A mechanism for rapidly authenticating an interactive user in an operating system logon session based on a shared account by using a credential delivery application to enable permission-based access to a user's remote session from the shared account is disclosed. The present invention provides the ability to switch local interactive users, authenticate the new interactive user, and switch the remote session without requiring the client to first establish a new logon session tied to the new local interactive user. The present invention also alters the normal locking mechanism found in operating system logon sessions so as to restrict access to an interactive local user's applications (both local and remote) while still allowing the rapid switching of interactive users at the client device.