The Microsoft Mangement Console in Windows 2000 – Step-By-Step

Microsoft^® Windows 2000 Knowledge Center

UsingThe Microsoft Management Console

Step-By-Step

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Adding Windows and Customizing the Snap-in Display within the Console

Now that you have developed your basic console and you have added the snap-ins you want, you can add windows to provide different views in the console as well as customize its layout. Let’s start with the basic console we just finished, comp_mgmt.msc.

Adding Some Windows

1. In the left pane of the console window, you are initially provided with a tree view consisting of only Computer Management (Local). By expanding the tree view (click the + to the left of Computer Management), the tree will expand to reveal System Tools, Storage and Services and Applications. While still in the left window pane of the console, click the + to the left of System Tools to expand it. See Figure 7.

   Figure 7 – Console1: System Tools

2. Next, right-click the Event Viewer folder in the left pane, and then select New window from here. As shown in Figure 8 below, this opens a new Event Viewer window rooted at the Event Viewer extension to computer management. Size the main console window a bit to allow yourself some room, and then size the Event Viewer window to fit at the bottom of the main console window.

   Figure 8 – Event Viewer

3. Next, click on the 1:Console Root Window to bring it forward. This will be your focus window for the next step.
4. Now in the Console Root window, left pane, click the + to the left of Services and Applications to expand it. While still in the left pane, right-click Services, and then click New Window. As we did earlier, this opens a new windows, this time a Services window, rooted at the Event Viewer extension to Computer Management. Now resize this new window to fit into the console window as you did with the Event Viewer window. See Figure 9 below.

   Figure 9 – Console with Services window added

   Note the Red Arrows at the top of the Services and Event Viewer Windows. This is the Show/Hide Console Tree toolbar button. Click it once for each window to hide the console tree. Next, click on the 1:Console Root Window again to bring it forward into focus and then click the “X” in the upper right portion of the window to close it. As a final step, click Window in the main console window and then click Tile Horizontally. The console should appear and include the information shown in Figure 10 below.

   Figure 10 – The Completed Console

5. You can now save your new MMC console by clicking the Save as icon in the console Window, and giving your console a name. Your console will be saved as an .msc file, (ours is comp_mgmt.msc). Now you can send it along to anyone who needs to be able to configure a computer with these tools.

Note: Each of the small windows within the actual console has a toolbar with buttons and drop-down menus. These toolbar buttons and drop-down menus apply only to the contents of the respective window. You may also want to note that a specific window’s toolbar buttons and menus will change depending on the snap-in selected in the left pane of the window. If you select the View menu, you will see a list of available toolbars.

If you need more hints on what can be done with MMC Snap-ins, Microsoft has provided quite a selection in their Windows 2000 Server Documentation, which applies to all version of Windows 2000.

You may also want to check here for Additional MMC Resources.

Next, let’s create a Console Taskpad and review the available Console File Options.

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