Can I reboot a Vista machine from another machine on the same network?

December 30, 2008 10:37 AM

Can I restart a Vista machine from another Vista machine on the same network?

I'm troubleshooting two Vista computers on a LAN using a 3rd party remote desktop tool. Occasionally the remote desktop freezes the system and I'm screwed. Is there a way I can reboot the frozen machine by logging into the other and issuing a command? I seem to remember windows having a restart command, and also an IT guy at a former job using it over the network.

Is this possible and what do I need to pull it off?

posted by miniape to computers & internet (7 comments total)

At the command line: shutdown -r -m \\machinename

Complete list of switches:

-i : Display GUI interface, must be the first option
-l : Log off (cannot be used with -m option)
-s : Shutdown the computer
-r : Shutdown and restart the computer
-a : Abort a system shutdown
-m \\computername : Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort
-t xx : Set timeout for shutdown to xx seconds
-c “comment” : Shutdown comment (maximum of 127 characters)
-f : Forces running applications to close without warning
-d [u][p]:xx:yy : The reason code for the shutdown

Let me know if you need more info, but that should do it for you.
posted by ElDiabloConQueso at 10:51 AM on December 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

No, a frozen machine will basically never respond to network requests or commands. If when you get to the machine, it doesn't respond to local console input, it is truly frozen and will be inaccessible from the network.

If it is the 3rd party remote control software that is freezing the machine, I'd suggest using Remote Desktop Connection as your remote desktop tool.
posted by McGuillicuddy at 11:04 AM on December 30, 2008

Depends whats frozen. If its just the VNC service then the shutdown command will work. So will psexec.

He's probably using 3rd party because he has Vista home. The home versions dont support remote desktop. Supposedly there are hacks which fix this.

Worst case scenario is something like this remote reboot device.
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:18 AM on December 30, 2008

Thanks
posted by miniape at 11:26 AM on December 30, 2008

If the remote desktop session is frozen and not the computer, you can try RWINSTA:

RESET SESSION {sessionname | sessionid} [/SERVER:servername] [/V]
posted by wongcorgi at 12:20 PM on December 30, 2008

If you can't ping it, no software will work. (Assuming you haven't turned ping off.)

If you're really motivated, similar to damn dirty ape's suggestion, these guys have some wonderfully high priced, but functional, stuff. Reduces support costs A LOT in the right environment.
posted by gjc at 5:40 PM on December 30, 2008

You can also turn on a telnet server in the machine you're remoting to, which will let you log in and run commands on it even if all the fancy RPC-based stuff is down. Don't do this on a network accessible to black hats, because telnet is all kinds of insecure.
posted by flabdablet at 12:03 AM on December 31, 2008