In Windows Server 2008 R2 you could select whether you wanted to run Standard (GUI) och Core version of Windows Server. In Windows Server 2012 the GUI is a feature which you can add or remove.
To remove the GUI you use the following Powershell one-liner:
Remove-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
You can also uninstall the GUI, which removes the binary files from the disk. To completely uninstall the GUI you use the following Powershell one-liner:
Uninstall-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
If you realize you are in over your head you can add it back in using:
Add-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell
… or:
Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell –Restart –Source c:\mountdir\windows\winsxs
You can also do all of this using Dism:
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:ServerCore-FullServer /featurename:Server-Gui-Shell /featurename:Server-Gui-Mgmt
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