"The Windows NT and Windows 2000 Resource Kits come with a number of command line tools that help you administer your Windows NT/2K systems. Over time, I've grown a collection of similar tools, including some not included in the Resource Kits. What sets these tools apart is that they all allow you to manage remote systems as well as the local one. The first tool in the suite was PsList, a tool that lets you view detailed information about processes, and the suite is continually growing. The "Ps" prefix in PsList relates to the fact that the standard UNIX process listing command-line tool is named "ps", so I've adopted this prefix for all the tools in order to tie them together into a suite of tools named PsTools.
The tools included in the PsTools suite, which are downloadable individually or as a package, are:
PsExec - execute processes remotely PsFile - shows files opened remotely PsGetSid - display the SID of a computer or a user PsKill - kill processes by name or process ID PsInfo - list information about a system PsList - list detailed information about processes PsLoggedOn - see who's logged on locally and via resource sharing (full source is included) PsLogList - dump event log records PsPasswd - changes account passwords PsService - view and control services PsShutdown - shuts down and optionally reboots a computer PsSuspend - suspends processes PsUptime - shows you how long a system has been running since its last reboot (PsUptime's functionality has been incorporated into PsInfo)All of the utilities in the PsTools suite work on both Windows NT and Windows 2000. The PsTools download package includes an HTML help file with complete usage information for all the tools.
Installation
None of the tools requires any special installation. You don't even need to install any client software on the remote computers at which you target them. Run them by typing their name and any command-line options you want. To show complete usage information, specify the "-?" command-line option."
