Q. Is there an easy way to manage my Server Core installations locally on the server?

A. Server Core is a great platform for many workloads, but local configuration can be complex and most actions must be performed using the command line or PowerShell. (In Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Manager can remotely manage Server Core.)

Core Configurator is a third-party tool that uses PowerShell to enable a GUI to manage most elements of the server configuration, including managing virtual machines if the server core box has the Hyper-V role enabled. Core Configurator can be downloaded from Codeplex and is now in its second version.

Examples of the interface can be seen below.