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Remote Desktop User Activity Monitoring

July 26, 2019 By Andy Milford Leave a Comment

Most corporate networks these days are hybrid, meaning some employee workstations are hosted in the cloud (e.g. Windows Virtual Desktop, DaaS, Remote Desktop Session Hosts / Citrix XenDesktop Hosts in Azure) and some are hosted on premises (physical desktops, on-premises virtual desktops, and Remote Desktop Session Hosts / Citrix XenDesktop Hosts).

Therefore, we designed our solution’s architecture to support user activity monitoring in such heterogeneous networks. How so? Let’s dig deeper into our unique approach to monitoring user activity.

Terminal Server User Activity Monitoring – Soft Audit

In this use case, an organization uses Remote Desktop Session Hosts or Citrix XenDesktop Session Hosts to provide session-based workspaces for its employees. Management simply desires a “soft audit” of routine teleworker activity on a daily and weekly basis to correlate remote work with the hours that employees self-report when working offsite.

In this scenario, our Remote Desktop Commander Suite can be deployed without installing its optional agent service. User session data is collected remotely over the network, and aggregated into user time tracking reports like so:

Terminal Server User Activity Monitoring (Detailed)
You can monitor Terminal Server User Activity in a detailed fashion…
Terminal Server User Activity (Executive)
Or you can monitor Terminal Server Users at a higher, executive level.

Note that we offer even more helpful information related to performing these kinds of “soft audits” in another article on viewing Remote Desktop sessions.

Remote Desktop User Activity Monitoring – Hard Audit

Of course, for more highly regulated industries, or special HR scenarios, more intensive user activity monitoring may be warranted – going well beyond the basic need to simply view Remote Desktop sessions. In this case, the Remote Desktop Reporter agent can be deployed on all Remote Desktop Session Hosts, Citrix XenDesktop Session Hosts, or Windows Virtual Desktop hosts, and Group Policy can be employed to launch a special in-session process that does periodic screen captures, as well as capture detailed information regarding program window captions and websites visited, inbound/outbound UDP/TCP activity, and program use, as shown below:

Reviewing Remote Desktop User Screen Captures
During a hard audit of user activity, administrators can step through screen captures
Reviewing Remote Desktop User Network Connections and Window Captions
When stepping through a full session recording, administrators can review all network connections and program window captions during the session.
Remote Desktop User Activity Monitoring - Programs and Performance
Administrators can also review what programs were running at given times in the user session.
User Activity Monitoring - Session Recording Search
In order to find recorded sessions with specific activity, Remote Desktop Commander provides a search tool that can query by window title, port use, or program use.

Live RDP Session Monitoring

In some cases, managers may need the ability to do “live” or “spot check” RDP session monitoring of multiple user sessions from different terminal servers, Windows Virtual Desktops, or on-premises physical workstations all at once. Fortunately, the newer shadowing and remote assistance architecture in Windows Server 2012, Server 2016, Server 2019, and Windows 10 makes this possible. With a few clicks, a manager can keep an eye on multiple user sessions at once, no matter the system they are connected to, and zoom in/out to observe user activity tacitly in the background.

View and Monitor Multiple RDP Sessions At Once With the MiniView Dock
View and Monitor Multiple RDP Sessions At Once With the MiniView Dock

Virtual Desktop User Activity Monitoring

Of course, all of the above scenarios can be replicated if you also need to monitor virtual desktops or physical workstations. The Remote Desktop Commander agent can be deployed in the exact same manner, and once it has been so deployed, you can conduct both soft audits and hard audits of user activity in these environments as well, including the recently announced Windows Virtual Desktop platform in Azure.

Don’t Break the Bank To Monitor User Sessions

The assumption is that this kind of capability is costly. Many companies that specialize in user activity monitoring price their tools between $500 and $1000 a server, which is cost prohibitive for most organizations.

Fortunately, we’ve made it far more cost effective to start auditing user sessions in your organization.

Interested? Find out even more about the features of our Remote Desktop Commander Suite or look into pricing for a monthly subscription.

Updated: February 2023.

Filed Under: User Activity Monitoring Tagged With: rdp session, rdp session monitoring, remote desktop user activity, remote desktop user activity monitoring, remote desktop users, screen captures, session recording, teminal server user activity, terminal server user activity monitoring, terminal server users, wvd session monitoring

About Andy Milford

Andy Milford is the CEO and Founder of RDPSoft, and is a Microsoft MVP in the Enterprise Mobility / Remote Desktop Services area. Prior to starting RDPSoft, Andy was the CEO and Founder of Dorian Software, a log management company acquired by Ipswitch in late 2009. He loves creating easy-to-use yet powerful software solutions for SMBs and emerging enterprise companies.

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