Opening a local command prompt for a remote machine
Posted in Using Sysinternals’ psexec it’s possible to open a command prompt on your local machine for a remote desktop or server. This can be a real time saver when you need to obtain information or issue a command on a remote machine but don’t want to connect to the machine using a remote desktop connection or remote connection software like VNC or Dameware. For example, if you wanted to check what DNS server a client computer is using you could start the psexec session and then issue the ipconfig /all command. This is much quicker than establishing a remote desktop connection and issuing the command within that session.
To open a remote command line, simply open a command prompt on your local machine and type:
psexec \\remotecomputer cmd.exe
Note that for the command above to work you’ll need psexec.exe in the current directory, or in a directory that is included in the path system environment variable. You’ll also need admin rights on the machine that you’re connecting to. You can specify a username and password by using the -u and -p switches
You can download the whole pstools kit, including psexec for free from www.sysinternals.com.
