Along with the new set of PowerShell cmdlets comes a revised GUI interface for managing Active Directory Domain Services, called the Active Directory Administrative Center. This new console gives administrators the power to drill down into the computers, domain controllers, users, and other objects within AD DS forests and perform operations on them. A refreshed view gives pretty simple access to common tasks via a now-standard three-pane interface.

Replacing the old Active Directory Users and Computers interface that's been around since Windows 2000, what's interesting about this new console is that it's built on the new cmdlets, like some administrative console tools in Microsoft's other server products -- including Exchange, System Center, and so on. A feature called "Progressive Disclosure" allows high-level administrators to restrict the information that the tool returns to its user. Clearly, this could be useful for organizations that make heavy use of permission delegation.