PowerShell To Connect To Device Running Windows 10 IoT Core

Use PowerShell to connect to a machine running Windows 10 IoT Core and configure it

Explains how to leverage PowerShell to connect to a machine running Windows 10 IoT Core and set up the VisualStudio Debugger monitor.

Remote Administration and Configuration

You can remotely configure and manage any Windows IoT Core device using Windows PowerShell. PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language, designed especially for system administration.

Make sure to follow these steps to correctly configure your VM or device running Windows IoT Core to work well with VisualStudio 2015.

Initiating a PowerShell (PS) Session

• To start a PS session with your Windows IoT Core device, you’ll first need to create a trust relationship between your host PC and your device. After booting your Windows IoT Core device, an IP address will be shown on the screen attached to the device:

You can find the same information on the Windows IoT Core Watcher utility.

• Launch an administrator PS console on your local PC. The easiest way to do this is to type ‘powershell’ in the “Search the web and Windows” textbox near the Windows Start Menu: Windows will find PowerShell on your machine:

To start PS as an administrator, right click on the “Windows PowerShell” entry and select “Run as administrator”:

Now you should see the PS console:

• From the PS console, type the following (substitute with the appropriate value):

   Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value 

  Do enter Y to confirm the change.

• Note: there is a known issue with PS that can cause a StackOverflowException on the PS client machine. To work around this type the following line before the Enter-PsSession:

   remove-module psreadline -force

• Now you can start a session with you Windows 10 IoT Core  device. From your administrator PS console, type:

   Enter-pssession -ComputerName  -Credential Administrator 

  In the credential dialog enter the following default password: p@ssw0rd

• NOTE: The connection process is not immediate and can take up to 30 seconds. 

• Update account password:

  It is highly recommended that you update the default password for the Administrator account. To do this, you can issue the following command: net user Administrator [new password] where [new password] represents a strong password of your choice.

Configure your Windows 10 IoT Core machine

• To be able to deploy applications from Visual Studio 2015, you will need to make sure the Visual Studio Remote Debugger is running on your Windows IoT Core device. The remote debugger should launch automatically at machine boot time. To double check, use the tlist command to list all the running processes from powershell. There should be two instances of msvsmon.exe running on the device.

• It is possible for the Visual Studio Remote Debugger to time out after long periods of inactivity. If Visual Studio cannot connect to your Windows IoT Core device, try rebooting the device.

• If you want, you can also rename your device. To change the ‘computer name’, use the setcomputername utility:

   setcomputername 

  You will need to reboot the device for the change to take effect. You can use the shutdown command as follows:

   shutdown /r /t 0 

Commonly used utilities

Below is a list of common configuration tasks and corresponding utilities that have been made available in PowerShell.

• Update account password:

  It is highly recommended that you update the default password for the Administrator account. To do this, you can issue the following command: net user Administrator [new password] where [new password] represents a strong password of your choice.

• Create local user accounts:

  If you wish to give others access to your Windows IoT Core device, you can create additional local user accounts using PS by typing in net user [username] [password] /add. If you wish to add this user to other groups, such as the Administrator group, use net localgroup Administrators [username] /add.

• Query and set device name:

  To identify your current device name, simply type hostname. To change the name of your Windows IoT Core device, type SetComputerName [new machinename]. You may need to restart your device for the name change to take effect.

• Basic network configuration:

  Many of the basic network configuration utilities you may already be familiar with are available in Windows IoT Core, including commands such asping.exe, netstat.exe, netsh.exe, ipconfig.exe, nslookup.exe, tracert.exe, and arp.exe.

• Copy utilities:

  Microsoft is providing familiar tools, including sfpcopy.exe as well as xcopy.exe.

• Process Management:

  To view currently running processes, you can try either get-process or alternatively tlist.exe. To stop a running process, type kill.exe [pid or process name]. To start a process,

• Setting startup app:

  Use the startup editor to configure startup apps on your Windows IoT Core device. To see a list of current startup apps, type startup.exe /d. To add an app to startup, type startup.exe /a [Name] [Command]. For further help, try startup.exe /?

• Headless vs. headed boot:

  Windows IoT Core devices can be set to headed (when display capabilities are required) or headless (when a display is not required or available) device mode. To change this setting, use setbootoption.exe [headed | headless].

• Task scheduler:

  To view the current list of scheduled tasks, use the schtasks.exe command. You can create new tasks with the /create switch or run on-demand tasks with the /run switch. For a full list of supported parameters, use schtasks.exe /?

• Device drivers:

  The device console utility is useful in identifying and managing installed devices and drivers. For a full list of parameters, use devcon.exe /?

• Registry Access:

  If you need to access the registry to view or modify settings, use the reg.exe /? Command for the full list of supported parameters.

• Services:

  Managing Windows services can be accomplished via the net.exe command. To see a list of running services, type net start. To start or stop a specific service, type net [start | stop] [service name]. Alternatively, you can also use the service control manager via sc.exe command.

• Boot configuration:

  You can make changes to the boot configuration of your Windows IoT Core device using bcdedit.exe. For instance, you can enable testsigning withbcdedit –set testsigning on command.

• Shutdown/restart device:

  To shut down your device, type shutdown /s /t 0. To restart the device, use the /r switch instead with the command shutdown /r /t 0.

See the Command Line Utils page for a list of commands and utilities you can use with PowerShell.