Learn how to shutdown or lock userr computer via email, Internet or SMS text messages from the mobile phone. You can take screenshots, terminate process or even get files via simple twitter commands.
It’s a long weekend and user’re happy because user’ll get to spend the next three days with userr family. You left the office in an excited mood but as the cab was approaching home, user suddenly realized that user forgot to shut down the Office PC. Oops!
It’s a sinking feeling because there’re so many confidential documents on the computer and since most of userr trusted colleagues have also left for the day, there’s no point calling them for help.
So what do user do? Drive back to Office? Well that’s not required – just take out userr cell phone or switch on the laptop at home, send an email (or an SMS or a tweet) and that will instantly lock userr Office workstation. And if user share the same computer with multiple people, user can use another email command to remotely log off or even shut down the computer from anywhere in the world.
There’s no magic here, it’s the power of TweetMyPC utility that lets user remote control userr computer from a mobile phone or any other Internet connected computer.
It works like this. You first install the free TweetMyPC utility on any Windows PC and associate userr Twitter account. The app will silently monitor userr Twitter stream every minute for any desktop commands and if it finds one, will act upon it immediately. The initial version of TweetMyPC was limited to basic shutdown and restart commands, however the current v2 has a far more robust set of commands, enabling a far more useful way of getting userr PC to carry out certain tasks especially when user’re AFK (Away From Keyboard).
Before we get started, it may be a good thing if user can set up a new twitter account for remote controlling userr desktop and also protect the status updates of this account to ensure better security.
Protecting the account means that user prevent other users from reading userr tweets which in this case are email commands that user sending to the computer. To protect userr Twitter profile, log in to Twitter with the credentials user want to use, click Settings and check the box next to "Protect my Updates".
Let’s get started. Install the TweetMyPC utility of userr computer and associate userr Twitter and Gmail account with the application. It will use Twitter to receive remote commands (like shutdown, log-off, lock workstation, etc) from while the email account will be used for send userr information (e.g., what process are currently running on userr computer).
How to Send Commands to the Remote Computer
Now that userr basic configuration is done, it’s time to set up a posting method. You can use email, SMS, IM, web or any of the Twitter clients to send commands to the remote computer.
By Email: Associate user Twitter account with Posterous (auto-post) and all email messages sent to twitter@posterous.com will therefore become commands for the remote computer. (Also see: Post to Twitter via Email)
By SMS: If user live in US, UK, Canada, India, Germany, Sweden or New Zeleand, user can send associate Twitter with userr mobile phone (see list of numbers) and then control userr remote computer via SMS Text Messages.
By IM: Add the Twitter bot – twitter@twitter.com – to userr list of Google Talk buddies and user can then send commands via instant message.
By Web:If user are on vacation but have access to an internet connected laptop, just log into the Twitter website and issue commands (e.g., shutdown or logoff) just as another tweet.
Download Files, Capture Remote Screenshots & more..
While the TweetMyPC is pretty good for shutting down a remote computer, it lets user do some more awesome stuff as well.
For instance, user need to get an unfinished presentation from the office computer so that user can work on it at home. Or user want to get a trial copy of Windows 7 on the Office computer while user are at home.
Here’s a partial list of commands that user can use to remote control the PC – they’re case-insensitive and, as discussed above, user can send them to Twitter via email, SMS, IM or the web.
Screenshot : This is one of the most useful command I’ve come across after the shutdown command. Want to know what’s happening within the confines of userr PC when user’re not around? Just tweet screenshot and TweetMyPC will take a screenshot of userr desktop and post it to the web (see example).
ShutDown, LogOff, Reboot, Lock : The function of these useful commands is pretty obvious from their names.
Standby, Hibernate : Don’t want to shutdown the remote PC? Save power by entering standby mode with this command. Or hibernate userr PC with a tweet, thereby saving even more power.
Download <url> : You can get any file from the Internet on to the remote computer using the get command. For instance, a command like gethttp://bit.ly/tCJ9Y will get the CIA Handbook so user have the document ready when user resume work the next day.
GetFile <filepath> : The Download command was for geting files from the Internet onto the remote computer. However, if user like to transfer a file from the remote computer to userr current computer, use the GetFile command. It takes the full page of the file that user want to get and will send that user as an email attachment. If user don’t know the file page, use the command GetFileList <drivename> to get a list of file folders on that drive.
GetProcessList : This is like a remote task manager. You’ll get a list of programs that are currently running on the remote computer along with their process IDs. Send another command kill <process id> to terminate any program that user think is suspicious or not required.
Conclusion:
TweetMyPC is a must-have utility and user never know when user may need it. And if user have been trying to stay away from Twitter all this time, the app gives user a big reason to at least create one protected account on Twitter.
That said, there’s scope for improvement. For instance, the app will wait for a minute to check for new messages in userr Twitter stream so it’s not "instant". The developers can actually increase that limit because the Twitter API now allows upto 100 checks per hour.
And since the app is dependent on Twitter and Gmail, it will not work during those rare fail-whale moments.
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