Remote Control your PC with Twitter

TweetMyPC is an open source application that allows you to remotely control your PC using Twitter.

You can do things like,

• shutdown
• reboot
• lock
• standby
• hibernate
• take screenshots
• download files from the internet

TweetMyPC checks for status updates in Twitter every minute and runs in the Windows system tray.

Before I show you how to do this, there are a few prerequisites.

1. This only works on a Windows PC (I’m using Vista Home Premium)
2. It is a good idea to setup a new private Twitter account
3. A Gmail address

Private Twitter Account

I recommend having a new Twitter account and to keep your tweets private, so no once else can see what commands you are issuing. Either create a new Twitter account, or you could follow my instructions on how to setup multiple twitter accounts with one email address.

Once you have created a new account, login to Twitter then click on Settings,

On the Account tab, select Protect my tweets.. then click <Save>,

The protect my tweets option will prevent your tweets from being publicly displayed.. only you can see them,

Done! Your new private Twitter account has been setup.

Setup TweetMyPC

Download TweetMyPC,

I am running Windows Vista.. initially when I installed this application the remote commands didn’t work. But after playing around with a couple settings I did manage to get it to work.. this is what I did,

Once the file has downloaded, right-click setup.exe and select properties.

Select the Compatibility tab –> then run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP Service Pack 2 –> click <OK>,

Now right-click on setup.exe and select Run as administrator,

Once this is installed run the application,

Now we need to configure the settings, entering your new Twitter details and your Gmail address.. click <Save and Close> when you are done,

TweetMyPC will take up to one minute to verify your Twitter account.

Check that TweetMyPC is running in your system tray,

If you have some sort of anti-spyware product installed, you need to allow this application to start automatically with windows,

Now that this is all setup, TweetMyPC will use various commands received from Twitter to perform various actions on your PC.

Remote Control

After you type in a command into Twitter, TweetMyPC will check for status updates on your private Twitter account. After it detects a command, it will run that command.. then output the following,

• TMPC -> [command]

Shutdown

To shutdown your PC using TweetMyPC, type shutdown into Twitter (or your Twitter client – I used Tweetie on my iPhone),

TweetMyPC will display this message in Twitter,

I was also presented with this pop-up in Windows,

.. and your remote PC will shutdown.

IP

Type IP into Twitter to see your remote PC’s IP address,

OS

Type OS into Twitter to see your remote PC’s Operating System,

Virtual Memory

Type virtual memory into Twitter to see your remote PC’s virtual memory,

Physical Memory

Type physical memory into Twitter to see your remote PC’s physical memory,

… you get the idea!

Some other commands include:

• lock = locks your PC
• reboot = reboots your PC
• standby = puts your PC in standby mode
• hibernate = hibernates your PC
• screenshot = takes a screenshot of your PC and outputs it to Twitpic
• getprocesslist = will get a list of the running processes and email them to your GMail address
• kill <process id> = kills that particular process id
• download <url> = you can download a file –> NB, TweetMyPC can only download files in the shortened bit.ly format.. you will have to shorten the URL first using bit.ly
• getfile <filepath> = TweetMyPC can email you a file as an attachment.. if you don’t know the file path just use the next command,
• getfilelist <drive> = TweetMyPC will email you the list of files and folders in a drive

also,

• By Email - if you associate your Twitter account with Posterous, any email sent to twitter@posterous.com will become a remote command for your PC

Finally

TweetMyPC and Twitter can be quite a useful tool for remote management.. who knows when you might need to run these commands to remote control your PC from work!

Enjoy!

@socialguide