Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is a component of Windows 2000 and its successors that provides system administrators and advanced users an interface for configuring and monitoring the system.
Snap-ins and consoles
The management console can host Component Object Model components called snap-ins. Most of Microsoft's administration tools are implemented as MMC snap-ins. Third parties can also implement their own snap-ins using the MMC's application programming interfaces published on the Microsoft Developer Network's web site.
Snap-ins are registered in the [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT]{CLSID} and [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftMMCSnapins] registry keys. A snap-in combined with MMC is called a management saved console, which is a file with .msc extension and can be launched using this syntax: mmc path filename.msc [/a] [/64] [/32].
The most prolific MMC component, Computer Management, appears in the "Administrative Tools" folder in the Control Panel, under "System and Security" in Category View. Computer Management actually consists of a collection of MMC snap-ins, including the Device Manager, Disk Defragmenter, Internet Information Services (if installed), Disk Management, Event Viewer, Local Users and Groups (except in the home editions of Windows), Shared Folders, and other tools. Computer Management can also be pointed at another Windows machine altogether, allowing for monitoring and configuration of other computers on the local network that the user has access to.
Other MMC snap-ins in common use include:
Microsoft Exchange Server
Active Directory Users and Computers, Domains and Trusts, and Sites and Services
Group Policy Management, including the Local Security Policy snap-in included on all Windows 2000 and later systems (Home editions of Microsoft Windows disable this snap-in)
Services snap-in, for managing Windows services
Performance snap-in, for monitoring system performance and metrics
Event Viewer, for monitoring system and application events
MMC 1.0, shipped with Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack.
MMC 1.1, shipped with SQL Server 7.0 and Systems Management Server 2.0, and also made available as a download for Windows 9x versions and Windows NT. New features:Snap-in taskpads
Wizard-style property sheets
Ability to load extensions to a snap-in at run-time
HTML Help support
MMC 1.2, shipped with Windows 2000. New features:Support for Windows Installer and Group Policy
Filtered views
Exporting list views to a text file
Persistence of user-set column layouts (i.e. widths, ordering, visibility and sorting of lists)
MMC 2.0, shipped with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. New features:
Operating system-defined visual styles
Automation object model, allowing the capabilities of an MMC snap-in to be used programmatically from outside MMC itself (e.g. from a script)
64-bit snap-ins
Console Taskpads
View Extensions
Multilanguage User Interface help files
MMC 3.0, shipped with Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows XP SP3 and subsequent versions of Windows. Also downloadable for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1. New features:A new "Actions pane", displayed on the right-hand side of the MMC user interface that displays available actions for currently-selected node
Support for developing snap-ins with the .NET framework, including Windows Forms
Reduced amount of code required to create a snap-in
Improved debugging capabilities
Asynchronous user interface model (MMC 3.0 snap-ins only)
True Color Icon Support (Windows Vista Only)
New Add/Remove Snap-in UI
DEP is always enforced. All snap-ins must be DEP-aware.
