Does command-line Windows Desktop management need to start from scratch?

When it comes to enterprise desktop management, administrators often rely on tools such as Microsoft's System Center series. However, many common Windows desktop management features can be executed from the command line without the need to invest in expensive management software.

Although PowerShell is a good choice for command-line management, it is not the only tool available. Microsoft also offers other command-line tools that are worth seeing. PowerShell can certainly handle most windows 7 or Windows 8 Desktop management tasks, but it often requires complex scripting. For example, Microsoft's "Quick and Dirty" software inventory actually relies on a fairly complex PowerShell script.

So, what's the best way to use the command line for Enterprise desktop management? Remember, there's no need to start all over, Microsoft has created some PowerShell scripts for desktop management, and you can download and use them for your own needs, such as Windows7 's device system inventory scripts.

Another way to simplify management is to use a Microsoft command-line tool called PsInfo that can be used to extract Windows desktop management information. The PsInfo tool is not a native Windows command, it is part of the PsTools collection.

First, you need to make sure that the Remote Registry service is turned on on every computer that needs to be managed with this tool. Windows Desktop Manager can support Windows XP and later versions, or support Windows Server 2003 and above.

For example, you can use this tool to determine which patches are installed on one computer and how much free disk space is left. In addition, you can use the command psinfo-h to see which patches have been applied to this desktop.

Of course, this is helpful for a one-time fault-scheduling scenario for single desktop management, but it doesn't really make much sense for large desktop management. Fortunately, PsInfo also includes features that are applied in a large scale environment.

You can use the "computer name" parameter to run PsInfo management for a particular remote desktop. However, this mode of operation is of no practical significance for a large number of remote system queries. In this case, you'd better use the "@ file" argument. The @ file parameter allows an administrator to put a list of computers that need to be managed into a text file.

If you plan to bulk manage remote desktops, you should also consider security and how to handle the output of the command.

As mentioned earlier, you must turn on the Remote Registry service for all target computers. This service allows the PsInfo program to obtain the configuration of the remote machine, but you must consider the security implications of enabling this service.

This makes me have to put forward a second need to explain the place, security. Enabling the Remote Registry service does not expose the remote computer completely to the external part. You must also provide the appropriate credentials to access the remote computer. This is done even with the-U and-p parameters. -U indicates the user name provided, and-P describes the supplied password. If you are managing multiple remote computers at the same time, the credentials provided must be valid for all target computers.

For the output of the control command, you can view the output on the screen. If the results of multiple computers need to be viewed, you can use the parameter "-C" to create a CSV file. You can also display only those fields that you want by filtering the parameters. For example, you can use a service filter to create a report that has been applied to a service pack for each target computer.

This brings up another problem. I just talked about using the PsInfo tool to update the monitoring information, but you can also use it to do something else. For example, use the parameter "-S" to display a list of applications installed on the target system. Similarly, the parameter "-D" can be used to display disk volume information.

You can also use the PsInfo tool to collect hardware inventory information, and you don't even need to provide any command-line arguments. The hardware information of the target computer can be obtained by simply entering the PsInfo command.

As you can see, Windows Desktop Management has a lot of good command-line tools. The PowerShell command is appropriate for Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers, but the PsInfo tool may be a better choice for those previous operating systems or for administrators who want to reduce the complexity of PowerShell scripts.