What is Microsoft Management Console (MMC)? Steps to use Microsoft Management Console

While using MMC, you can access various Windows utilities such as Device Manager or tools provided by other software vendors for Windows.

MMC is also not a new tool, it has been around since Windows 2000. So here is all you need to know about the Microsoft Management Console:

How to launch Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

There are several ways to open MMC. Feel free to use whichever method is more convenient for you.

How to launch MMC with the Run . command

To launch MMC with the Windows Run command:

Step 1. Press Win + R to launch the Run application.

Step 2. Type mmc in the text box and press Enter.

Step 3. You will need to login as admin to open MMC.

Step 4. The Microsoft Management Console window will open.

Launch MMC with Command Prompt (CMD)

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For Command Prompt:

Step 1. In the Start menu search bar, type cmd.

Step 2. From the search results, right-click Command Prompt > Run as Administrator to launch CMD with admin rights.

Step 3. In the CMD console, type mmc and press Enter to launch the Microsoft Management Console.

Launch MMC with Windows PowerShell

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Here's how to launch MMC using Powershell:

Step 1. In the Start menu search bar, type PowerShell.

Step 2. Right-click Windows PowerShell from the search results. Select Run as Administrator to launch PowerShell with admin rights.

Step 3. In the PowerShell console, type mmc and press Enter to launch the Microsoft Management Console.

Create desktop shortcut for MMC

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Using this one-time process, you can also create a desktop shortcut for the MMC to make it easier to launch the service.

Step 1. Right click on an empty area on the desktop. Navigate to New > Shortcut.

Step 2. On the Create Shortcut window, enter the following in the address box, and then click Next:

%windir%/system32/mmc.exe

Step 3. On the next screen, assign a name to the shortcut and click Finish.

Step 4. Launch MMC with the newly created shortcut

How to Use and Navigate the Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

At first, the MMC interface seems a bit confusing. The interface is almost blank because you need to add each Windows tool that you intend to access using the Microsoft Management Console. Each shortcut is called a "snap-in". These snap-ins are practical administrative tools that you can use to configure your computer and its software components.

You can also create a dashboard that contains a specific set of related snap-ins. For example, you can create a dashboard to help manage hardware components. It may contain tools like Device Manager and Event Viewer, which can act as another way to open the Disk Management utility.

How to add or remove snap-ins

When you launch MMC for the first time, no snap-ins will be added to the Console Root folder on the left navigation bar. Adding or removing snap-ins is easy, just follow these steps:

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Step 1. Launch Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

Step 2. Click File, below the title bar.

Step 3. Click Add/Remove snap-in or you can use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + M.

Step 4. On the next window, select the snap-in from the list of available snap-ins.

Step 5. Click Add.

Step 6. In the next window, choose whether you want the snap-in to manage this or another computer.

Step 7. Make sure this option is selected: Allow to change the selected computer when launching from the command line.

Step 8. Click Finish.

Step 9. Click OK.

To remove snap-ins:

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Step 1. Navigate to File > Add/remove snap-in. or press CTRL + M.

Step 2. In the window that opens, click the snap-in you want to delete. You can find your added snap-ins under selected snap-ins:.

Step 3. Now, click Remove.

Step 4. Snap-in will be deleted.

How to edit snap-in extensions

Most snap-ins will contain various extensions that help you manage different aspects of the snap-in. For example, the Computer Management snap-in contains various extensions such as Performance Monitor, Disk Management, Event Viewer, etc. However, you may not want to use all of them.

In this case, you can edit or remove these extensions:

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Step 1. Go to File > Add/remove snap-in.

Step 2. In the selected snap-in section, select the snap-in you want to change.

Step 3. Click Edit Extensions.

Step 4. In the new window, select the option Enable only selected extensions.

Step 5. Select or deselect the extensions from the list, and then click OK.

Step 6. Again, click OK on the Add/remove snap-ins window.

Sometimes the extensions themselves can have child extensions. To enable or disable these sub-extensions, select the extension from the list and click Edit Extensions at the bottom of the window.

Use snap-ins to manage computers

After adding snap-ins, it's pretty easy to use them to manage different aspects of your computer. Everything happens in the MMC window itself, so you don't have to deal with new windows when switching to other snap-ins.

To use the snap-in, simply do the following:

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Step 1. Simply click on any snap-in in the Console Root folder in the navigation pane.

Step 2. You can expand the snap-in section by clicking the drop-down arrow or select the sub-options by double-clicking them in the window on the right.

Step 3. The selected snap-ins will open in the Microsoft Management Console itself.

Step 4. You can also use the navigation buttons above the Console Root folder to show or hide the console tree, level up, etc.

Step 5. Also, the Actions tab on the right replaces the options bar if you open the snap-in separately.

Basically, all snap-ins work as they should if you access them independently.

Above is the basic information about Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that TipsMake wants to share with readers. Hope you found the article useful!

David Pac

Update 19 October 2021