Under Windows, how can you identify the current console user and then do a logoff against that user?

Question

I need the ability in C++ code to logoff the console user when call from an administrator process or if it is called by that user and maybe a windows service in the future. The issue I am running into is that ExitWindowsEx will only logoff the user that calls it. If an administrator process calls a logoff the console user is unaffected. The only application that I know of that can do this is psShutdown.exe, except that psShutdown can only be run by the administrator. Does anyone know in C++ how to identify the console user and then do a logoff against that user? What is the magic inside psShutdown? I'm looking for something that works in WindowsXP and up. Also I cannot use WMI because some machines are running windows Embeded and do not have WMI.

(The reason psShutdown.exe must be run as administrator is because it installs a service and a normal user does not have the rights to do this.)

Answer 1

Use WTSGetActiveConsoleSessionId to identify the console session, but to go further you are going to need some permissions, you would have to call WTSQueryUserToken (You need to run as SYSTEM to do this) to get a token handle and then CreateProcessAsUser or impersonate and call ExitWindowsEx, or if you are not in a service, call WTSLogoffSession. (I tried calling WTSLogoffSession on my XP box and it did not work, probably because the terminal server service is not running on this system)

Answer 2

I have never actually done this, but it seems like it should be possible with the combination of WTSGetActiveConsoleSessionId() and WTSLogoffSession()