A Quick Look at the Windows Vista MMC Consoles

in Microsoft on Windows-vista

There’s got to be a quicker way of getting to the management tools in Windows right? Well here’s a quick look at the MMC files included in the base install of Windows Vista. I’ve put together a list of those files and whether you need to elevate to run them. If you do need to elevate you will have to do so by running them from an elevated command prompt. Note that you can run these without having to add the .MSC extension. The exception to this is SERVICES.MSC.

  • azman.msc: Authorization Manager. Doesn’t require elevation to run, but you will need to run this tool with admin privileges to manage an authorisation store.
  • certmgr.msc: Certificates Manager. Doesn’t require elevation to run, but you will need to elevate to manage certificates for the local computer.
  • comexp.msc: Component Services. Doesn’t require elevation to run, but you will need to elevate to manage COM components.
  • compmgmt.msc: Computer Management. Doesn’t require elevation to run like it does when you choose Manage from the Computer properties menu, but you get a read-only view.
  • devmgmt.msc: Device Manager. Doesn’t require elevation but you will only be able to view the device configuration.
  • diskmgmt.msc: Disk Management. Requires elevation to run, there is no view-only mode.
  • eventvwr.msc: Event Viewer. Doesn’t require elevation to run, however you will need to elevate to manage event logs and view the Security log.
  • fsmgmt.msc: Shared Folders. Requires elevation; however you can view a list of shares without elevation.
  • gpedit.msc: Local Group Policy. Requires elevation to run.
  • gpmc.msc: Group Policy Management
    Console. Doesn’t require elevation to run, but you’ll obviously need to run this tool as a domain admin to manage Group Policy.
  • lusrmgr.msc: Local Users and Groups. Doesn’t require elevation to run.
  • napclcfg.msc: NAP Client Configuration. Requires elevation to run.
  • perfmon.msc: Reliability and Performance. Doesn’t require elevation to run, however you will need to elevate to perform certain tasks.
  • printmanagement.msc: Print Management: Doesn’t require elevation to run. You can point this tool at remote print servers to manage them.
  • rsop.msc: Resultant Set of Policy. Doesn’t require elevation to run but if you don’t elevate this tool, you will only see your own user Group Policy configuration.
  • secpol.msc: Local Security Policy. Requires elevation to run.
  • services.msc: Services. Doesn’t require elevation to run.
  • taskschd.msc: Task Scheduler. Doesn’t require elevation to run, however without elevation you will only be able to manage tasks in your own context.
  • tpm.msc: Trusted Management Module Management. Requires elevation to run and you’ll also need a TPM.
  • wf.msc: Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. Requires elevation to run.
  • wmimgmt.msc: WMI Control. Doesn’t require elevation to run, however you will need to elevate this console to make any changes.