Managing a Windows 2008 Server Core installation remotely using Server Administration Tools

Following normal options of a Windows installation are not available with Windows 2008 Server Core installation.

• Desktop shell is not available and therefore wallpaper other desktop features are not available.

• Internet Explorer, Windows Mail, WordPad, Paint, Search Windows Run dialog box are not available.

• Windows Explorer or My Computer is not available.

• .NET Framework or CLR is not available for the current version and therefore no support for managed code and PowerShell.

• MMC (Microsoft Management Console) not available and therefore no Administrative Tools

• Major Control Panel applets are not available

The roles available with Windows 2008 Server Core installation are only Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS), Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services, DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Services, Print Services, Streaming Media Services, and Windows Server Virtualization (Hyper-V).

Features supported by Windows 2008 Server Core are BitLocker Drive Encryption, Failover Clustering, Multipath I/O, Removable Storage Management, SNMP Services, Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications, Telnet Client, Windows Server Backup and WINS Server.