Before you patch, reboot, or take a Remote Desktop Services host down, the users on it need warning so they can save their work and sign out. The built-in command reaches one server at a time; Terminal Services Manager reaches many at once.
The manual way: the msg command
Windows includes the msg command. Send to every session on a host:
msg * /server:RDSH01 Server reboots in 15 minutes. Please save your work and sign out.
Use a user name in place of * to message one person. It works per host, so warning a whole farm means running it once per server, and there is no way to save standard wording for reuse.
The faster way: Terminal Services Manager
Terminal Services Manager sends the same message to every server you select at once, and lets you save the wording so every maintenance notice reads the same way.
In Servers, select one or more servers (hold Ctrl or Shift for several), right-click, and choose Send message to all users.
Pick a message type, type a title and the message body, then click Send message. It appears as a message box on every user's desktop across all the selected servers.
To warn a single person instead, for example the one user holding up a reboot, select their row in User sessions and choose Send message.
Reuse the wording with presets
Maintenance notices repeat apart from the date, so use presets instead of retyping them. Click the menu button to the left of the message type and pick a preset from Maintenance & Updates, Emergency & Critical, Service Notifications, or Testing & System Check. The same menu imports and exports presets, resets them to defaults, and opens Manage presets, where you can keep your own wording. Presets can include variables such as %user_name% and %time_now%, which the program fills in when the message is sent.
After the warning
The message does not wait for users or restart anything. For the full sequence of warn, clear remaining sessions, then restart, see how to reboot a terminal server without losing user data.
Related
- How to reboot a terminal server without losing user data
- How to log off idle users on a Remote Desktop server