No GUI in Windows Server 2012

Unable to see the windows start button and other user interface where you normally see once you login into your Windows server and the only thing you see is only the command prompt (CMD) and the black background on the desktop

Whether you realize or not, it can happen for some reasons.

This can happen if start installing the OS using server core installation without GUI

Or you accidentally remove 'user interface and infrastructure' feature from server manager and when you are back to perform login windows....... the GUI is gone

Here I will show you how to bring back the GUI on Windows Server 2012.

Because the only tool you have is the command prompt, you will play around with it in order to bring the user interface back.

First try to run the command "SConfig" to see the server configuration

If you see the number stated "Restore Graphical User Interface (GUI)" like the picture below, well you are in luck, just type the number and restart the system then all the GUI will be back normally. 

But if you don't have that kind of information in server configuration as the previous screen shoot, don't have to worry , just go back to your earlier command prompt and run this script:

=====================================================================

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:server-gui-shell /source:\\vmm\winsxs /all

====================================================================

When the it asks you to reboot the system after enabling the feature, press Y button then hit Enter

and it takes few minutes to start. 

Once the system is back in, and you login to the system, Clinggg.... the beauty of GUI is finally back as it suppose to be :"D

Are we done ?

I don't think so

There is one more step to do.....

If you go to windows start button and look for server manager, you will find nothing from the menu 

After bringing back the GUI of the server, we now have to bring back the server manager as well. In order to enable the server manager, I did run this script through powershell:

=======================================================================

install-windowsfeature server-gui-shell

=======================================================================

After you finish running the script above, try to go to start menu and look for the server manager.
Then, a magic happens doesn't it?.... The server manager now is there without rebooting the system :D

I found the way to solve this through this blog:

https://yungchou.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/changing-server-installation-option-from-server-core-to-server-gui-shell/

The article he wrote finally saved my life of the day after few hours searching on the internet trying to troubleshoot this issue :D

I also found nice article for you to practice in your own environment how to turn off the GUI and bring it back on using Windows Server 2012 using the link below:

http://www.howtogeek.com/111967/how-to-turn-the-gui-off-and-on-in-windows-server-2012/

Try to avoid doing this in the production environment though :D

Hope this will be useful and informative for you

Thanks your visiting my very first blog, Cheers :D 

Happy trying guys....