2008/3/17 Filip Navara xnavara@volny.cz:
We used to support that. The WinLogon was able to run in CUI mode, CSRSS and win32k started GUI mode only on demand (ie. if any GUI API was called). Basically all the components were designed in a way that if you specified cmd.exe as a shell then the GUI would never be started unless you try to execute an application which requires it. Quitting the application would switch back to the console mode. Not sure if and why it was removed...
I cannot tell you the exact reason why it was removed, but I do know that /CONSOLE is the replacement for the true, blue-screened console mode. At least /CONSOLE still works.
I remember being specifically asked if it was OK to remove the GUI-on-demand mode.
WD