajr on May 28, 2012 at 2:04 AM:

Didn't work for me. Ctl+Alt+End
But I right click the task bar and bring the task manager, from there select shut down or restart.

arastoo on June 21, 2012 at 8:12 AM:

usefull. tnx

a4diziac on July 12, 2012 at 6:18 PM:

I've needed this so many times before. Thanks!

yugandhar on August 07, 2012 at 3:58 AM:

Thank you so much

Rzym on August 08, 2012 at 10:32 PM:

Nice tip! Much appreciated!

Aki on September 13, 2012 at 7:55 PM:

Thank you.

maciek on November 16, 2012 at 5:58 AM:

after 6 years, still very useful, especially when computer 100 miles away froze (windows explorer had an error and stopped working, then frozen). Amazingly simple solution that saved my day, cheers!

mboyan on November 17, 2012 at 3:09 PM:

Been using this to remotely reboot server that sometimes freezes on weekends when I am at home. Takes 2 minutes out of my day (or less), and keeps me warm on these cold November nights!

Thanks!

Andrej on December 05, 2012 at 5:16 PM:

Works great!

Thanks!!!

Nefylym on December 14, 2012 at 2:18 PM:

Right on man!
That remote reset works like a charm!
Thank you!

Mukesh Das on January 04, 2013 at 12:17 AM:

thanks a lot of for this useful topic.......
again & again...

Jack Brosch on March 12, 2013 at 2:36 AM:

Still working great 6 years after posting - now THAT's useful!!

Thanks

Guilherme Waechter Radiske on March 27, 2013 at 12:44 PM:

as Jack Brosch said... still working 6 years after! Which means that its sad that even after a couple of windows releases, this kinda of thing still happens... if it is possible by doing this(your tip), why they keep hiding the restart button on RDP?

Anyway... thanks for the tip!

Michael Fox on April 07, 2013 at 4:41 PM:

Great information. Something I needed to do and was thinking surely it cant be this hard. Sure enough simple process and concise information on how to do it.

I really wish Microsoft would show the shutdown button while on a RDP session (or atleast give you the option to enable it).

rob on April 07, 2013 at 7:17 PM:

Awesome tip. Things like this are why I love the internet and google. :)

TYPO3 Internetagentur Frankfurt on June 06, 2013 at 5:28 AM:

Thanks for the Tip

ALT + F4 works fine!

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