Server Core is a special version of Windows server 2008. It has no GUI. Actually it has, but it lacks windows explorer and all the nice stuff that depends on it. It also lacks lots of Windows functionality and applications, like Internet explorer, Windows media player, it does not support audio etc. Because of that Windows server 2008 CORE version is "lite" version of windows, and you could see that already at installation time. It takes about 6-8 minutes to install it  .
Having that in mind lots of People think that CORE version of windows is something you could manage only from command line, and this is so not true  . You could install most of applications not dependent on windows explorer shell api, and you could run almost any stand alone program with GUI. For instance you could run all the tools from sysinternals.com (Mark Rusinovich is now part of Microsoft stuff). You could manage Windows server 2008 CORE version from other Windows server 2008 or Vista computer using familiar tools, or you could write your own application that will be a wrapper around Windows server 2008 CORE CLI (command line) management tools.
So, CORE version of windows server 2008 is much lighter (smaller footprint than normal installation of windows server 2008), more stable (stability of Windows server 2008 is something not questionable), more secure (if this is possible when compared to Windows server 2008 "full" version), and last but not least, CORE version of Windows needs less management, it needs less patches, because it has fewer components to be patched.
On this blog in part dedicated to Windows server 2008 CORE you will have the opportunity to read about following things:
1. Components that come with Windows server 2008 CORE version of windows
2. How to install applications like Virtual server 2005 R2 SP1 and similar applications, how to start and use stand alone tools, how to browse from CORE version
3. What do you have to do after Windows server 2008 server CORE installation and how to do it (change IP, change domain membership, activate windows etc.
4. Open remote firewall administration and remote administration for several components like event viewer, services etc.
5. Install and administer components like DHCP, DNS, DC, IIS, disks, users, logs etc.
Lots of this information is available on Microsoft site (see links on this blog), and also on some other blogs dedicated to Windows server 2008 CORE, but you will also found some information NOT explained anywhere else.
One of this things is one of the first post to follow - it's about how to install Virtual server 2005 R2 SP1 web administration part on Windows server 2008 CORE. Before that I will explain how to surf from Windows server 2008 CORE version - if you need to  .
Stay tuned
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