What's New in MMC 3.0

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista

MMC 3.0 supports richer functionality in snap-ins that are written to take advantage of the MMC 3.0 infrastructure.

New features in MMC 3.0

Several improvements apply to MMC 3.0 snap-in consoles.

Action pane

The Action pane is located on the right-hand side of the snap-in console. The Action pane lists the actions that are available to users, based on the currently selected items in the tree or the results pane. To show or hide the Action pane, click the Show/Hide Action Pane button in the toolbar, which is similar to the Show/Hide Tree button.

New Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box

The new Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box makes it easy to add, organize, and remove snap-ins. You can control which extensions are available, and whether to automatically enable snap-ins that may be installed later. You can organize snap-ins by nesting them and rearranging them in the tree. For more information about using the MMC 3.0 Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box, see Add, Remove, and Organize Snap-ins and Extensions in MMC 3.0.

Improved error handling

MMC 3.0 notifies you of errors in snap-ins that could cause MMC to fail, and provides several options for responding to those errors.

For information about using MMC 3.0 with snap-ins and snap-in consoles created for earlier versions of MMC, see Using Files Created with Earlier Versions of MMC with MMC 3.0.