Creating a New Console File

1. On the Start Menu, click Run, type MMC, and then click OK. Microsoft Management Console opens with an empty console (or administrative tool) as shown in Figure 1 below. The empty console has no management functionality until you add some snap-ins. The MMC menu commands on the menu bar at the top of the Microsoft Management Console window apply to the entire console.
   
   
   Figure 1: Beginning Console Window
2. Click Console (under Console1). On the Console Menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in. The Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box opens. This lets you enable extensions and configure which snap-ins are in the console file. You can specify where the snap-ins should be inserted in the Snap-in's "added to drop-down box." Accept the default, Console Root, for this exercise.
3. Click Add. This displays the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box that lists the snap-ins that are installed on your computer.
4. From the list of snap-ins, double-click Computer Management to open the Computer Management wizard.
5. Click Local computer and select the check box for "Allow the selected computer to be changed when launching from the command line."
6. Click Finish. This returns you to the Add/Remove Snap-ins dialog box. Click Close.
7. Click the Extensions tab as shown in Figure 2 below. By selecting the check box Add all extensions, all locally-installed extensions on the computer are used. If this check box is not selected, then any extension snap-in that is selected is explicitly loaded when the console file is opened on a different computer.
   
   
   Figure 2: Select All Extensions
8. Click OK to close the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box. The Console Root window now has a snap-in, Computer Management, rooted at the Console Root folder.

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Customizing the Display of Snap-ins in the Console: New Windows

After you add the snap-ins, you can add windows to provide different administrative views in the console.

To add windows

1. In the left pane of the tree view in Figure 3 below, click the + next to Computer Management. Click System Tools.
   
   
   Figure 3: Console1: System Tools
2. Right-click the Event Viewer folder that opens, and then click New window from here. As shown in Figure 4 below, this opens a new Event Viewer window rooted at the Event Viewer extension to computer management.
   
   
   Figure 4: Event Viewer
3. Click Window and click Console Root.
4. In the Console Root window, click Services and Applications, right-click Services in the left pane, and then click New Window. As shown in Figure 5 below, this opens a new Services window rooted at the Event Viewer extension to Computer Management. In the new window, click the Show/Hide Console Tree toolbar button to hide the console tree, as shown in the red circle in Figure 5 below.
   
   
   Figure 5: Show/Hide Button
5. Close the original window with Console Root showing in it.
6. On the Window menu, select Tile Horizontally. The console file should appear and include the information shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5 above.
7. You can now save your new MMC console. Click the Save as icon on the Console window, and give your console a name. Your console is now saved as a .msc file, and you can provide it to anyone who needs to configure a computer with these tools.