Is there a program or way to monitor or record or track a remote desktop session?

Question

I may be hiring some remote employees and would like a way to track that they are working when they say they are.

Is there a way to track how and when someone connects via remote desktop to a computer? Is there a way remote desktop can record or piggyback/watch a session to see the work done?

When I say remote desktop, I mean the default RDP that comes with Windows.

Basically, I want to have some sort of backup for the employee so when he says he works 9-5, I can verify that he was on the computer doing something.

EDIT: Adding here as this came up, that the machines I wish to track that are getting remoted into are Windows XP machines.

EDIT 2: We got rid of those XP machine and are now using Windows 10. I would still be interested in a way to do what I'm asking for Windows 10. So far we still have been going off of the trust system but I would still like a concrete way to tell. The email answer might let me know when they get on and off, but not if they are away from keyboard. The employee could log on and walk away and log out at 5pm and it would look like they are working. I'm thinking more of an idle tracker or something.

Solution

Audit Policy for Logons on the computer - you can do it on a single workstation editing its Local Security Policy. Active Directory domain? use group policy...

Goto Computer Management (right click over My Computer) System Tools, Event viewer and window logs, select Security. (win7)

Check Events in Security for Event Code = 528 (loggedOn) and/or Logon Type = 10 (Remote) Select the event and then select "Attach Task to this event" and go thru the wizard and select "send an email" on the event (must have a smtp server info to use). Then whenever they logon you get an email. Do it for the logoff event too. Of course you do not have to do this task/email. You would have to manually check the logs and read/search for the events. Would be a lot easier to get the emails than checking them yourself.

The image below shows normal log on / off events, you will need to select the 528 events with the type 10 code-

Comments

[Logman]

if you want to just see when they logon and off you can use auditing. But just because they log on and off does not mean they are working.

[Logman]

just a thought, if you have a screen saver enabled, you can also use auditing to capture the event. If the screen saver fires does the rdp connection lose connection?

[washbow]

I think VNC sessions or a similar technology could be used to observe the desktop in real time. Using this to record multiple computers for long periods is much harder to do however.

[SolidSnake4444]

Due to disk space I assume?

[SolidSnake4444]

So in your picture, where it says 4624, I should actually be looking for code 528 in that space? Does sending an email require an email program to be installed, such as outlook? I'm not familiar with how the screen saver affects this. Were you suggesting in the comments above that the screen saver has it's own code that I can check to determine if the user is idle? Thank you very much for your comments so far.

[SolidSnake4444]

I looked real fast in the attach task and the email section was asking for smtp server....what would I use for that?

[SolidSnake4444]

Oh by the way, the machine they are remoting into is an XP machine, I did not see these options in the eventvwr on the XP machine. I'm still interested in the answers for my previous comments as some machines are windows 7 but most are XP. Any XP solution for the same thing? Logon tracking.

[Logman]

are the comps on a domain? 2003? 2008? 2012? workgroup?

[Logman]

intelliadmin.com/index.php/2011/01/…

[SolidSnake4444]

The computers are on a domain. The user will VPN to the network and then remote desktop to their computers, which mainly are Windows XP machines with Visual Studio. This is mainly what I want to track, to see if they are logging on and off of the Windows XP machine.

[Logman]

these xp machines XP home edition? Home edition does not have auditing... your question posted her is too broad, and I probably should not have answered it but just pointed you in a direction. THis site has more info with auditing on XP: blog.windowsnt.lv/2011/11/15/tracking-user-activity-english

[SolidSnake4444]

The machines are pro edition.

[G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica']

Please see How do I recommend software in my answers? In particular, at a bare minimum, say where to get the software.

[SolidSnake4444]

Sorry to resurrect but we are using Windows 10 machine now. Does this method have a way to track idle so a user can't just log on and walk away?