Solved Microsoft Management Console

[WildWilly]

Hi Shawn. Somebody told me today that Microsoft Management Console was something cool that I should look at. So I looked at it. It appears you launch it by opening a Command Prompt (I suppose it should be elevated but I didn't use one) and entering MMC. I am thinking that's equivalent to opening a Run box & entering MMC, or doing a Search for MMC & executing it.) So how come it isn't accessible through the GUI, let's say from something in Start Menu -> All Programs -> System Tools, for example? I know I could pin it there, but how come Microsoft didn't put something there as part of the standard configuration? (Or in maybe Administrative Tools or . . . nothing else jumps out at me.)

In any case, I opened the thing & looked around. I read about 2/3 of the built-in help. I looked at the list of available snap-ins.

And I was bewildered. What is this thing for? Most of the snap-ins appear to be for things I can get at otherwise from items at some level of the Start Menu.

So I came to the Forums here, where I've been finding no end of answers to all sorts of questions & I find . . . a handful of Tutorials, all written by you, explaining how to do tasks whose usefulness I don't totally grasp. And none of them has any follow-on posts. Which makes me suspect I am not alone in wondering what is this thing for?

So I'm requesting a Tutorial that puts forward possible scenarios in which someone might find MMC useful. In the end, maybe I won't find it useful. But at this point I can't say with certainty it would or would not add to my experience, effectiveness, efficiency, something. If you do write a Tutorial such as I'm requesting, please subscribe me to it so I get notified if & when you post it.

Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Willy,

The MMC is mostly for use that cannot be done through the normal GUI and other MSCs (Group Policy, Security Policy, Local User and Groups, etc.....) . I'm not sure why there's not a shortcut to it in the Start Menu or Administrative Tools by default, but one could easily be created for it and added though.


Here are some tutorials for MMC to give an idea for some of what it can be used for.

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56443-microsoft-mangement-console-create-custom-msc.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/151415-group-policy-apply-specific-user-group.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...es-apply-all-users-except-administrators.html

 

[doubled822]

MMC is primarily a systems administration tool for domains and business use. The items you see in Administrative Tools mostly all open as an automatic snap-in to MMC. For home use, MMC can come in handy for a few things such as reading event logs, and as a different way to create new user accounts on your PC as well as setting indiviual options not available through control panel, such as password rules and expiration. You can also use it to view all the certificates that your computer has installed and recognizes (not that you would typically need to do that as a basic user).

MMC also gives you the option to view these items from a remote computer by connecting to it via the MMC console. You can also view information about file shares, such as connected users (if you have shares on the PC being managed by MMC), open sessions and files, etc etc. Windows Disk Management is also hosted in the MMC.

In a domain environment at a workplace, MMC is used to manage Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, DFS, group policy and local security policies, etc.

There's much more but I hope I covered the basics

 

[WildWilly]

Thanks guys. Between both your responses, I've got a better idea of what MMC is about. The comments on the Tutorials you (Shawn) pointed me to and the idea you (DoubleD) put forward that it is mainly for administrators in an office setting makes it much clearer. I haven't read anything in any of these threads that looks like something I'm going to need to do, being just a guy sitting at home with his computer. Changing passwords & policies & stuff like that is something I have done once & I'll never need to do it again. There won't be another user I need to wall off or restrict privileges. I'm not going to be the Help Desk for a network of users so I'm not going to need to take control of somebody's system remotely. And on and on.

OK. Thanks. I'm probably not going to be using MMC. But I've encountered it & if something ever comes up, I'll know where to look to refresh my memory.

As an aside, I could have sworn I posted my first reply below a Tutorial & now it's gone. Am I hallucinating?

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Willy. I'm glad that we could help.

Yep, you had originally posted in a tutorial thread, but I moved it here instead for better help since it really wasn't about the tutorial itself.