Remotely Managing Desktop PC From Power Off to OS Load

Question

Is it possible to manage a PC Remotely even when the power is off? ie, turn it on, reboot, view the screen data etc. I know HP servers have an integrated lights out card that provide this functionality - Possible for the average desktop too?

Answer 1

You are looking for a KVM over IP solution, which often comes as external hardware (thus can be added to any desktop).

KVM over IP devices use a dedicated micro-controller and potentially specialized video capture hardware to capture the video, keyboard, and mouse signals, compress and convert them into packets, and send them over an Ethernet link to a remote console application that unpacks and reconstitutes the dynamic graphical image.