The Microsoft Management Console

MMC is intended to provide a common interface into various administrative tools used with Windows 2000/XP/2003. Utilities are created as snap-ins that are loaded into the MMC application and presented to the user . Each console consists of a left pane with a tree of objects you can manage using the particular snap-in. This tree can contain things such as folders and other containers, or administrative objects. Some objects in the tree can be expanded by clicking on the plus sign (+) next to them, to reveal a further nesting of objects. Hence the treelike structure, which is similar to a set of directories and subdirectories.

Note

The MMC interface is not limited to Microsoft management applications. Many third-party applications also have designed snap-ins that can be used with MMC. The goal of this effort is to provide a consistent interface to manage not just the operating system and layered products, but also applications and utilities created for Windows platforms.

The right pane is usually used to display data or other information based on choices made in the left pane. For example, in the Computer Management administrative tool, you select Disk Defragmenter from the tree of options in the left pane, and the disk defragmenter displays disks that you can defragment, as well as the progress of the fragmentation process, in the pane on the right.

Note

For the most common system management tasks , you don't have to worry about setting up a snap-in for MMC. Use Start, Programs, Administrative Tools for Windows 2000, and you will see that the familiar utilities are already set up, along with some others you might not recognize. For Windows Server 2003, use Start, Administrative Tools.