Exiting a Remote Desktop Session: Why It Matters

Just like there's a difference between restarting a computer and simply powering it off and on again, there's an important distinction between how you end a Remote Desktop session.
Many users simply click the “X” in the top-right corner of the Remote Desktop window to exit — but this doesn't actually end your session.

There are two main ways to exit a Remote Desktop session:

Sign Out / Log Off

• Ends your session completely on the remote computer or server.

• All running applications are closed, and any unsaved work will be lost.

• The next time you log in, a fresh session is started with a clean environment (e.g., printers reloaded, memory cleared).

This is the equivalent of restarting your session — it helps free up resources and prevent system slowdowns.

Disconnect

• Leaves your session running in the background.

• All applications remain open, and you can resume exactly where you left off when you reconnect.

• Useful if you're switching devices or running a long process (e.g., large data transfers or batch jobs) that you want to check on later.

However, keeping disconnected sessions open consumes server resources, which can negatively impact performance for other users.

✅ Our Recommendation

We strongly recommend that you always Sign Out / Log Off when you're done — even if you're just stepping away for lunch.

Why?

• Freeing up memory and CPU ensures better performance for everyone.

• It refreshes the session environment, which is especially important for memory-heavy applications like Google Chrome.

• It prevents abandoned or stuck sessions from causing system issues later on.

If you need to keep a task running, disconnecting temporarily is okay — just be mindful to log off when it’s no longer necessary.