This is a simple but useful command to allow you to shadow another terminal services user when working in a remote desktop environment, this often works when the “remote control” option in Task Manager or Terminal Services Manager fails to connect to the session.

To determine the session ID of the user you wish to shadow you can either check using the task manager “users” tab (see below), paying attention to the “Session” column value:

Shadow Command - Check Users with Task Manager

Alternatively use the query user command at the command prompt to output the session list:

USERNAME              SESSIONNAME        ID  STATE   IDLE TIME  LOGON TIME
>Jason                rdp-tcp#0           2  Active          .  9/11/2011 11:17 AM
 Bob                  rdp-tcp#4           1  Active          .  9/11/2011 4:03 PM
 John                 rdp-tcp#6           3  Active         11  9/11/2011 8:44 AM

Once you are armed with the “session” name/ID you can connect to the user using the Shadow command:
For example to connect to the top session above I would use “shadow rdp-tcp#0” in the command line.

When finished Press CTRL+* to end the remotely controlled session (use the asterisk [*] from the numeric keypad only).