Remote Powershell

On my travels I picked up this useful method of remoting into another machines powershell. Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 have WinRm packed inside so you dont need to download anything. If your not sure you can try typing the following:

[PS] Get-Service winrm

On the server you want to remote into (lets call it the target), type the following:

[PS] Enable-PSRemoting

This command will start the WinRM service and sets the startup type to Automatic.  It will also enables a firewall exception for WS-Management communications and create a listener to accept requests on any IP address.
The next step involves establishing which machines can connect to the target (that is your client). On the target type the following:

[PS] cd wsman:
(note the colon:)

[PS] cd localhost\client

[PS] dir

You should see a table displayed indicating that the TrustedHosts has a no value. This has to be changed so that your client can connect. To do this type the following but note you MUST be in the WSMan namespace as shown above!

[PS] Set-Item TrustedHosts *

You should then restart the WinRm service

[PS] Restart-Service winrm 

You could have performed the action by typing one single cmdlet:

[PS] Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts *


Now that your target is configured, you need to configure the client. Type the following:

[PS] New-PSSession -computername "FQDN of the Target"

You should now see a table displayed referencing your session with an ID number. To display the session created at any time type the following:

[PS] Get-PSsession

To enter the session type the following:

[PS] Enter-PSsession -id (the numerical value of the session e.g. 1)

You should now be in the remote powershell! To end the session type the following:

[PS] Exit-PSsession

and to remove the seesion entirely type the following:

[PS] Remove-PSsession