Managing extensions in WAC - Windows Server Tutorial

- [Instructor] The Windows Admin Center has several components installed by default, that allow you to select one of your servers, and browse through various options that allow you to manage and take care of your Windows servers. But as time goes on, there are going to be additional functionalities added, some of them automatically provided by Microsoft through Windows Update, others by third parties that may have something to offer to this management console. I'm going to click on the gear icon here at the top right to open the settings, and I'm going to select extensions here under the gateway. If I click on this link to show installed applications, you'll see things like Azure backup, certificate management, and I can scroll down through all of the menu options that are available by default. The available extensions link shows pieces distributed by Microsoft that might not be as important to everybody. As of this recording, it includes a handful of preview extensions, in addition to things that have already been proven out. Going forward, this list will continue to grow as Microsoft adds management functionality extensions. Some of the extensions that are available here might have to do with Windows features, others have to do with hardware partners that have clustering and storage, various SAN arrangements, maybe components that have to do with printing devices or other elements of your Windows network. There's been a lot of call for Linux support, and Microsoft is working on the ability to manage Linux machines as well. As that materializes, I imagine the open source community will become even more active in developing extensions as well. Once you see an extension that you need, installing it is just about as easy as Microsoft could make it. Let me go ahead and select the Windows Defender preview extension, and when I select it, it gives me a descriptive window, to tell me all about it, and then all I need to do is click install. I see that there is a note about the importance of managing elevated permissions. This is important to keep track of. It's a good idea to pay attention to these messages when you receive them. If you run into an issue, the answer is found in these notes more often than some might expect. But once I go ahead and confirm this, it will move forward and install this feature for me. And now I'll be able to find Windows Defender on my list of installed extensions, and more importantly, when I go back to the server manager, and select one of my servers, let's say the domain controller, it once again wants to know who has permissions to do this. I can now scroll down in this list and there is a security option under extensions that wasn't there before. And inside security, I now have the Windows Defender console. Keep an eye out for the growing list of extensions, as more and more people start to use the Admin Center, and more providers start to build out tools to expand the utility of this management experience.