Switch your HTPC back to Media Center after logging out of Remote Desktop

I have a Windows 7 Media Center PC hooked up to the TV in our living room.  It’s paired to a 4-stream Ceton CableCard adapter and is great for watching both TV and movies.

Sometimes I need to Remote Desktop (RDP) into the machine to install updates or make other changes.  During this, and after logging out, the Media Center PC is left at the login-screen on the TV.  So the next time I sit down to watch TV, I have to find the wireless keyboard and enter my password to log back in.

Since this can get annoying, I’ve created a small script on the desktop that automatically switches the console session (what’s shown on the TV) back to the primary user and re-starts Media Center.  This way, the next person that uses the TV doesn’t have to log back in.  When I’m done in the RDP session, I simply start the batch script and it logs me out of RDP and logs the TV back in.

Here’s the simple script:

call %windir%\system32\tscon.exe 1 /dest:console
start "Media Center" /max %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe
exit /b 1