windows3-4  Exercise 3: Measure the Cost of a Remote Desktop Session
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Verification: Level 2 (needs a second machine or a session you can open; it changes nothing on the PC; not run here).

Prediction (work this out before running the script):

  Before connecting: predict whether the new session will add roughly 50, 500 or 5,000 MB, and whether session
  0 (services) will change much. Write the prediction down before you look.

Method (sessions.ps1 saved in the current folder; run it on the machine you connect TO, not the one you connect from):

  1. .\sessions.ps1                       (baseline)
  2. Connect with Remote Desktop and use the remote session for a few minutes, as you normally would.
  3. .\sessions.ps1 again, from your original session.
  4. Subtract: the new session's row is the cost of that session; the change in the other rows is what the
     connection did to them.

To see the client side as well, run the same census idea on mstsc.exe (the Remote Desktop client) on the
machine you connect FROM.

Output (not run here: no remote session was open when this chapter was written; this is the baseline only):

  Baseline, run on the author's machine; the after rows are yours to fill in:

    Baseline (no remote session open):
    Session 0: 150 processes, private working set  2,469 MB
    Session 1: 149 processes, private working set  4,601 MB

    After connecting:    Session 2: ___ processes, private working set ___ MB   (fill in)
    Session 0 change:    ___ MB   Session 1 change: ___ MB

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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  This answer is a method, not a result. No remote session was open on the author's machine, and no
  figure for a remote session was measured, so none is stated here.
  How to read what you get: the new session's row is the memory its own desktop processes and programs hold
  (Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services overview says each user gets an isolated session); a large change in
  session 0 would mean the connection started services; a change in session 1 is normal drift from whatever
  you were doing. Compare against the baseline's 149 processes and 4,601 MB for a normal signed-in session to
  judge scale.
  Common mistakes: running the script from inside the remote session and mistaking it for the host's local
  session; comparing a quiet remote session to a busy local one; and drawing a conclusion from one connection
  (the cost depends on what you run in it).