Remote administration has become an important part of daily administration tasks for system and network administrators. Desktop Central is a free Windows tool that makes Windows Administration easier on a day-to-day basis. It has 12 tools, which provide remote management of systems, wake on LAN options, remote command prompt, GPO (Group Policy) update, hard disk space detection, power monitoring for portable computers on the network (such as laptops), etc.
The main interface displays a list of all the available tools. Click on a specific tool in order to configure options regarding it.
For example, to monitor the battery of a computer on the network, click on the Laptop Battery Power Monitor and add a domain name, followed by the login credentials.
A detailed overview of the available tools is as follows:
- Remote Task Manager
Allows to view the running processes on remote computers along with session, process, memory, usage IDs and provides remote termination option to end a running processes.
- Wake On LAN Tool
For remotely booting computers (including simultaneous booting of multiple computers) on a Local Area Network (LAN).
- Software Inventory Tool
To retrieve details of installed software on system within a Windows Domain environment. The software details include its name, version, manufacturer’s name and usage stats. The available information can also be exported as a CSV file.
- Remote Command Prompt Tool
Allows remote execution of command on network system via command prompt.
- GPO Update
Allows updating group policy of multiple computers of a Domain simultaneously
- Shutdown/Restart Tool
Can be used to restart or shutdown Domain computers by specifying their credentials. this can however, also be done by a many shutdown command quite commonly.
- Join/Unjoin Computer Tool
For shifting a system from one Domain to another or to /from a workgroup.
- Currently Logged On User
This utility shows the current users logged on to a computer remote computer.
- Hard Disk Space Monitoring Tool
Allows retrieving and saving (in CSV format) information about the Hard Disk of a remote computer.
- Local Users/Groups Tool
Allows obtaining information about local users and groups for systems on a network.
- Network Share Browser Tool
Can be used to obtain information about the files, folders and active Sessions of the shares in a remote computer. All results can be saved in CSV format.
- Laptop Battery Power Monitor Tool
Desktop Central can be used to administer
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Windows Server 2003
- Windows Server 2008
