logoff command is used to log off from the current Windows session from the command line. logoff command can be used for command prompt, MS-DOS, or cmd.exe as all of them are the same. logoff command can be also used to logoff different users from the remote desktop sessions. logoff command is available for all modern operating systems like Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019.
logoff Syntax
logoff command has very simple syntax like below.
logoff SESSION SERVER OPTION- SESSION is the session name or session ID we want to end.
- SERVER is the server or system we want to end sessions. If we will end for the current system we can omit this option.
- OPTION is an option like printing log.
logoff Options
The logoff command can accept the following options and parameters.
| OPTION | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| SESSION | Specify the sessions name |
| SESSIONID | Specify the session ID |
| /server:SERVERNAME | Specify the SERVERNAME. Optional |
| /v | Verbose or detailed output. |
| /? | Display help information. |
Logoff Current Session
You can use the logoff command without any parameter in order to end or logoff from the current user session. You do not need to provide any parameters.
C:\> logoffSend Message Before Logoff
When the logoff command is issued for a specific user or all users their currently running processes or changes will be killed or lost. So before running logoff for other users sending them a message will be useful. The msg command can be used to send messages about logoff.
> msg *
List Sessions
In order to use the logoff command to end another user session, the sessions should be listed properly with the session ID. The sessions can be listed by using the query session command from the command line.
C:\>query session
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
services 0 Disc
>console ismail 3 Active- SESSIONNAME is the session name
- USERNAME is the user currently logged in the given session.
- ID is the session ID.
- STATE is the session current state like active or passive.
Logoff Different User Session
We can also logoff different user sessions than current user session. We will just provide the user sessions ID. The session ID can be listed with the query session command which is decribed previously. In the following example we will logoff or kill the session with the session ID 3.
C:\> logoff 3Logoff Different User Session On Remote Server or System
logoff command can be also used to kill or end session on the remote systems or server. You should provide the server name with the /server option and the session name or session id like below.
C:\> logoff 3 /server:dc.windowstect.comOr IP address of the server can be also provided to run logoff command.
C:\> logoff 3 /server:192.168.10.20You can also provide the session name instead of the session id like below.
C:\> logoff console /server:dc.windowstect.comLogoff RPD Session
We can also log off remote desktop or RDP session with the logoff command. First, we will list current sessions with the query session command like below.
C:\>query session
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
services 0 Disc
console 1 Conn
>rdp-tcp#61 Administrator 2 Active
rdp-tcp 65536 ListenWe can see that the RDP session is named rdp-tcp#61 with the ID 2. Also the username is Administrator .We can end this RDP session with the SESSION NAME or SESSION ID like below.
C:\> logoff 2
C:\> logoff rdp-tcp#61