Is there any way to connect to Windows PowerShell from the terminal?

Question

I want to access a Windows machine from Ubuntu. I don't want to connect with to the GUI (rdesktop) - instead I want to connect to Windows PowerShell from the terminal.

This is because I want to administer the Windows machine similarly to how you can administer a headless Linux server: running background jobs, writing shell scripts to perform daily/weekly remote maintenance, shutting down/logging off thru shell scripts.

Will rlogin work, and if so how? If not, what other options are there?

Solution

There's a commercial proprietary tool called PowerShell SSH Server (read TechNet description) that will let you log in over SSH.

There's also a free proprietary tool freeSSHd - you can run it and replace the standard cmd command shell with PowerShell.

Finally, if you'd prefer a free software (open source) solution, you can install the Cygwin SSH server and run PowerShell under that. (Apparently this is slower.)

Comments

[Admin]

This question would be better if you explain why you don't want to use rdesktop.