I'm guessing you'd want to go with Server Core [0], which is not a full-blown GUI but still supports windows.

[0]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administrati...

You can do everything via Powershell, or remote Web UI, and Nano Server or Server Core are the ones to go to.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowsconta...

Naturally on Azure, how the server looks like is meaningless when using AppService, AKS or Azure Functions.

Server Core or Hyper-V Server still contains quite some GUI dependencies. Things like task manager, Notepad (different between versions), and a basic file picker for applications. A floating console window appears and even wallpapers applied via SysInternals are supported.

A good thing too, because the driver installation tools from Dell for instance depend on these.

> A good thing too, because the driver installation tools from Dell for instance depend on these.

…on task manager, or on the wallpaper API? With how eccentric Dell drivers can be I feel like I have to ask.

I only use classical VMs, accessed via RDP, or do everything via the various managed services from Azure, so wasn't aware of that being the case.

I think it was relatvely recently still possible to get HyperV minimal hypervisor (it was also one of the use cases for NanoServer, essentially minimal HyperV + tiny layer of userspace)