Using Windows Admin Center – Deploy Windows client

After you have set up Windows Admin Center, you can start managing computers. The first step is to add computers to the available connections. Use the following procedure.

1. In the console, select Add.
2. On the Add or create resources blade, select the type of resource.
3. Choose between Servers, Windows PCs, Server Clusters, or Azure VMs. In this case, in the Windows PCs section, select Add.
4. On the Connection tags blade, in the Computer name box, enter the name of the remote computer. Windows Admin Center will search for the device and declare that it has been found. Select Add.
5. Windows Admin Center now updates to include the newly added computer.
6. Select it from the All connections list to connect to a remote computer, as shown in Figure 1-22. All computers to be managed remotely should have the Remote Management service configured and running. (This uses the winrm quickconfig command, as you will learn later in this chapter.)

FIGURE 1-22 Windows Admin Center All Connections list

You can then use the navigation pane on the left to select a specific management component. The system overview is displayed in Figure 1-23.

FIGURE 1-23 Connecting to a remote computer using the Windows Admin Center

You can manage many aspects of a remote computer, including the following.

• Restart or shut down the computer.
• Edit the computer ID.
• Add or remove apps and features.
• Review installed certificates.
• Review the event logs.
• Navigate the file system and manage shared resources.
• Review and configure network and firewall settings.
• Gather performance-related data.
• Configure the registry.
• Manage scheduled tasks.
• Manage services and storage.
• Certificate management.
• Manage virtual machines and switches.

The Windows Admin Center also allows you to run scripts directly from the tool through the web-based PowerShell console. The PowerShell symbol >_ is displayed in the top-right corner of Figure 1-23.

Configure PowerShell remoting and Windows Remote Management (WinRM)

Using Windows PowerShell cmdlets can sometimes seem daunting if you are unfamiliar with PowerShell. PowerShell offers a convenient and quick way of configuring many machines faster than a graphical tool. In addition, you can use Windows PowerShell to complete frequently performed management tasks using scripting.

Using Windows PowerShell to manage remote computers is referred to as Windows PowerShell remoting, but before you can use Windows PowerShell remoting, you must know how to enable and configure it.