One of Server Core's touted benefits is it requires less security updates. Jeff Jones did some interesting research a little while ago in which he compared a theoretical Windows Server 2003 Server Core edition to a Windows Server 2003 installation in terms of security updates. In the accompanying blogpost he concluded: […] looking at the ...

Since the launch of Windows Server 2008 a lot of configuration tools have been released to help administrators get the most out of Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V Server 2008 installations. This blog post features free configuration tools and initiatives to develop this kind of tools for Server Core installations of ...

Microsoft's Hyper-V Server 2008 product comes with a wizard, that allows easy configuration of the Server Core-based subsystem.   This tool can be used on normal Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008 too. This blogpost describes what files to copy from a US English Hyper-V Server 2008 installation, where to place them and how ...

Sometimes a Windows disk encounters an error. Luckily it doesn't happen a lot. A Windows-equipped hard disk is bound to become fragmented. Bits and bytes are placed, deleted and moved across the drive and is in the end effectively bringing your beloved Server Core box to a standstill. In fact: after installation the drive is already fragmented, ...

Last year I wrote on automatically updating your Server Core. While a lot of people valued the information in that post, the information was rather unsatisfactory on the subject of manually updating Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008. Now is the time to correct this apparent omission. Read on!       ...

The Read-only Domain Controller is one of the new and most existing features of Windows Server 2008. So is Server Core. Combining these two features opens up a whole new world of possibilities for your Active Directory environment. Server Core Domain Controllers are the high-performance low-maintenance brothers of Domain Controllers running on ...

Look no further. Quest Software’s Dmitry Sotnikov has got .Net Framework 2.0 and Powershell 1.0 running on Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008. I know this is something a lot of people have been asking for, but the best way to describe my feelings at this moment is ambiguous. Why it's been left out in the first place ...

A server running a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008 could behave flaky from time to time. Monitoring it gives clues towards this behavior and/or provides insight in why it behaves flaky. I've taken a closer look at monitoring Server Core boxes from the command line and want to share my experiences with you on this matter today. ...

A little while ago I showed you how to perform some of the common management tasks on your Server Core installation using the Microsoft Management Console Snap-Ins, available through Computer Management (compmgmt.msc). Last week I showed you how to install Server Roles and Features on top of your Server Core installation. This time I want to ...

Server Core is proving to be a versatile infrastructure platform. After installing your basic Server Core installation, configuring network interfaces, activating, enable remote management (through RDP or WinRM) and changing the look and feel it might be time to install additional roles and optional features. Roles It's not just infrastructure ...