Remotely reboot a Windows machine

If for what ever reason you need to restart a remote Windows server or desktop, there are various options you can try:

  1. Powershell:
    Restart-Computer HOSTNAME -Force
  2. CMD:
    shutdown /m \\HOSTNAME /r /t 01
  3. PSTOOLS (download):
    psshutdown -f -r \\HOSTNAME

In case these options are not working due to the following errors:
“Restart-Computer : Failed to restart the computer with the following error message: A system shutdown is in progress (1115).”

You should try remotely killing the following two processes:

pskill \\HOSTNAME winlogon

pskill \\HOSTNAME lsass

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