Enable GUI in Windows Server 2012 Core

In Windows Server 2012 Core you can add (or remove) the GUI interface on the fly.

You can actually switch between Server Core and Full (GUI) Install whenever you want, making it easier to manage your servers.

There are a couple of steps to install the GUI :

1. Create a folder to mount a Windows Imaging File (WIM) in with the command

    mkdir c:\mountdir

2.  Determine the index number for a Server with a GUI image (for example, SERVERDATACENTER,

     not SERVERDATACENTERCORE) using this command at an elevated command prompt:

Dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:<drive>:sources\install.wim

 

3. Mount the WIM file using this command at an elevated command prompt:

    Dism /mount-wim /WimFile:<drive>:\sources\install.wim /Index:<#_from_step_2>

    /MountDir:c:\mountdir /readonly

 

4. Start Windows PowerShell and run this cmdlet:

Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell –Restart –Source

c:\mountdir\windows\winsxs

Alternatively, if you want to use Windows Update as the source instead of a WIM file, use this

Windows PowerShell cmdlet:

Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell –Restart



After above procedures full GUI will be available

 

5. Finally we unmount WIM file by using command :

    dism /unmount-Wim /MountDir:<mountDir> /discard

    And also remove directory c:\mountdir by command

   rmdir C:\mountdir