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Remote Administration (using WMI) on XP Pro

Posted January 2003 by Steve Sinchak

Complete the steps outlined below to successfully Administer (using WMI) many Remote settings on a Windows XP Pro machine.

Scope:

Lan setup
2 machines each running XP Pro
NTFS file systems
General Networking access to both PC's already setup (ie: same workgroup name, tcpip enabled etc..) Verify that both machines are seen and accessible through My Network Places.

Setup:

pc #1 = Machine that will control pc#2
pc #2 = Machine that will be controlled by pc#1
* Both computers will be using the original default "Administrator" account. For simplification, make sure the password is the same for each Administrator account on each machine.

  1. Login to XP Pro (pc#1) using the original Administrator account.
  2. Go to Administrative Tools/Services. Make sure that the services referenced below are started and set to startup Automatically.

COM+ Event System
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Remote Registry
Server
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extensions
WMI Performance Adapter
Workstation

Close the Services window.

  1. Go to Start/Run and paste in wmimgmt.msc and click OK. Right click on WMI Control (local) and select Properties.
    Click the Security tab and then click on Root.
    Click the Security button. Make sure the Administrator account is added and that the Allow column has checkmarks in all the options. click ok twice.

* If any changes were made above, reboot the machine.

  1. Login to pc #2 using the original Administrator account. Complete the same steps outlined directly above.

  2. Go back to pc #1 and login using the original Administrator account.

  3. Go to Administrative Tools.
    Right click on the Computer Management (local) entry and select Connect to another computer... Type in the name of pc #2 (example: pc2).

You are now connected to pc2 and can manage many settings/options/functions, including services/creating shares/user accounts/shutting down the machine/viewing event viewer/viewing device manager settings/changing the swap file size etc...
To shut down/restart/logoff the current user of the remote computer, right click on Computer Management (pc2) and select Properties from the menu then the Advanced Tab. Click the Shutdown button to access the options.

*Tip

Right click on many of the entries in computer management. You will see additional options to select from based on the applicable entry.

  1. Finalizing....

Go to Start/Search and type in mmc and click search. Locate and open the mmc.exe file.
Click File on the Menu then Add/Remove Snap-in... Click the Add button. Click Computer Management. Click Add. Change the radio button to the Another Computer: option. Type in the computer name pc2. click Finish/Close and OK. Click File on the menu then Save As... name the console pc2 and save it in your desired location. Anytime, you need to manage pc2 launch the pc2.msc file.

**Additional tips

Make sure to complete the above logged into the actual Administrator account. I use a seperate account named Admin for my Administrator account. So in the future, when I need to manage the other pc remotely, I right click on the pc2.msc file and select Run As... I then login with the  original Administrator account. This method is faster than logging out and logging in to the Administrator account and then accessing the pc2.msc file.

pc2 does not have to have the Administrator logged in when managing it from pc1. pc2 just needs to be started up.

The_Wizard

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