My Windows XP Media Center is located in an entertainment center and hidden away from view. It runs 99 per cent of the time with the 10’ User Experience that I control via my remote control. In order to ensure that machine is always running in the 10’ User Experience it is configured to automatically logon using the Windows XP Tweak UI Power Toy upon boot. This works well, but if I connect to the mahine via a remote desktop connection and then logoff, it leaves the computer with a Windows XP logon dialog.  

I ended up doing the following:

1. Downloaded PsShutdown from Sysinternals which allows me to initiate a shutdown and restart
2. Ran Group Policy Editor (Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc)
3. In Group Policy Editor went to User Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Scripts (Logon/Logoff) and selected Logoff
4. Pointed the LogOff Script to psshutdown.exe -r -t 10

Now whenever I log off of the Media Center PC it forces a reboot ensuring that the machine is always running in the correct state and ready for use. If anyone has a better way I’m all ears.

Postscript: J.P. Stewart asks in my comments , why didn’t I just restart the ehome shell upon logoff instead of forcing a restart of XP? The problem is that upon connection to the media center via remote desktop, Windows XP securely locks the local connection displaying the Windows XP logon screen on the Television set. I need to restart the machine in order to login, leaving my media center machine in wife acceptance mode.