3 ms·

> improving admin apps? They have a bunch of replacements, all of which are slow as molasses and not feature complete. 1. Server Manager. 2. Windows Admin Ce

> improving admin apps? They have a bunch of replacements, all of which are slow as molasses and not feature complete. 1. Server Manager. 2. Windows Admin Centre. 3. Settings App (same as desktop). 4. PowerShell 5. DSC 6. Azure Arc There's also Active Directory Administrative Center which never replaced dsa.msc for me or anyone I've ever worked with. Similarly, there's like half a dozen performance monitor tools for Windows Server, and they're all terrible and are missing critical features.

lousken 7mo ago
i've stopped administrating windows some time ago so hopefully my response is still accurate - 1. deprecated lol 2. i think it can't be run on things like AD, so for very small companies this is annoying 3. ... that's not really an admin app? 4. sure, but then i might as well switch to linux if i have to stick to cli (and i did) 5. last time i checked there were two versions, incompatible with one another, not great alternative to ansible 6. if you have hybrid and are in azure already, maybe? haven't used I mean it's not like there are not 5 alternatives in azure/intune for every thing as well that are half baked. And 365 and azure is worse with terrible migration guides, ms graph with a combination of commands and json inputs and defaults from 2016. It's really time for microsoft to fully commit to one thing, make it good, finish it and deprecate everything else.
- jiggawatts 7mo ago
  > 1. deprecated lol It launches by default on new installs of Windows Server 2025! > 2. i think it can't be run on things like AD, so for very small companies this is annoying In "Preview", which is a sad state of affairs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/use/manage-servers#active-directory-preview https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/wind... > 3. ... that's not really an admin app? I was just listing stuff that generally replaced the old MMC consoles. Things like regional options can be set through the Admin app, and is weirdly difficult with other mechanisms even on Windows Server. Some critical aspects are still MMC-only or require half a page of PowerShell scripts. > 4. sure, but then i might as well switch to linux if i have to stick to cli (and i did) Ironically, you're missing out on PowerShell, which is more UNIX than UNIX, and blows every legacy shell on Linux out of the water. > 5. last time i checked there were two versions, incompatible with one another, not great alternative to ansible There are three now, all incompatible and incomplete: https://dsccommunity.org/blog/what-is-microsoft-dscv3/ https://dsccommunity.org/blog/what-is-microsoft-dscv3/ > 6. if you have hybrid and are in azure already, maybe? haven't used [Azure Arc] It's supposed to replace Group Policy, Windows Update, and bits and pieces of SCCM and SCOM. It is incredibly, hilariously bad at all of those things. It's a level of failure that simply boggles the mind, and I can only surmise that it was developed by a small army of junior outsourced Indian developers that had never seen any of the tools they were replacing and did everything "to the letter of the spec".
  - lousken 7mo ago
    1. Because there is still no true replacement 2. Yea... 4. Pwsh - i tried to install powershell multiple times on linux, it was ubuntu 24 and debian 13, both about 6 months after release (so debian in january) and it always failed to install because of wrong dependencies. They can't even keep powershell up to date so it is far from great. Linux server support should be there from day 1 otherwise it is useless 5. U gotta be kidding, what a clusterfuck 6. Thanks for saving my time with testing, wouldn't expect anything else
pathartl 7mo ago
PowerShell is slow or not feature complete? It's arguably one of the best shells out there.
- jiggawatts 7mo ago
  It is reasonably feature complete, but not 100%, so some things are absurdly difficult to automate on Server Core, such as changing the ACL of the private key of a certificate (i.e.: to give a service account access). It also takes a solid two seconds to launch even on a high-end PC with a fast SSD. It takes much longer on a small VM with overpriced cloud remote storage.

lousken 7mo ago

i've stopped administrating windows some time ago so hopefully my response is still accurate - 1. deprecated lol 2. i think it can't be run on things like AD, so for very small companies this is annoying 3. ... that's not really an admin app? 4. sure, but then i might as well switch to linux if i have to stick to cli (and i did) 5. last time i checked there were two versions, incompatible with one another, not great alternative to ansible 6. if you have hybrid and are in azure already, maybe? haven't used I mean it's not like there are not 5 alternatives in azure/intune for every thing as well that are half baked. And 365 and azure is worse with terrible migration guides, ms graph with a combination of commands and json inputs and defaults from 2016. It's really time for microsoft to fully commit to one thing, make it good, finish it and deprecate everything else.

jiggawatts 7mo ago
> 1. deprecated lol It launches by default on new installs of Windows Server 2025! > 2. i think it can't be run on things like AD, so for very small companies this is annoying In "Preview", which is a sad state of affairs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/use/manage-servers#active-directory-preview https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/wind... > 3. ... that's not really an admin app? I was just listing stuff that generally replaced the old MMC consoles. Things like regional options can be set through the Admin app, and is weirdly difficult with other mechanisms even on Windows Server. Some critical aspects are still MMC-only or require half a page of PowerShell scripts. > 4. sure, but then i might as well switch to linux if i have to stick to cli (and i did) Ironically, you're missing out on PowerShell, which is more UNIX than UNIX, and blows every legacy shell on Linux out of the water. > 5. last time i checked there were two versions, incompatible with one another, not great alternative to ansible There are three now, all incompatible and incomplete: https://dsccommunity.org/blog/what-is-microsoft-dscv3/ https://dsccommunity.org/blog/what-is-microsoft-dscv3/ > 6. if you have hybrid and are in azure already, maybe? haven't used [Azure Arc] It's supposed to replace Group Policy, Windows Update, and bits and pieces of SCCM and SCOM. It is incredibly, hilariously bad at all of those things. It's a level of failure that simply boggles the mind, and I can only surmise that it was developed by a small army of junior outsourced Indian developers that had never seen any of the tools they were replacing and did everything "to the letter of the spec".
- lousken 7mo ago
  1. Because there is still no true replacement 2. Yea... 4. Pwsh - i tried to install powershell multiple times on linux, it was ubuntu 24 and debian 13, both about 6 months after release (so debian in january) and it always failed to install because of wrong dependencies. They can't even keep powershell up to date so it is far from great. Linux server support should be there from day 1 otherwise it is useless 5. U gotta be kidding, what a clusterfuck 6. Thanks for saving my time with testing, wouldn't expect anything else

pathartl 7mo ago

PowerShell is slow or not feature complete? It's arguably one of the best shells out there.

jiggawatts 7mo ago
It is reasonably feature complete, but not 100%, so some things are absurdly difficult to automate on Server Core, such as changing the ACL of the private key of a certificate (i.e.: to give a service account access). It also takes a solid two seconds to launch even on a high-end PC with a fast SSD. It takes much longer on a small VM with overpriced cloud remote storage.