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server 2012 r2 only boots to command prompt

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I am trying to install windows 2012 R2 standard Server. I completed the installation windows is not booting properly . After entering the user name and password only c:\user\administrator display in the screen, if i type exit on it then only a black screen and mouse pointer display. not sure what to do from here
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1. it's usual for server core
2. try to run server manager (just type servermanager in cmd)
3. try to view installed GUI feature using powershell
type powershell
get-windowsfeature *GUI*
verify that you have Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra and Server-Gui-Shell installed
4. if 3 is false , install GUI features
Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell -Restart
Roman Levchenko, MCITP, MCTS http://www.rlevchenko.com
- Edited by R.LevchenkoMVP Thursday, February 27, 2014 6:13 AM
- Proposed as answer by R.LevchenkoMVP Thursday, February 27, 2014 6:37 AM
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If you are just seeing a command prompt without GUI then it means you have installed core edition of server 2012. Not to worry you can get your GUI back.
Follow these steps and screenshots - http://prajwaldesai.com/switching-between-gui-and-server-core-in-windows-server-2012/
Prajwal Desai, http://prajwaldesai.com
- Proposed as answer by Agasthya.S.P Wednesday, February 03, 2016 8:23 PM
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If you found a post to be the answer, please mark it appropriately. It helps to keep the forums tidy by highlighting which response is the answer to the question. It helps future readers. Thanks!
- Chris Ream -
**Remember, if you find a post that is helpful, or is the answer, please mark it appropriately.**
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No, you don't need to remove PowerShell.
Do you want a core installation or a GUI installation? The default installation will be core, i.e. no GUI installed. But, it is possible to install the GUI using PowerShell or DISM afterwards. From the difficulties you are experiencing, I would recommend that you either re-do your installation one more time, making sure you have selected the option to install with GUI instead of taking the default which is the core installation.
The fact that you say that the command recommended by Roman returns unrecognized to you, I would ask if you are sure you are installing Windows Server and not Hyper-V Server. Windows Server would recognize the command Roman provided. What's the name of the ISO file you are using for installation?
.:|:.:|:. tim
- Proposed as answer by Susie LongModerator Wednesday, March 05, 2014 9:00 AM
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I want to run Windows Server 2012 normally, with GUI
It was installed and I was going through installing Active Directory Domain Services and upon finishing I did not see Active Directory Users and Computers, upon rebooting I get the cmd prompt and can't go any farther
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hi
i am still seeing this problem which i have told you before plz resolve this issue which i am looking on my desktop. i want to say again that when i boot my server microsoft window server 2012 but it still shows me a window where it shows powershell dos prompt message still. plz can you explain that which command i must apply that clear my desktop and i may use my server
Regards
iffi
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hi
i am still seeing this problem which i have told you before plz resolve this issue which i am looking on my desktop. i want to say again that when i boot my server microsoft window server 2012 but it still shows me a window where it shows powershell dos prompt message still. plz can you explain that which command i must apply that clear my desktop and i may use my server
Regards
iffi -
iffi,
You have not provided any information about what you installed or your configuration. Have you tried the various commands that are shown in the responses to this post? Those commands are what will add the GUI to a Windows Server 2012 R2 core installation. If you have installed Hyper-V Server, there is nothing you can do to create a GUI. But we don't have any information about your installation.
. : | : . : | : . tim
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I managed to have this happen to me after installing the full GUI version of the OS. Don't ask how, its embarrassing! lol
Anyway, PowerShell would not function so Install-Feature was not an option. Server manager would not open so, enabling features with the UI was not an option. In fact, nothing would run from the command prompt except taskmgr.
The solution was to run the following command from the command prompt that had opened when I logged into the server:
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Server-Gui-Mgmt /featurename:Server-Gui-Shell /featurename:ServerCore-FullServer /all
This installed the GUI features and all the requisites for those features.
Once the installation is complete, which will take quite awhile, reboot the server with the command shutdown /r /t 0 This shuts the server down for reboot with a wait time of zero (immediate).
You should be back in business after the reboot.
- Edited by EVC Tuesday, January 26, 2016 3:23 PM
- Proposed as answer by Vimal Thiagaraj Tuesday, February 09, 2016 7:10 AM
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If my solution worked please put a vote for it so others know to use it. Someone just mentioned .Net 4 as well. I'm really thinking this has something to do with .Net 4 being removed. When this happened to me, I was messing around with .Net 4 due to a compatibility issue with a piece of software.
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i had the same problem here . i tried to remove the .net framework 4.5 on server manager than the server rebooted and came with the same issue. only started in command prompt. nothing is available. not powershell not server manager. if you do ctrl alt end you can go to task manager and start firefox.exe for example you can download .netframework install it but after reboot stays the same. you can try install .netframework on prompt command but wont work. i used the command above listed Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Server-Gui-Mgmt /featurename:Server-Gui-Shell /featurename:ServerCore-FullServer /all after a few seconds asked if i wanted to rebbot. said yes and voila. everithing is back.
thank you so much guys...
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I work in a LAB with an MSDN license. I'm probably the wrong person to ask that question. On that note, if you have an MSDN subcription, just download one that isn't a core and install over the top of the core to give it a GUI (the easy way). As shown here, there are other ways. I did not find them particularly convenient other than it forced me to learn a bunch of basic Powershell commands (such as Restart-Computer, Stop-Computer, and so on).
R, J
- Edited by Crakdkorn Sunday, June 05, 2016 6:57 PM
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Have you followed the suggestions in the old post? By replying to an old post, it is hard to tell what you have done.
From where did you obtain the distribution you are using? During the installation, are you sure you did NOT select the default installation option? There are four selections - Std Core, Std, Datacenter Core, and Datacenter. If you accept the default, you will get core, which means no GUI.
What steps did you follow?
. : | : . : | : . tim
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I had to run the DISM command that EVC proposed, which took an extremely long time to run. It hangs on black screens for 5+ minutes, so it looks concerning. But with patience it finally completed. Once it came back up the Server Manager was very slow to load, but did come up. I still didn't have the full GUI though. Checked via powershell and the 2 gui features were "available" but not installed. Followed the steps from R.Levchenko and now everything is back up and running. Thanks everyone.
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I managed to have this happen to me after installing the full GUI version of the OS. Don't ask how, its embarrassing! lol
Anyway, PowerShell would not function so Install-Feature was not an option. Server manager would not open so, enabling features with the UI was not an option. In fact, nothing would run from the command prompt except taskmgr.
The solution was to run the following command from the command prompt that had opened when I logged into the server:
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Server-Gui-Mgmt /featurename:Server-Gui-Shell /featurename:ServerCore-FullServer /all
This installed the GUI features and all the requisites for those features.
Once the installation is complete, which will take quite awhile, reboot the server with the command shutdown /r /t 0 This shuts the server down for reboot with a wait time of zero (immediate).
You should be back in business after the reboot.
This seems to be working for me now. The previous commands did not work. But this is actually installing now.
I agree that it has something to do with the removal of .NET 4.0/4.5. I was trying to uninstall/reinstall IIS because a contractor royally screwed up the server by installing Apache. We use IIS on everything, so I'm trying to undo everything he did. Apparently I unintentionally (not knowingly) removed a vital piece of the Server puzzle by uninstalling (removing) .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.5 when I uninstalled IIS. Everything was fine until the reboot.
TL;DR
If you blew out .NET 4.5, EVC's solution is the one you need. Forget everything else in this thread.
- Edited by Kim Dorris Saturday, October 15, 2016 4:09 AM correct typos
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