Whether you are an IT administrator or just a Windows power user at home, it’s always a good idea to know how you manage your computer so it’s always running at its best. Of course, there are various tools scattered throughout Windows but you need to know where to find them and might not even know that some of them exist!
There is a handy tool from Microsoft that you can use on your computer to manage most Windows components all in one place. In this article, we will be showing you how you can manage your Windows 10 & 11 desktop PCs with the Microsoft Windows Admin Center tool. This will even run on Windows Home edition computers.
There are a couple of ways you can install the Windows Admin Center tool and either method will yield the same results. If you are a Winget user, then you can go to the Windows Admin Center page on the Winget website. Then all you need to do to install the tool is copy the command from the website and paste it into a command prompt window and run it.
Another way to install the Windows Admin Center tool is to download the MSI file from the Microsoft website. Then you can double click it to start the installation, which is fairly straightforward. You can stick with the default settings and one of the last screens will ask you to select a port for the Windows Admin Center site so if you are not using port 6516 for anything else, you can leave the default setting, otherwise you can change this port number. You can also have it create a desktop shortcut, otherwise you can simply bookmark the website.
You will also be notified that the first time you run the Windows Admin Center, you will need to select a certificate but this will be provided for you and you can simply select the certificate that is displayed.
Once you start the Windows Admin Center, it will open in your web browser using the port specified during the installation. You will then be shown the name of the computer running the Admin Center. Then all you need to do is click the link for the computer name to open the main console window. You can even rename your computer from here.
Now you will see all the available tools and categories listed on the left side of the page. Here are the main sections that you will be able to work with.
- File shares
- Environment variables
- Power configuration
- Remote Desktop
- Role-based Access Control
- Apps and features
- Azure Monitor
- Certificates
- Devices (hardware)
- Windows events
- Files and file sharing
- Firewall settings
- Local users and groups
- Performance Monitor
- Processes
- Registry
- Scheduled tasks
- Security
- Services
- Storage
- Windows Updates
- Virtual machines
- Virtual switches
When you select a specific tool, the pane on the right will change to show the options and settings you can configure for that tool. For example, if you click on Local users and groups, you can then manage the user accounts on your computer and do things such as add a new user, delete or edit users, change passwords and change group membership.
As you can see, the Microsoft Windows Admin Center is a handy tool you can use to manage your Windows desktop PCS.
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