How To Sign Out Other Users From Windows 10
Desktop operating systems aren’t built for single users. We may have laptops that are exclusively used by one person but the operating system they run can support multiple users. For each user that you add, a separate user folder is created and the user gets their own libraries and their own system settings including a wallpaper, default apps, and their own Start menu layout. Multiple users can be signed into a Windows machine but you can sign out other users without having to switch over to them. Here’s how.
Sign Out Other Users
Open the Task Manager with administrative rights and go to the Users tab. The Users tab will show you all users that are currently signed in to the system, and how much CPU and RAM each user is using. Your user, the one you’re signed into, will also be listed.
Right-click the user you want to sign out and select the ‘Sign off’ option. It goes without saying that when you sign out other users on Windows 10, all apps, files, and folders that are open will be closed. Nothing that isn’t automatically saved will be lost e.g., if the user has a Microsoft Word document open, the auto-save feature is the only thing that will save their work.
If you don’t want to go through the Task Manager, you can also use the Command Prompt to sign out other users.
Open the Command Prompt with administrative rights, or if you’re the administrator, open a simple Command Prompt window and run the following command in it;
query session
This will list all the users that are currently signed in on the system. Take note of the ID assigned to each user. You will need the user ID for the command to sign out the user.
To sign out the user, run the following command.
logoff ID No.
Example
logoff 1
With Command Prompt, you won’t get an alert telling you that the user you’re signing out will lose work if it isn’t saved first and that all the apps and folders will be closed.
Remember that when you sign out other users, they can lose work. As bad as that is, there’s no loss of sensitive data but that doesn’t mean you should sign out other users just because you can. If we’re being perfectly honest, a user can just hold down the power button and shut down the system signing everyone out so your work is gone anyway so signing out other users when you have no good reason to isn’t the nicest thing to do on a shared system.
