If you find that the existing console tools don’t meet your needs or you want to
create your own administration tool with the features you choose, you
can build your own custom console tools. This allows you to determine
which features the console includes, which snap-ins it uses, and which additional commands are
available.
The steps for creating custom console tools are as follows:
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Create the console for the tool.
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Add snap-ins to the console. Snap-ins you use can include
Microsoft console tools as well as console tools from third-party
vendors.
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When you are finished with the design, save the console in
user mode so that it is ready for use.
Each step is examined in detail in the sections that follow.
Optionally, you can create one or more taskpad views containing
shortcuts to menu commands, shell commands, and navigation components
you want to include in your custom tool.
Step 1: Creating the console
The first step in building a custom console tool is to create
the console you’ll use as the framework. To get started, open a
blank MMC in author mode. Type mmc in
the Search box, and then press Enter. This opens a blank console
titled Console1 that has a default console root, as shown in Figure 4.
If you want your custom tool to be based on an existing console, you can open its .msc file and add
it to the new console. Select Open on the File menu, and then use
the Open dialog box to find the .msc file you want to work with. As
discussed previously, most .msc files are in the
%SystemRoot%\System32 directory. Any existing console you choose
will open in author mode automatically. Keep in mind that you
generally don’t want to overwrite the existing .msc file with the
new .msc file you are creating. Because of this, when you save the custom
console, be sure to choose Save As rather than Save on the File
menu.
If you want to start from scratch, work with the blank console
you just opened. The first thing you’ll want to do is rename the
console root to give it and the related window a more meaningful name. For example, if you are
creating a console tool to help you manage the Active Directory
Domain Services, you could rename the console root Active Directory
Management. To rename the console root and the related window, press
and hold or right-click the console root, and select Rename. Type
the name you want to use, and then press Enter.
Next consider how many windows the console tool must have. Most console tools have a single window, but as shown in
Figure 5, a
console can have multiple windows, each with its own view of the
console root. You add windows to the console by using the New Window
option on the Window menu. After you add a window, you’ll probably
want the MMC to automatically tile the windows as shown in the
figure. You can tile windows by selecting Tile Horizontally on the
Window menu. You don’t have to do this, however; anytime there are
multiple windows, you can use the options on the Window menu to
switch between them.
Most console tools have a single window for a good
reason: The tool creators wanted to keep the interface as simple
as possible. When you introduce multiple windows, you create
additional views of the console root, making the interface more
complex, and often unnecessarily so. Still, there are times when a
console tool with multiple windows could come in handy. For
example, you might want to have multiple views of the console root
where different areas of the tool are featured, and you could do
this by using multiple windows.
