KB ID 0001374
Problem
If you intend to shutdown, or restart a remote computer using PowerShell, you may see the following error message;
PS C:\> Restart-Computer “Computer-name“
Restart-Computer : This command cannot be run on target computer(‘Computer-name’) due to following error: The system shutdown cannot be initiated because there are other users logged on to the computer.
At line:1 char:1
+ REstart-Computer “Computer-name“
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (Computer-name:String) [Restart-Computer], InvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RestartComputerFailed, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RestartComputerCommand
Solution
You need to add the -Force flag to the command like so;
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
NA
It is a fact that Windows administrators periodically need to reboot servers and desktops. Because of this fact, I always was running into scripts that would remotely reboot a group of computers. But in PowerShell, this is now (dangerously) easy and no scripting is required. All we need is the Restart-Computer cmdlet. The Restart-Computer cmdlet will fail, if a logon session is detected. PowerShell will raise an exception. However, you can force a reboot using — what else? — the -force parameter. Be aware this will force applications to close with the potential loss of unsaved work.
You can reboot the remote computer in the following way, with credentials from powershell:
Restart-Computer -ComputerName -Force –user
Ex:
Restart-Computer -ComputerName tests -Force –user
(it will ask you to enter the administrator credentials of the team in question)