I didn't actually know that only sysadmins can run it, but I believe one can give other users the right to execute xp_cmdshell, or at least this was possible in...

CosmicTrickster: That's a good point, and is probably acceptable for environments that don't require extremely high security. Still, one would want to make sure that the command being executed can't...

🙂

Well, it's not really an install anyways, just a command-line app. But if you rather use Microsoft's outdated version that crashes - or enable xp_cmdshell then please go ahead 😉

I...

lake_xp: Check out the NTToolkit http://www.netikus.net/products_nttoolkit.html, it also includes a "uptime.exe". For a simple display, just run "uptime /onetime". Unfortunately it doesn't run against remote machines (yet).

I would highly recommend against enabling xp_cmdshell, enabling this feature just opens up a can of worms - especially when the SQL Server service is running under a privileged account...