Using psExec to Open a Remote Command Window

  • Article

System Center Essentials provides several ways to remotely manage computers, including:

  • Computer Management MMC
  • Remote Desktop
  • Remote Assistance
  • Tasks to show current information, such as process usage

Sometimes though what is wanted is just a remote command window without the overhead of opening a full remote desktop session.

The PsExec tool which is one of the SysInternals tools provides a way to open a remote command window without needing to install anything on the remote computer.

You can find out more about PsExec from:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

With psExec installed you can open a remote command prompt by calling it as follows:

psExec \\computer cmd

If you have psExec installed on your computer with the Essentials console you can create a task in Essentials to open a remote command window from within Essentials.

To create this task:

  1. Go to the Authoring workspace
  2. In the navigation pane on the left hand side, expand Management Pack Objects and select Tasks
  3. From the Tasks pane, select Create a New Task
  4. Select Command Line from the Console Tasks folder and click Next
  5. In the Task Name field, type "Remote Command Window"
  6. In the Description type "Use the SysInternals PsExec tool to open a remote command window for the selected computer. PsExec must be installed on the computer with the Essentials console."
  7. In the Task Target, click Select and then choose Windows Computer and click OK
  8. Click Next
  9. In the Application field, type the full path the psexec.exe on the Essentials console (e.g. C:\pstools\psexec.exe). If you have the console on multiple computers you will need psExec installed in the same location on each of them.
  10. Enter \\ then Click the arrow at the end of the Parameters field and select Net BIOS Computer Name, then add a space and enter cmd
  11. Uncheck the Display output when this task is run box
  12. Click Create

In the Computers workspace, with a computer selected there is now a "Remote Command Window" task that is available. Selecting this task will open a remote command window for the selected computer.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Yay but how do you get a ip user and password

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Yay but how do you get a ip user and password

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2012
    Great.. Great... Great.. Thank you!!!

  • Anonymous
    April 29, 2013
    Cool.

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2013
    whenever i click on psexec it pops up and disappears

  • Anonymous
    October 16, 2013
    You have to copy all the tools in Cwindowssystem32 and after that you can run them from cmd.

  • Anonymous
    December 04, 2013
    Voila! Many Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    February 03, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 25, 2014
    "Sad -.-!"

  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2014
    Works fine for me on Windows 7 Pro - in Domain environment.

  • Anonymous
    May 23, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2014
    Remote system pc to pc connecte

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2014
    Is there any secuirty issues using this command and is it reliable ?

  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2014
    Thank you so much !

  • Anonymous
    August 04, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 09, 2014
    Can we use Psexec for remote EXE installation??? If it is possible,
    My computer is AAAA-PC and my remote computer is YYYY-PC.
    I wanna install a exe file say Something.exe in my YYYY-PC through AAAA-PC.
    That exe is located on C:Folder1Folder2Something.exe. in AAAA-PC
    Please tell me the PSexec command to install that file..!
    also that exe has some parameters..

  • Anonymous
    October 16, 2014
    Is it still possible to access the remote PC if it is in recovery mode?

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2014
    You do Better
    Command Prompt is the best technique to communicate.
    -Thanks

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2014
    Please tell me how I edit the picture of me in the first comment.

    -Thanks

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2014
    Hello we were Friends
    Is it possible to do command on command prompt
    to do work on the PC?
    Can we work on command prompt to use previous versions?

  • Anonymous
    October 28, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2014
    The comment has been removed

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    December 26, 2014
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    March 09, 2015
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  • Anonymous
    March 25, 2015
    Awesome, thanks!

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2015
    very powerful indeed!

  • Anonymous
    September 10, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 13, 2015
    Works fine under Windows 10. The only question I have is how do I use the command script available at the destination machine?

  • Anonymous
    March 01, 2016
    can i open command window in same computer