Why the rubbish desktop?

[Arthur]

99% of nix commands at least respond to --help

100% of Microsoft's PowerShell cmdlets respond to Get-Help and like the man pages for various unix utilities there are examples showing you how to use the commands.

 

RDP is hideously insecure

So is VNC.

[ConradJones]

powershell is horrible, typical microsoft over-complication.

 

hmmm vnc? i'd rather use rdp on via a different vlan.

[FN-GM]

powershell is horrible, typical microsoft over-complication.

 

hmmm vnc? i'd rather use rdp on via a different vlan.

 

Im a fan of powershell. I can do a 35 line VBS script in one line with powershell

[Arthur]

PowerShell is horrible

I find PowerShell quite easy to understand actually. Once you have learnt the basics all of the cmdlets work the same way and unlike with *nix you don't have the hassle of manipulating text all the time.

 

@FN-GM is right! VBScript is absolutely ghastly. Everything is just so long-winded. Even simple scripts require you to write the equivalent of an essays worth of code.

 

typical microsoft over-complication.

The same could be said about 'sed' and 'grep' due to the reliance on regular expressions...

 

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. (Source)

[sonofsanta]

Server 2012's GUI is horrible. I cannot get used to it.

 

My theory is that they are making the GUI as awful as they can to make everyone use Server Core so that everyone has to retrain and they can make loads more money on the certification path.

[FN-GM]

To be honest doing stuff without a GUI isn't really new. Look at Exchange and Lync, loads needs to be done in powershell that cannot be done in the GUI.

[zag]

I skipped 2012 due to the bad GUI, I'm sure they will sort it out in the next version.

[unixman_again]

The powershell is damn useful. I do wish though that when you maximise the powershell window it would take up the entire screen. I wish the DOS window would do that too. Similarly for the cygwin window; I think this uses the DOS window so fix one, fix both.

[cpjitservices]

Ive always done server management on my local machine, never dial into servers unless necessary. However, at the moment my local machine isnt actually on the domain so it's hard to manage the servers using RSAT - Once I get my domain machine back Ill be able to manage everything remotely, I installed 2012 and thought "is this an upgrade or a downgrade from 2008 R2 ?" It was slow to use, I couldn't get it working properly on VMWare ESXI, couldnt get it to work at all on KVM and then gave up... If I cant run it virtual - whats the point ??

I did get it working on one of my desktops as a quick test, it works but I can't get used to the interface and I figure that if I have to use Server Core I may aswell use Linux.

[Modey]

I skipped 2012 due to the bad GUI, I'm sure they will sort it out in the next version.

 

I really don't like the interface either, but you can shoehorn a start menu in there quite easily. Also there are some nice new features in Hyper-V that I wouldn't want to be without (Replication for one) which I wouldn't want to skip.

[sted]

Im a fan of powershell. I can do a 35 line VBS script in one line with powershell

 

by the same token you often can by using ye olde dos scripts esp if dealing with files vbs you have to jump through several hoops to do soemthing as simple as create a file or delete a file that takes no time or effort in batch.

 

i really must learn powershell one day i just cba sitting down and learning another scripr language with its own uniquely silly commands and syntyax

 

I really don't like the interface either, but you can shoehorn a start menu in there quite easily. Also there are some nice new features in Hyper-V that I wouldn't want to be without (Replication for one) which I wouldn't want to skip.

 

ive found you can do virtualy everything from server manager anyway and seldom need metro

[Guest salan]

I thought that it was really funny that you had Firefox open on Linux hacks! lol

Say it all really.

Alan

[Norphy]

The powershell is damn useful. I do wish though that when you maximise the powershell window it would take up the entire screen. I wish the DOS window would do that too. Similarly for the cygwin window; I think this uses the DOS window so fix one, fix both.

 

You can make a powershell or cmd window bigger by typing the following command

 

mode con cols=150

 

Change the number to suit your own preferences, 150 seems to fill up a 1280x1024 screen.

[maark]

If you can get over the silly interface there are a lot of benefits:

15/20 percent more efficient

better hyper-v features such as live migration

de-duplication built-in

direct access and RD gateway supposedly a lot easier to setup

 

going to upgrade all our servers and learn powershell as that seems to be the way it is going - a lot of cmdlets available already

[sted]

If you can get over the silly interface there are a lot of benefits:

15/20 percent more efficient

better hyper-v features such as live migration

de-duplication built-in

direct access and RD gateway supposedly a lot easier to setup

 

going to upgrade all our servers and learn powershell as that seems to be the way it is going - a lot of cmdlets available already

 

if direct access is easier in 2012 i hate to think how hard it is in 08r2 i just cant get it to work even in a test environment

[unixman_again]

You can make a powershell or cmd window bigger by typing the following command

 

mode con cols=150

 

Change the number to suit your own preferences, 150 seems to fill up a 1280x1024 screen.

I never knew that - every day is a school day.

[Arthur]

I never knew that

If you create a PowerShell profile, you can make the window size permanent (among many other things).

 

Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 (%UserProfile%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell)

$Shell = $Host.UI.RawUI
$size = $Shell.WindowSize
$size.width=[color="#FF0000"]120[/color]
$size.height=[color="#FF0000"]50[/color]

$Shell.WindowSize = $size
$size = $Shell.BufferSize
$size.width=120
$size.height=6000
$Shell.BufferSize = $size

$shell.BackgroundColor = "DarkMagenta"
$shell.ForegroundColor = "DarkYellow"

[DEvans]

I thought it was obvious that the GUI in 2012 is designed so if you had a Windows 8 Pro Tablet, you can carry your server in your hands with a RDP connection secured with a certificate. (though AD is a pain in the arse... don't realize how small that text is, but apparently we are suppose to use ADAC, ha, Microsoft's little joke there.)

 

If you have a desktop machine, obviously RSAT it that's just sense.

 

I find the interface annoying at first, (needed to be at least 18 years or older to enter the room I was in), but to be fair, now i'm used to it, i actually get things done quicker than I did in previous server versions. A good setup for me is to have all but one server running core edition and that one server with the GUI I can remote in and control all servers from it. Alternatively, if you prefer to have core throughout, Windows 8 RSAT and you are laughing, also management tools for things like exchange etc.

 

Powershell is unavoidable, need to get on that bandwagon soon if you haven't already. Just see it as another thing you can have running on your screen which makes people leave you alone, that along side of Resource Monitor and your sorted.

[apeman]

I must agree i love server 2012 core as well, so many benefits. For those of you who still want the admin tools why dont you just install the minimal GUI??

When you login you still just get the command prompt like core but you can call servermanager and lots of other mmc's

 

To install it on core open powershell and type install-windowsfeature server-gui-mgmt-infra

 

To uninstall the gui from the full version and run minimal GUI open powershell and run uninstall-windowsfeature server-gui-shell

 

ps i am also a fan of powershell, pretty much all of our scripts are written in powershell these days and i find myself doing some tasks in powershell as its quicker than the GUI once you know the command.

[Norphy]

One reason to love 2012 (and w8 as well probably).

 

Automatic ISO mounting.

 

Only implemented ten years after everyone else but oh so useful