Adding and removing the GUI in Windows Server 2012
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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