Nothing kills a Media Center user like having to pull out the old keyboard and mouse just to sit in front of the TV and run some updates or install new software.  Many have turned to a feature in Windows known as Remote Desktop Connection. This feature, though only included in some versions of Windows, provides an easy way to connect to your Media Center form your everyday desktop PC.

Unfortunately, as long as you are logged into the Media Center no one else can use it.  This means that even though you may feel a little more comfortable the family still loses out on movie time. The solution is Concurrent User Sessions, allowing the Media Center to remain on the TV while letting another user in behind the scenes.

Thanks to the fine folks at Missing Remote  and friends, getting your Windows 7 machine to allow concurrent user sessions is as easy a running a simple command line program.  Just download the program here then right-click install.cmd to “Run as Administrator.” That should be all there is too it.

There are also a few command line options which can be run from either an elevated command prompt (type cmd into the start box and press ctrl-shift-enter) or a shortcut run as administrator. To enable blank passwords use “–blank”, “-multi” to enable multiple sessions per user.

Thanks to Missing Remote, Pinobigbird, untermensch and cocoa, we can now sit in the comfort of our well worn desk chairs to work on Media Center without disturbing the family (and incurring the wrath of significant others). Find the original article from Missing Remote right here.