get the list of open applications on windows

Question

I want to have a script that does the following thing:

1. connect to a remote windows machine
2. get the list of applications that are currently open on the machine, e.g exactly what I would get in the "applications" tab in the task manager, and print it.

Is it possible to do that in batch? If not, what other options do I have?

Answer 1

If you have powershell installed, the following will get you a list of running applicaitons when run locally

gps | ? {$_.mainwindowtitle.length -ne 0} | select name, mainwindowtitle

If you have Powershell V2 installed on the machines you want to query, and remoting enabled, you can then run:

invoke-command –computername <remote computer name> 
{gps | ? {$_.mainwindowtitle.length -ne 0} | select name, mainwindowtitle}