Remote shutdown of computers

[kumarkumar]

I am trying to shutdown computers remotely.

All the computers are in the same workgroup. They are not part of any domain. They all have the same login username with no password, which is configured for auto login.

I am not able to shutdown any computer remotely from any of the computers using the command "shutdown -s -m \\computername". I get the message "Access denied".

I tried the suggestion mentioned here http://www.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin/2003-02/2268.html. No luck

I also tried with PsShutdown. Same error.

Edited December 26, 2010 by kumarkumar

[allen2]

Psshutdown should work when using -u and -p options but i never tried with empty password. Also when using a local account on the target computer, the syntax of psshutdown should be as follow:

psshutdown -s \\target -u target\administrator -p password

[kumarkumar]

Psshutdown should work when using -u and -p options but i never tried with empty password. Also when using a local account on the target computer, the syntax of psshutdown should be as follow:

psshutdown -s \\target -u target\administrator -p password

Tried that too, both without specifying any password in "-p password" and without using the "-p" flag (in this case it asks for the password after you hit enter). Same error.

[rajuraja]

Psshutdown should work when using -u and -p options but i never tried with empty password. Also when using a local account on the target computer, the syntax of psshutdown should be as follow:

psshutdown -s \\target -u target\administrator -p password

Tried that too, both without specifying any password in "-p password" and without using the "-p" flag (in this case it asks for the password after you hit enter). Same error.

I suspect, PSShutdown dont work if its blank password....try after defining a password...

[schloss]

...

They all have ... no password

...

If they have no password, NO remote access to Windows will work, neither shutdown, nor psshutdown.

[kumarkumar]

I suspect, PSShutdown dont work if its blank password....try after defining a password...

If they have no password, NO remote access to Windows will work, neither shutdown, nor psshutdown.

Yep, that was the root cause. Put in some password and now everything works, including Remote Desktop which too wasn't working.

Thanks to rajuraja and schloss.