My lab environment runs on Windows 2012 R2 Core, with Hyper-V installed. It runs smoothly. When I need to manage the environment I can do the most common task right there on the prompt.
But with Microsoft pushing everyone to use PowerShell I don’t understand why Windows Core start with a normal prompt instead of a PowerShell prompt.
In this article I will describe how you can change the prompt that is launched when Windows Core boots from CMD to PowerShell.
In Windows Core there is no explore. All you get to see is al black command box..
Now let’s see if we can find out how to change the cmd prompt to a PowerShell prompt.
First I need to know what’s the current value for the shell that is launched at startup.
Surprisingly the shell for Windows Server 2012 R2 Core is explore.exe. But as I searched a bit further I found that this version of Windows is using a value for AlternativeShells. And there we find the reference to cmd.exe
The value for alternate shell 3000 can’t be edited but I did found a different way the accomplish my goal.
With the following code I’ve changed the value for the Shell property.
Now lets reboot to see if we now have a PowerShell prompt..
The big question remains, why is this not the default.