Hi Miss123, and welcome to PerlMonks! :-)

Short answer: look at PsTools of Sysinternals. It is a dedicated tool for remote administrative tasks on Windows systems, and is probably closest to what you need. PsExec allows you to execute processes remotely, whereas PsList gives detailed information of already-running processes.

Even with these tools, you may find the need to do some extra processing. Perl is a great glue language that can interact with PsTools so you can do more, like verifying and acting on the output results.

Is this possible in Perl? ... I am using Windows Vista

Yes, this is possible using Perl. I say this based on the general description of your requirements. Don't take my word for it, the best way is to jump in and try out Perl to get familiar. Since you're on Windows, you can try installing either of the two Perl flavors: Strawberry Perl or ActivePerl. But before you do that, please read on...

Is it too hard for a beginner?

Being new to Perl, you will definitely need to spend time learning the language, and to use modules to help with achieving your specific tasks. If in the future you see yourself needing to perform many more customized tasks (i.e. not provided by readily downloadable utility programs on the Internet), then by learning Perl you will reap immense benefits in the long term.

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