How to make PowerShell the default console for Windows Server Core

Home > Blogs > PowerShell > How to make PowerShell the default console for Windows Server Core

How to make PowerShell the default console for Windows Server Core

Like This Blog 0 Jason Helmick
Added by November 28, 2012

In a previous blog I demonstrated how to autologon a windows server using PowerShell. (You should read that one first). On Windows Server Core I prefer to have PowerShell as the default console instead of the command prompt. There is an Old-Skool way of changing this that still works today.

The registry key “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon” contains a key named “Shell”. The default for this Explorer.exe and this launches the old command prompt.  If you change this to PowerShell, then when Core launches, PowerShell will be your default.

There is no security issue with this as in the last blog regarding AutoLogon, so you can safely do this in production. As a side note, my setup script for my lab environments perform both tasks, AutoLogon and making PowerShell the default. For my production servers I just only perform the PowerShell default task. You can do it standing at a single server and to multiple computers using PowerShell Remoting.

Single Server

PS C:\> Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -name Shell -Value 'PowerShell.exe -noExit'

Multiple servers using PowerShell Remoting

PS C:\> Invoke-Command -ComputerName S1, S2 -ScriptBlock { Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -name Shell -Value 'PowerShell.exe -noExit'}

Enjoy!

Knowledge is PowerShell,

Jason Helmick
Director of PowerShell Technologies
Interface Technical Training

Videos You May Like

A Simple Introduction to Cisco CML2

0 3698 0

Mark Jacob, Cisco Instructor, presents an introduction to Cisco Modeling Labs 2.0 or CML2.0, an upgrade to Cisco’s VIRL Personal Edition. Mark demonstrates Terminal Emulator access to console, as well as console access from within the CML2.0 product. Hello, I’m Mark Jacob, a Cisco Instructor and Network Instructor at Interface Technical Training. I’ve been using … Continue reading A Simple Introduction to Cisco CML2

Configuring Windows Mobility Center and How to Turn it On and Off

1 1411 1

Video transcription Steve Fullmer: In our Windows training courses, we often share information about the Windows 8.1 Mobility Center. Mobility Center was introduced for mobile and laptop devices in Windows 7. It’s present and somewhat enhanced in Windows 8. Since we don’t have mobile devices in our classrooms, I decided to take a little bit … Continue reading Configuring Windows Mobility Center and How to Turn it On and Off

OSPF Adjacency Troubleshooting Solution – Getting Close to the OSPF adj

0 247 1

In this video, Cisco CCNA & CCNP instructor Mark Jacob shows how to troubleshoot OSPF Adjacency issues by showing the distance between routers with the show ip ospf neighbor command.

Write a Comment

Share your thoughts...

Please fill out the comment form below to post a reply.