Technology Tips For Working Remotely: How To Reboot The Far Away Desktop

If you have worked in offices for any length of time, you have dealt with an IT problem of some sort.  Experienced computer users know to try a few things prior to calling the help desk.  For frozen or glitchy computers, the first course of action is always a reboot.  The reliable keystroke of Control-Alt-Delete solves many problems without a lengthy tech support call, for users who work from home or while traveling, those familiar keystrokes do not work to remote reboot computer equipment in another location.

When working through a VPN or other remote connection, the physical computer a user is touching is not actually the computer running the show.  The computer doing all the work is usually located in the home office.  This means using the Control-Alt-Delete option for rebooting will only restart the computer being used to remote in, but will not do anything about the problematic computer on the other end.  There are several ways a remote user can reboot computers from outside of the office.



The easiest way to remote reboot computer equipment from a laptop while you are traveling or working at home is to use a different variation of the standard reboot.  By holding down Control-Alt-End at the same time, you can bring up the shutdown menu for the host computer.  You can then take action on the host computer in the same manner you would on a computer sitting right in front of you.  However, you should take care to restart rather than shut down.  If you shut down a computer miles away, you cannot turn it back on remotely.

More advanced users might try the task bar or command prompts for ways to solve a failed process with remote reboots.  Opening the task manager on the computer you are sitting in front of should provide you with options for the host computer.  You can choose to restart the PC from those options.  Additionally, the command "Shutdown /?" should work in the DOS command prompt screen, but should only be utilized by persons familiar with using such commands.  Once the reboot has been completed, you will likely loose connection to the computer.  You may have to log out of the VPN or other connection and log back in after a few minutes.

By using remote reboot computer commands or keystrokes, you can often solve minor computer glitches such as frozen software or files, which fail to load due to memory problems.  However, if you find yourself resorting to this tactic on a regular basis, it is likely a serious problem exists within one of the computers.  You should contact your help desk or technical support if you are rebooting any computer more than once or twice a week due to issues.