Windows Server

Enable and Disable the GUI in Windows Server 2012

I’ve now installed Windows Server 2012 without a GUI a number of times. And I always seem to end up needing that GUI eventually. So, to get Windows as a feature in Windows Server, use the following command to fire up a powershell environment, entering the admin password when prompted:

runas /user:administrator powershell.exe

Then let’s install all the Windows Features with the word GUI in them:

Get-WindowsFeature -Name *gui* | Install-WindowsFeature -Restart

The server will then reboot and you’ll be looking at a login window. To remove, you can just enter the following:

Get-WindowsFeature -Name *gui* | Remove-WindowsFeature -Restart