Classroom Spy Pro · Desktop guide

Remote Terminal CMD PowerShell Bash for Student Computers

On this page

Documentation

Remote Terminal can be used by teachers or school IT administrators to run shell commands on selected student computers.

This feature allows teachers or school IT administrators to run CMD, PowerShell, Bash, or SH commands without opening a full remote desktop session.

Typical use cases include:

  • Running shell commands for classroom computer maintenance.
  • Checking network or file information on a student computer.
  • Starting a school-approved script on selected computers.

Remote Terminal

Terminal opens an interactive shell on the selected student computer (for example cmd.exe on Windows or /bin/bash on Linux/macOS).

Terminal CMD, PowerShell, Bash, SH

What You Can Do In This Screen

  • Run commands interactively on the selected connected computer.
  • Use Reset terminal to stop current shell and start a clean shell session.
  • Switch between computers while keeping each session output separated.

How Terminal Sessions Work

  • When Terminal tab is selected, the console starts terminal session automatically for current connected student computer.
  • Keyboard input is sent directly to the student computer shell, and results appear in real time.
  • Terminal window resize keeps the shell display readable in full-screen and split views.
  • Each student computer keeps its own command output, so switching computers does not mix history.

When To Use Reset terminal

Use Reset terminal when the shell looks stuck, prompt is broken, or output stops unexpectedly. Reset starts a fresh shell. If the student computer shell exits on its own, the terminal session is restarted automatically.

Read-only diagnostics and shell context

Connect to the intended computer before opening Terminal. The shell inherits the remote Agent process identity and permissions, not the teacher-console account. A service-launched Agent can therefore use a service account. Check the actual identity before relying on paths or privileges; Terminal does not automatically elevate a command.

The current interface has no shell-selection dropdown. Windows starts cmd.exe; Linux and macOS start /bin/bash. Start PowerShell from CMD if installed, or sh from Bash; exit that nested shell to return. Reset terminal restarts the default shell.

Windows CMD: hostname identifies the computer; whoami identifies the remote execution account; ver prints the Windows version.

hostname
whoami
ver

PowerShell, started from CMD: the following one-shot command prints the same machine/account context and the installed PowerShell version, then returns to CMD.

powershell -NoProfile -Command "$env:COMPUTERNAME; [System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Name; $PSVersionTable.PSVersion"

Bash/SH on Linux or macOS: hostname, id and uname read the machine name, effective user/groups and OS/kernel. The sh example runs a child shell without changing files.

hostname
id
uname -srm
sh -c 'hostname; id; uname -srm'

Illustrative output: hostname may be LAB-07 and the account may be SCHOOL\student07 or a service identity. Compare with the selected computer; actual names and versions vary. An access-denied result reflects that remote account's rights, not a request to grant additional privileges.

Run one command at a time and review its output before switching computers. Each computer keeps separate output. Use Reset terminal only when a fresh default shell is needed; it stops the current shell.

Back to top