Tuesday, October 12, 2010

How to log off other people from your computer

This is a pretty handy feature in Windows. When you have multiple users that use your computer, you probably wouldn't like to keep their accounts running, with their programs slowing you down, or their accounts taking up your Internet bandwidth as IM apps and downloads are left running.

YES. You can log off other people from your computer, but only if you have an administrator account (and if you don't care about them losing their unsaved work).

On Windows XP, it is really simple. You just start Task Manager, go to the Users tab and select the user you want to log off and hit the common-sense button down there.

On the newer versions of Windows (which are much better than yours, XP fans), the better security features restrict you from doing such things. You get an error if you try doing it, as shown here.


 If you're using Vista or 7, you still use the Task Manager, but you need to do one more thing. You need to elevate it before you can kick others off. As you probably know, some programs, like app installers need to be elevated before they can even run, because they are doing administrative kind of stuff. You can elevate other programs by right-clicking their shortcut or whatever and choosing 'Run as Administrator'.

So, here's how to log off other users that are logged on to your computer:

  • Start Task Manager by clicking Ctrl + Alt + Del and choosing the correct option, or directly by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
  • Now, go to the Processes tab.
  • Here, click the button that says 'Show processes from all users'. It requires elevation. See that little icon on it?
  • Now, if you're shown a user account control prompt, just hit 'Continue'. You may now see Task Manager close and start again. This time, it's elevated.
  • Go to the Users tab.
  • Choose the user you want to log off and click the 'Logoff' button at the bottom.
  • Dismiss the message box that appears, as shown here, and you're done.



So, that was how to log someone forcibly off on Windows. I hope you find it useful. For more fun tips, check out my archive, where you'll find something fun, for sure. Otherwise, you can give the search bar a go. Type in anything. I have got lots of articles. By the way, this is my 100th post on this blog.

Try out these articles: See how you can ignore the cache in any browser and reload a page from scratch, find out how your Facebook profile looks like to certain people or find out the difference between the open-source Chromium and Google Chrome.


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