How to Check a Remote System for Hotfixes

Although frustrating, an important aspect of a sysadmin's job is to ensure that all the machines under his jurisdiction are up to speed with the latest security hotfixes. This can be especially troublesome in mobile corporate groups or in remote government it where the computers in question are moving or geographically separated. Fortunately, to check whether a hotfix has been installed on a remote machine, you don't need any special remote it compliance software, but can simply rely on a built in system command. cmdinfo \\ will spit out the list of hotfixes on a remote system, and: cmdinfo /ht: will check ask the remote system whether it has a particular hotfix. Of course, for this to work the remote system must be online, but that problem cannot be fixed by anything short of a pestering phone call.