How would I make a program to monitor another system's vitals with a remote connection?

I'm looking to write a custom program in VB.NET / C++ / C# that would allow me to monitor a system's vitals over a Remote Desktop Connection.

I'm only looking for tips on how to implement a connection like this in code (eg. is it just a simple object or call to a WScript function? or is it much more sophisticated?). As to the specifics of operation after making the connection, I have that figured out based on another program which shar开发者_StackOverflowes some similar features.

I would definitely look on Google and self-teach this, but I don't even know where to begin / what to search for. Some advice into this would be amazing, thanks!

EDIT: This doesn't have to go through an RDP connection, I'm definitely looking for better ways. Reason I mention RDP is because I currently do this manually over an RDP connection, but I don't wanna have to constantly open the window.

I don't think the RDP protocol is the right solution for this. Other mechanisms were invented for this, such as WMI.

WMI is a scriptable interface that allows you to query the local or remote computer's information. You can use your tool of choice - C#, VBScript, or my personal preference - Powershell. Here is an example of how to get all of the processes on a remote machine.

EDIT:

This doesn't have to go through an RDP connection, I'm definitely looking for better ways. Reason I mention RDP is because I currently do this manually over an RDP connection, but I don't wanna have to constantly open the window.

Then ignore everything below the line. Really.

The RDP protocol is very specialized for sharing specific resources. Namely the screen, disks, clipboard, printer, ports, and sound. That's it for what's out-of-the-box. The best thing you could possibly do is occasionally monitor the contents of a file with the RDP protocol - and it is cumbersome and slow.

I'd encourage you to look at alternative solutions like WMI instead.

That said, it is possible to do this with RDP's support for Virtual Channels. You could create a scriptable virtual channel to accomplish this (which is no easy feat). You would have to write a client and server. Your server side functionality would report the information you are interested in monitoring, and the client side would receive it. Again, I would stress that this is not the correct solution.