On a workstation running Windows 11 IoT Enterprise 24H2, connecting through Remote Desktop leaves the person using the physical console logged in and apparently unlocked. They also receive no notification that an RDP session was opened. On standard Windows editions, I expected an RDP connection to lock or disconnect the active local session. Is this behavior specific to IoT Enterprise, or is it a new Windows 11 feature?
3 Answers
IoT Enterprise LTSC is known to handle concurrent local and remote sessions differently from Home, Pro, and standard Enterprise. For ordinary Windows editions, keeping the console user active usually requires a third-party remote-management tool or unsupported Terminal Services modifications, which can introduce maintenance and security problems.
Windows 11 IoT Enterprise can support multiple concurrent sessions, which appears to allow one local console session and one RDP session at the same time. The exact behavior may depend on the IoT edition and its licensing or session policies.
This is likely related to the way IoT Enterprise handles Remote Desktop, rather than a newly enabled feature across Windows 11. Windows Server has long allowed concurrent administrative sessions, and IoT editions may provide similar session behavior for their intended deployment scenarios.
In testing, this worked on several systems running IoT Enterprise 24H2. It did not behave the same way on regular Windows 11 Enterprise, so this seems edition-specific rather than a general Windows 11 change.