Well I just found another one of those programs that I can’t believe I have not been using up until this point. The program that I am talking about is called Terminals. This program is used to manage multiple RDP connections that you use. Personally this program is going to be a life saver because I connect to several servers by IP address that I am only aware of. I have included a couple links below so you can try the program out for yourself. I don’t think you will be pleasantly surprised and will probably wonder how you lived without it.

Terminals CodePlex Link
http://www.codeplex.com/Terminals

Screen shots
http://weblogs.asp.net/rchartier/archive/2007/10/02/terminals-v1-6b-release.aspx

I have been working with server core for about a month now.  The first thing you will notice about server core is that there really is no GUI interface.  Like most administrators we tend to get a little lazy and don’t keep up with all the command line statements to get simple tasks done.  Thankfully there are other administrators out there that realize this.  So they create nice little programs that help us command line challenged people in our daily job.  Below are the links to the GUI configurators that I am aware of.  I have also included a couple blog posts that go into detail on some of these tools.

CoreConfigurator
This is the one that I would highly recommend but it currently no longer available from the creator due to intellectual property issues.  This tool can be found at some sites such as www.4sysops.com.

CoreConfig
This is a codeplex project and can be found here.
http://www.codeplex.com/CoreConfig

Core Configuration Console
http://www.nullsession.com/2008/10/04/core-configuration-console/

Blog Post
The Things that are better left unspoken - Sander Berkouwer
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2008/10/14/overview-of-free-server-core-configuration-tools.aspx

Hyper-V Server has now been out for a few weeks.  Hopefully some of you have had a chance to install it in your test labs.  Microsoft has released a document to help you configure and administrate it.  I actually did find the install pretty strait forward and easy to complete.  The helpful addition to Hyper-V Server 2008 is the configuration tool.  I think they should add something very similar to the Server Core 2008 Install so everything does not have to be done through command line.  Check out the link below to find the guide from Microsoft.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e1e111c9-fa69-4b4d-8963-1dd87804c04f&DisplayLang=en