Find out who is logged on to a computer

Download PsTools from here which contains a suite of useful utilities. One of them is called psloggedon which allows you to see who is logged onto a specific computer.

C:\program files\PsTools>psloggedon.exe \\computername

loggedon v1.33 - See who's logged on
Copyright ® 2000-2006 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Users logged on locally:
     Error: could not retrieve logon time
NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE
     Error: could not retrieve logon time
NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
     Error: could not retrieve logon time
domain\xpid
     Error: could not retrieve logon time
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM

Users logged on via resource shares:
     11/01/2010 13:36:31    domain\myxpid

Add Shutdown Icon to Desktop

Today, I added a shutdown icon to my Dad's Windows XP desktop, to make it easier for him to turn off the computer. This is how you can do it:

• Right-click on the desktop and choose New > Shortcut.
• Type shutdown.exe -s -t 00 in the location box and press Next.
• Type Turn off computer as the name of the shortcut and then press Finish.
• Right-click the new icon that has appeared on the desktop and select Properties.
• Click the Change Icon... button on the Shortcut tab.
• Type %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll in the location box and pick the Shutdown icon, which looks like a red square containing a circle with a vertical line.

Now, you can shutdown your computer by simply clicking the "Turn off computer" icon on your desktop, instead of going via the Start menu.

XP Uptime Record

My computer has been up for 151 days!

This is the XP machine I use every day at work and even log on from home, after work and on weekends. I'm surprised to see that it hasn't needed a reboot for so long.

Sadly, there's a powerdown in the building tonight...

Finding Uptime on XP
Use the systeminfo command and the look for "System Up Time"

C:\> systeminfo | find "System Up"
  System Up Time: 151 Days, 9 Hours, 45 Minutes, 8 Seconds

Finding Uptime on Solaris or Linux
Use the uptime command:

sharfah@starship:~> uptime
  5:46pm  up 2 day(s), 7:30, 1 user, load average: 3.79, 5.55, 5.41

You can also find out when your system booted up, by using who -b:

sharfah@starship:~> who -b
 system boot Dec 10 11:16