Introducing a server that provides minimal system functionalities with fewer patches meaning more secure reliable, and less management of the server.

Windows Server 2008: Server Core - The Dell TechCenter

No GUI, no IE, no Start Menu, no Media Player, no Office System or any applications. After you log in to the server it will only give the CMD for local command execution. One of the applications that you can run with Server Core, is notepad.

Windows Server 2008: Server Core - The Dell TechCenter

to communicate with the Service Control Manager and Services use the SC command (more like the task manager)

Windows Server 2008: Server Core - The Dell TechCenter

Query and Queryex option you may use the following syntax SYNTAX EXAMPLES
sc query - Enumerates status for active services & drivers
sc query eventlog - Displays status for the eventlog service
sc queryex eventlog - Displays extended status for the eventlog service
sc query type= driver - Enumerates only active drivers
sc query type= service - Enumerates only Win32 services
sc query state= all - Enumerates all services & drivers
sc query bufsize= 50 - Enumerates with a 50 byte buffer
sc query ri= 14 - Enumerates with resume index = 14
sc queryex group= "" - Enumerates active services not in a group
sc query type= interact - Enumerates all interactive services
sc query type= driver group= NDIS - Enumerates all NDIS drivers

Control Panel in Server Core
Windows Server 2008: Server Core - The Dell TechCenter

Changing settings for date and time use the Control timedate.cpl command
Windows Server 2008: Server Core - The Dell TechCenter

Changing settings for Keyboards and/or language use this command Control intl.cpl. So far these are the services Active Directory Domain Services, Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS),
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server, DNS Server, File Services, Print Server, and Streaming Media Services optional features are also supported: Microsoft Failover Cluster, Network Load Balancing, Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications
Windows Backup, Multipath I/O, Removable Storage Management, Windows Bitlocker Drive Encryption,
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS), and Telnet client,
Quality of Service (QoS)

since there is no Management service and GUI tools included it can be configured and managed remotely (I still have to explore more on this)... and oh... aside from notepad, Regedit works with server core... [:P] source: here