Microsoft Mangement Console (MMC)

A lot of system administration tools that come with Windows 2000, 2003 & XP are already in a console form having an extension of ".msc". They can be used alone by typing the name in the RUN command or as snap-ins to a Microsoft Management console (MMC). My prefered and fast way is to type them in the RUN Window. The following is the list of some of the frequently used Console commands.

1. certmgr.msc - Certificate Manager
2. compmgmt.msc - Computer Management
3. devmgmt.msc - Device Manager
4. dfrg.msc - Disk Defragment
5. diskmgmt.msc - Disk Management
6. eventvwr.msc - Event Viewer
7. gpedit.msc - Group Policy Editor
8. secpol.msc - Local Security Settings
9. ciadv.msc - Indexing Service
10. lusrmgr.msc - Local Users and Groups
11. perfmon.msc - Performance Monitor
12. inetmgr.msc - IIS Manager
13. services.msc - Services
14. rsop.msc - Resultant Set of Policies
15. ntmsmgr.msc - Removable Storage

So, if you have administrator privileges and want to stop and start a service on another server without logging into that server, simply type services.msc command in RUN and press enter, right click on services(Local) in left pane and click "connect to another computer.." and type the server name and bingo! You are connected to the services console of another machine and then you can stop and start the service you like. Similarly, this can be done for event viewer, performance monitoring (perfmon), IIS etc.

I make an extensive use of Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and administer servers most of the time without even logging into the server.

In my next Blog, I will discuss the frequently used RUN commands.