Windows Remote Management (WinRM)

The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) is a simple Windows integrated remote management protocol based on the command line. WinRM uses the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to establish connections to remote hosts and their applications. Therefore, WinRM must be explicitly enabled and configured starting with Windows 10. WinRM relies on TCP ports 5985 and 5986 for communication, with the last port 5986 using HTTPS, as ports 80 and 443 were previously used for this task. However, since port 80 was mainly blocked for security reasons, the newer ports 5985 and 5986 are used today.

Another component that fits WinRM for administration is Windows Remote Shell (WinRS), which lets us execute arbitrary commands on the remote system. The program is even included on Windows 7 by default. Thus, with WinRM, it is possible to execute a remote command on another server.

Services like remote sessions using PowerShell and event log merging require WinRM. It is enabled by default starting with the Windows Server 2012 version, but it must first be configured for older server versions and clients, and the necessary firewall exceptions created.