Windows Server editions, installation, the console, and PowerShell

Why this matters

Almost every organisation runs Windows Server somewhere: it authenticates staff, hosts files, serves applications, and runs the directory that ties a network together. If you can install it, find your way around it, and drive it confidently, you can take responsibility for real infrastructure. This first lesson orients you. You meet the editions and installation choices, you learn the graphical console an administrator lives in, and — most importantly — you meet PowerShell, the language this course treats as the primary tool. By the end you will understand the two lab machines you use throughout: a domain controller called dc01 and a member server called member01.

Two machines, one rule: everything you build is an isolated training domain. It is never joined to a company network and has no trust to one. That keeps the lab safe to experiment in and keeps you clear of anything real.

Concepts

What a "server" is. Windows Server is the same Windows you know, tuned to run services continuously rather than to sit in front of one person. It rarely reboots, it runs *roles* (directory, DNS, file sharing) instead of desktop apps, and it is managed remotely far more often than at its own screen.

Editions. Windows Server 2022 ships mainly as Standard and Datacenter. They share the same roles and features — Active Directory Domain Services, DNS, DHCP, File and Storage Services, Group Policy, Windows Server Backup are all present in both. The differences are about scale and virtualisation rights: Standard permits two virtual-machine guest licences per licensed host, Datacenter permits unlimited guests plus features aimed at large private clouds such as Storage Spaces Direct and Software-Defined Networking. There is also a Datacenter: Azure Edition for Azure/Azure Local. For learning, the roles you need are in every edition; the choice is a licensing and scale decision, not a feature gate.

Installation options. Setup offers two experiences. Desktop Experience gives you the full graphical shell — Server Manager, consoles, a Start menu — and is what this course assumes. Server Core installs no desktop: you manage it entirely by PowerShell and remote tools. Core has a smaller attack surface and fewer patches, which is why production estates increasingly prefer it — and why learning PowerShell matters: on Core it is the only local option. An Evaluation edition runs free for 180 days for non-production evaluation; it is fine for building a lab, but it is not a licence for a paid, ongoing service.

Licensing, honestly. Windows Server is commercial software. A persistent, multi-user hosted lab that learners pay to reach needs correctly licensed Windows Server; the 180-day evaluation and repeated resets are not a licensing strategy for that. In this course the hosted Windows lab is gated on that licensing decision, so the text, the PowerShell, and every procedure are written to stand on their own. Where a real screen matters you will see a [SCREENSHOT: ...] note describing what it must show.

The console. After sign-in, Server Manager opens. It is the dashboard for adding roles and features, seeing which roles are installed and healthy, managing other servers, and launching the specific consoles — Active Directory Users and Computers, DNS Manager, the DHCP console, the Group Policy Management Console. Under the hood, every one of those actions is something PowerShell can also do.

PowerShell — the admin language. PowerShell is a command shell and scripting language built for administration. Its commands are cmdlets named Verb-Noun (Get-Service, New-ADUser, Restart-Computer), and — the key idea — they pass .NET objects, not text, from one command to the next. That is what makes it precise and automatable: you can ask for exactly the property you want, filter on it, and repeat an action across a thousand objects the same way you did it for one. Windows Server 2022 includes Windows PowerShell 5.1 built in; the cross-platform PowerShell 7 is an optional install. This course teaches the language they share, so what you learn works on both.

Guided exercise

You will install nothing in this lesson — the lab machines are provided — but you should know what setup decides, and you will run your first commands.

Part A — What the installer decides (read)

1. Boot the Windows Server 2022 media and choose the language and keyboard. [SCREENSHOT: Windows Setup language and keyboard selection page]
2. On the edition page, choose Windows Server 2022 Standard (Desktop Experience) for a lab with a GUI. Choosing an entry without "Desktop Experience" installs Server Core. [SCREENSHOT: Select Image page listing Standard and Datacenter, with and without Desktop Experience]
3. Accept the licence terms, choose Custom install, select the disk, and let setup copy files and reboot.
4. At first sign-in, set the local Administrator password. [SCREENSHOT: Customize settings page prompting for the built-in Administrator password]

Part B — Find your way around (do this on dc01)

1. Sign in. Server Manager opens automatically; if not, it is on the Start menu. [SCREENSHOT: Server Manager dashboard with the Local Server and All Servers nodes]
2. Select Local Server and note the computer name, workgroup/domain, network address, and Windows activation state — the facts you check first on any server.
3. Open the Tools menu. This is where the role consoles will appear as you install roles in later lessons.

Part C — Your first PowerShell (do this on dc01)

Open PowerShell (right-click Start, then Windows PowerShell (Admin)) and run these. The output shown is the real output from PowerShell 7; on the server's built-in Windows PowerShell 5.1 the version numbers differ but the shape is identical.

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion          # which PowerShell am I in?
Get-Command -Verb Get -Noun Service   # discover a cmdlet by its verb and noun
Get-Service | Select-Object -First 3 Name, Status   # objects, not text: pick columns

Major  Minor  Patch
-----  -----  -----
7      4      2

Get-Service returns service objects; Select-Object picks properties from them. You did not parse any text — you asked for the Name and Status properties directly. That object idea is the whole reason PowerShell scales, and it is the subject of the next lesson.

Troubleshooting

Symptom → "I installed Server Core by accident and there is no desktop." → cause: you chose an edition without "Desktop Experience". You cannot add the GUI to 2022 after the fact; reinstall choosing Desktop Experience, or manage Core remotely by PowerShell — which is a valid, common choice.

Symptom → "Server Manager says Windows is not activated." → cause: an unactivated or expired evaluation. The server still works for learning; activation is a licensing step, and evaluation expires after 180 days.

Symptom → "I opened PowerShell but an admin command is denied." → cause: you opened a normal session. Many server tasks need elevation — start Windows PowerShell (Admin) so the session runs as administrator.

Symptom → "Which edition am I on?" → run Get-ComputerInfo -Property WindowsProductName, OsHardwareAbstractionLayer or check Local Server in Server Manager; the product name states Standard or Datacenter.

Check your understanding

Summary and next step

• Windows Server 2022 comes as Standard and Datacenter (plus Azure Edition); the roles you need are in both, and the

choice is about scale and virtualisation, not features.

• Desktop Experience gives a GUI; Server Core is GUI-less and managed by PowerShell — one more reason to learn it.
• Server Manager is the console hub; PowerShell is the admin language, and its commands pass objects, not text.

Next you learn PowerShell properly — cmdlets, the pipeline, objects, help, scripting, and remoting — because every later lesson leans on it.

References

• Comparison of Windows Server editions (Windows Server 2022) — https://learn.microsoft.com/windows-server/get-started/editions-comparison (accessed 2026-09-13)
• What is PowerShell? — https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/scripting/overview (accessed 2026-09-13)
• Install Windows Server — https://learn.microsoft.com/windows-server/get-started/install-upgrade-migrate (accessed 2026-09-13)