If you are a Windows system administrator, this Free Windows Admin Tools is going to help you optimize your day-to-day operations with ease. Developed by ManageEngine as part of its Desktop Central family, this tool set is provided as a separate download and is absolutely free to use. It runs on any of the Windows platforms, from XP and above with both 32-bit and 64-bit supported.
What’s included
The Free Windows Admin Tools consist of a decent amount of tools used by sysadmins on a daily basis, including:
- Remote Task Manager
- Wake on LAN
- Software Inventory
- Remote Command Prompt
- GPO Update
- Remote Shutdown/Restart
- Join/Unjoin Computer
- Currently Logged on Users
- Hard Disk Space Detector
- Local Users/Groups List
- Network Share Browser
- Laptop Battery Power Monitor
- System Inventory
- Remote Device Manager
How to get it
You can download and install the tool from here. You will need to provide some basic information, i.e. a work email address, to get the download link. The download file is tiny, only about 5MB.
Setting it up
Once installed, you can launch the tool by clicking the desktop shortcut. You can also pin the tool on the taskbar for easy access. The first thing to do after launching the tool is to add at least one Active Directory Domain.
Once you have at least one AD domain in place, you can start adding servers that you want to monitor or control. And of course, you can add desktop computers as well if managing them is also part of your job.
How to use it
There are three main panels in the tool. You select a computer you want to control from the first panel on the left, then pick one of 14 tools listed in the middle panel, and see or manage it on the right panel.
The computers/servers you manage can be organized in Groups so you can do some operations like Shutdown/Restart or Wake on LAN on a group of computers instead of on individual basis.
Verdict
The Free Windows Admin Tools is a useful toolset that helps sysadmins manage tasks on a small network on a daily basis. It could also be an addition to Microsoft’s Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) if you are using them.