5. Using the System console
You use the System console to view system information and perform
basic configuration tasks. To access the System console, tap or click
System And Security and then System in Control Panel. As Figure 6 shows, the
System console is divided into four basic areas that provide
links for performing common tasks and a system
overview:
-
Windows Edition Shows the
operating system edition and version. In addition, it lists any
service packs that you’ve applied.
-
System Lists the processor,
memory, and type of operating system installed on the
computer.
-
Computer Name, Domain, And Workgroup
Settings Provides the computer name, description, domain,
and workgroup details. If you want to change any of this
information, tap or click Change Settings and then tap or click
Change in the System Properties dialog box.
-
Windows Activation Shows
whether you have activated the operating system and the product
key. If Windows Server 2012 isn’t activated yet, tap or click the
link provided to start the activation process and then follow the
prompts.
When you’re working in the System console, links in the left pane provide quick
access to key support tools, including the following:
-
Device Manager
-
Remote Settings
-
Advanced System Settings
Although volume-licensed versions of Windows Server 2012 might
not require activation or product keys, retail versions of Windows
Server 2012 require both activation and product keys. If Windows
Server 2012 has not been activated, you can activate the operating
system by selecting Activate Windows Now under Windows Activation. You
can also activate Windows by typing slmgr
–ato at a command prompt. You can change the product key
provided during installation of Windows Server 2012 to stay in
compliance with your licensing plan. At a command prompt, type slmgr –ipk followed by the product key you want
to use, and then press Enter.
When Windows finishes validating the product key, you need to
reactivate the operating system. The Windows Software Management Licensing tool has many
other options, including options for offline activation using a
confirmation identifier. To view this and other options, type slmgr at a command prompt.
From within the System console, you can access the System Properties dialog box and use this dialog box to
manage system properties. Tap or click Change Settings under
Computer Name, Domain, And Workgroup Settings.
You use the System Properties dialog box to configure system
properties, including properties for managing the operating system
configuration, startup, shutdown, environment variables, and user
profiles. System is the most advanced Control Panel utility, and its
options are organized into several tabs.
The Computer Name tab displays the full computer name of the
system and the domain membership, if applicable. The full computer name is
essentially the DNS name of the computer, which also identifies the
computer’s place within the Active Directory hierarchy. To change the
computer name or move a computer to a new domain, use one of the
following procedures:
-
For member servers (not domain controllers), you can tap or
click Change to change the system name and domain associated with
the computer. This displays the Computer Name/Domain Changes
dialog box (as shown in Figure 7). If you
want to change the computer’s name, type a new name in the
Computer Name field. If you want to change the computer’s domain
or workgroup membership, select Domain or Workgroup as
appropriate, and then enter the new domain or workgroup name. Tap or click OK. If you change the computer’s
domain, the computer will be moved to that domain and, in which
case, you might be prompted to provide the appropriate credentials
for joining the computer to that domain.
-
For domain controllers, you can tap or click Change to
modify the name of the computer, but doing so will make the domain
controller temporarily unavailable to other computers in the
domain. You cannot use this feature to change the domain in which
the domain controller is running. To change the domain, you must
demote the domain controller to make it a member server, change
the computer’s network ID by using the System utility, and then promote the server so that
it is once again a domain controller.
The other System utility tabs are as follows:
-
Hardware Used to configure a
computer’s Device Installation Settings. If you enable these
settings, Windows Server 2012 checks for driver updates as part of
the normal update process. On the Hardware tab, tap or click the
Device Installation Settings button. Select the desired update
setting. By default, Windows Server 2012 is set to never install
driver software from Windows Update. Typically, this is the best
setting because you’ll want to test all driver updates before
deploying them to production servers. In a test or development
lab, however, you might want to configure Windows Server 2012 to
automatically install the best driver software from Windows
Update.
-
Advanced
Used to control many of the key features of the
Windows operating system, including application performance, user
profiles, startup and recovery, environment variables, and virtual
memory.
-
Remote Used to control Remote
Assistance invitations and Remote Desktop connections. Remote
Assistance invitations are primarily used with workstations and
not servers.
