According to Microsoft’s Windows Admin Center documentation: “Other modern web browsers or other platforms are not currently part of our test matrix and are therefore not officially supported.” Microsoft also states, “Windows Admin Center is not tested with Mozila Firefox, but most functionality should work.” In terms of browser support, only Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome are officially supported, though there’s a chance you’ll have success with other browsers. It’s not quite there yet, but it does replace the functionality most admins will need on a regular basis, and it does so with a web-based interface that works great on high-DPI and touch screen devices regardless of platform. That doesn’t mean Admin Center is a full replacement for MMC. Ever try using MMC on a high-DPI monitor or a touch screen display? How about on a device that isn’t running Windows? Each of these scenarios highlights something MMC cannot do but Admin Center can. MMC is great at offering a way to manage servers or services without logging onto the server console, but it’s also showing it’s age in a number of ways.

If you aren’t familiar with the name, think about all of the admin tools you’ve used in Windows such as Computer Management, Services, DHCP, DNS, etc. If you’ve been in the business of administering Windows for any length of time you’re familiar with the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and MMC snap-ins. Opting for the gateway server or the failover cluster means you could have Windows Admin Center installed in your network DMZ, and limit administrative traffic coming into your corporate network to specific management servers. Windows Admin Center can be installed on a local Windows 10 client, a gateway server in order to provide centralized management, on individual servers, or in a failover cluster for situations where high-availability is required. Since it’s free, trying it out costs nothing more than some time, and you might find that some of these benefits make it worth the investment. Backup lessons from a cloud-storage disaster A lot of the value built into Windows Admin Center has to do with it being a remote-management tool that can have a lot of upside in a modern IT shop, including implementing best practices by not logging directly into servers, bringing flexibility to the management architecture, and performing admin tasks from high-DPI or touchscreen devices.Ĭonsidered a complement to System Center, Admin Center is a free app, downloadable here, that runs in a browser and can manage Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 10, Azure Stack HCI through Windows Admin Center Gateway, software installed on Windows Server or domain-joined Windows 10.

Windows cluster administration tool