xCmd utility

The xCmd utility enables you to execute commands on remote Microsoft Windows systems without installing any client software. Using xCmd you can:

• Execute multiple commands on the remote computer.
• Execute internal commands directly, such as dir and so on.

The xCmd utility replaced the rctrlx utility, because xCmd can execute multiple commands simultaneously on the target computer.

The following adapters use the embedded xCmd utility to execute commands on remote Windows systems:

• Windows Command
• PowerShell
• Active Directory

The xCmd utility operates as follows:

1. xCmd connects to the ADMIN$ share ( a preexisting share used by Windows) and the IPC$ share on the target computer.
2. The utility copies an embedded service executable file to the directory mapped to the ADMIN$ share.
3. The utility then uses a Windows API to install the same executable file as a service and starts this service on the remote computer.
4. The utility connects to the service over a set of named pipes.
5. The utility uses a custom network protocol to send a message to the service to execute the target command by routing the standard output and error streams over the named pipe connections.
6. The utility stops the service, uninstalls it, and then deletes the file from the remote computer.