Ever need to mess with settings, install new software, or otherwise gain access to your server? Do you use Remote Desktop Connection to access your server a lot? Well, we have a solution here that allows you to not only access pretty much everything you could need to on your server, but do it through the console. No need to start up Remote Desktop Connection again!

About the Add-In

Advanced Admin Console

This Add-In is for all Home Server administrators who want to have full control over their Home Server at any time. It allows to jump to the following areas of your Home Server within the Home Server Console:

• Control Panel
• Printers and Faxes
• Administrative Tools
• Start Menu
• "My Computer" (Which really should be called "My Server" on Windows Server SKUs)
• My Network Places
• Workgroup
• Network Connections

Moreover you can launch a Command Prompt, PowerShell (if installed), Task Manager and Registry Editor from the menu. Thus, it is unnecessary for the majority of administrative tasks to connect to your Home Server via Remote Desktop...

Links

• WGS Forum Thread - A section on We Got Served forums for Advanced Admin Console
• Advanced Admin Console Homepage - Andreas' personal blog including newest versions of Advanced Admin Console

Settings

Despite the shear power and control this add-in gives, there are very few actually settings for it. However, those few settings allow you to customize it to your personal tastes.
The first setting is the "Built-In Shortcuts" tab. Here you can choose what sections that the add-in will even show. So you can hide the Start Menu, or the printers and faxes, or the task manager. Or you can even rearrange the order they appear in. Admittedly this isn't a powerhouse setting, it is still very nice to have and I wouldn't dream of getting rid of it.
The other tab is the "Custom Shortcuts" tab. Here you can add new shortcuts to the system. This can be to locations on the system or applications. So, truly this pretty much eliminates the need to use Remote Desktop Connection

Built-In Shortcuts

Custom Shortcuts