Powershell really is a game changer when it comes management and scripting on Windows, but one of the areas where it really shines is in its remoting capability. Powershell remoting lets you connect to a remote system and run commands locally, then returns the results to the calling machine. This can be done as an automated block or as an interactive session.

Remoting requires Powershell 2.0 which comes built-in on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2, but it needs to be installed on Windows Vista / Server 2008 and below. The WinRM service will also have to be configured and enabled.

I’ll show you how to accomplish this with group policy for the range of operating systems that can run it.

Update 2013/02/20: I have confirmed that this method is working on Server 2012 (core and GUI) as well.

Update 2013/05/07: With the help of Jacob in the comments below, I was able to fix a problem in the VB Script. Since Powershell requires the .NET framework, this whole process will fail on Windows 2003 / XP if .NET is not installed. The VB Script now installs .NET as part of the process. The GitHub Gist has been updated. Thanks Jacob!

Update 2013/10/09: Updated the name of the WinRM policy setting based on user comments. Thanks to Micahel M. of Miller Computers and Giorgi Gordeziani.

Continue Reading »