Experience with Windows 2008 Server Core Management

The Server Core installation option for the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 operating system is a new option for installing Windows Server 2008. The server Core installation provides the lowest environment for running specific server roles, reduces maintenance and management requirements, and reduces the attack surface of these server roles. The Explorer shell is not installed as part of the Server Core installation. Instead, the default user interface for Server Core installation is the command line. Therefore, we are performing some common administrative tasks, such as changing the screen resolution and screensaver settings, not as simple as the previous operating system, we need to spend a little effort to achieve it. Let's start by modifying the screen resolution.

First, modify the screen resolution

After you install Windows Server 2008 Server Core, if you want to change the screen resolution, there is no Windows Explorer shell in the Server core, so it's not easy to know how to do it on the surface. Here we'll introduce a way to modify the screen resolution.

By modifying the registry key value to:

1. Open Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key, and you can see a list of installed video cards

Hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\video

2. Check the GUID key value and look for the 0000 subkeys under the GUID. You need to find out the actual video card used.

Hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\video\{%your GUID here%}\0000

Important: The active video card has a volatilesettings subkey located at 0000.

3. Now know the video card you want to modify, add the following DWORD value in decimal (not hexadecimal):

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%your%Adapter's%GUID%here%}\0000
DefaultSettings.XResolution%=
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%your%Adapter's%GUID%here%}\0000
DefaultSettings.YResolution%=

4. Log off and log in again.

For example (when using virtual Server loaded machines, graphics cards end with VM Additions S3 trio32/64), you will see GUIDs (they are unpredictable, for example, the same video card may have two different GUIDs between them). Then set it to 1024x768, using the following key values:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%your Adapter's GUID here%}\0000
DefaultSettings.XResolution = 1024
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%your Adapter's GUID here%}\0000
DefaultSettings.YResolution = 768

Of course, if you can also implement it through REG.EXE, if you want to implement it by using command-line methods. The specific orders are as follows:

REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%your Adapter's GUID
here%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1024
REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%your Adapter's GUID
here%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 768

Note: In Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V mode.