There are two ways to close a Winstat window. One is to "disconnect" from it. This closes the window on your PC, but leaves your session running on the server for up to three hours. You can disconnect from a session by clicking Start, Shut Down and then Disconnect, but you also disconnect automatically if you just close a Winstat window by clicking on the 'X' in the upper right corner.
Disconnecting makes sense if you'll be reconnecting to your session soon. However, leaving disconnected sessions active for long periods can cause problems. Your Winstat profile, which contains your settings and anything on your Desktop or in My Documents, is only saved when you log out. If you have a session open and then create a new one, you can end up with two different versions of your profile and any files it contains. (We strongly recommend you save everything on network drives like U: so you don't have to worry about this problem.) Disconnected sessions also take up resources on the server.
If you need to run a long job, do not disconnect from the server or the job will be terminated when your session is shut down after three hours.
The other option is to log off, which closes the Winstat window on your PC and ends your session on the server. This avoids all the problems associated with disconnected sessions, and guarantees you'll get a fresh start when you log in next time. Note that if it takes you a long time to log in when you start a fresh session, it's because your profile has become large--see the May 2009 SSCC News for details, or ask the Help Desk to assist you in reducing the size of your profile.
We strongly suggest that you log off of Winstat whenever you're done using it unless you're running a long job or will be coming back to shortly.
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