Windows Server 2008 is my Desktop Workstation

After hearing lots of good stuffs about this new SERVER product from Microsoft called Windows Server 2008, I took the decision to move from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition 🙂

The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here

Below is my laptop configuration:

1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz

2) 4 GB RAM

I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed

Below is the list of software installed:

1) Apple Bootcamp

2) Microsoft Office 2007

3) Microsoft Visio 2007

4) Mozilla Firefox

5) Skype

6) Apple Quicktime

7) Apple iTunes

8 ) Windows Live

• Live Writer
• Live Messenger
• Live Photo Gallery

9) Foxit PDF Reader

10) Flashget Download Manager

11) Virtual PC

12) Kaspersky Internet Security

13) tWhirl

14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vista where many services get started no matter you use them.

I have also moved my development stuffs to a virtual environment now and virtual machines run quite fast than in Vista here. Yes, I am quite happy with Virtual PC 2007 and I don’t think I would install x64 version just for Hyper-V. The application support for x64 sucks!

Everything works good in my setup including sleep,shutdown and hibernate 🙂

So far, my experience of having Windows Server 2008 as my main desktop workstation is good and I think I will continue to stay on this for a long, long time until Windows 7 comes out 8)

One full day with Windows Server 2008

So, its been one full day with Windows Server 2008 now and have configured,

1) Active Directory Services

a) Created a new Domain Forest
b) Added Domain Users
c) Joined Vista machines to the Domain(right now 1, but more to come)

2) Configured .NET Environment

a) Installed IIS 7 (IIS 7 looks really nice than in Vista!)
b) Installed the .NET Environment (both .NET 3.0 and 3.5)
[ .NET 3.5 – you have to download and install ]
c) Installed WCF
d) Hosted my WCF Service in IIS

Still to install,

a) SQL Server 2005
b) WSUS for Windows Server 2008
[I am not able to get WSUS for Windows Server 2008 RTM, If anybody have any clue about that, please do leave your comment]

UPDATE: WSUS 3.0 SP1 is now RTM and supports Windows Server 2008!

Here are Roles installed,

And Features installed,

Things are so easy with Windows Server 2008 8)

To know more about WSUS in Windows Server 2008, visit my post at Chaks’ Geekzone Corner

To know how to add Computers to your WSUS installation in Windows Server 2008, visit my post at Chaks’ Geekzone Corner

Windows Server 2008 Edition Feature Differences

So, now that Windows Server 2008 is released, what editions are available?

Here they are,

1) Windows Server 2008 Web

2) Windows Server 2008 Standard

3) Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

4) Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

And there is also an version for Itanium based systems.

Below is a comparison chart,

(Click to enlarge)

Windows Server 2008 Installation Walkthrough

I installed Windows Server 2008 in my Virtual PC hosted in my Vista Ultimate. Here is an walkthrough of the installation options and steps. One thing to note is that I did not enter Product Key and thus was taken to the screen of selecting which edition I want to install.

Another change I noticed from the Beta releases (I haven’t tried RC) is that the Administrator account was not given a password and we had to manually set it, but now, after installation, the first thing you are supposed to do is to set your Administrator account password

Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1 are now RTM

                             

After a long wait, Microsoft today announced that Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1 are now RTM!

Windows Server 2008 is available in Connect for a small time period of 30 days (without product keys though) and in MSDN/TechNet subscriptions from today, but Vista SP1 will only be available to public from mid of March. But that said, even we Beta Testers haven’t received our Vista SP1 copy yet 8)

Cant wait to install final Vista SP1 😀

Microsoft ads comes to Youtube

Yes, its late, but not too late 😉

Windows Vista and Liv@youtube

You asked for it, and here it is :)

As I had posted earlier that Vista SP1 RC will be available to everyone for download, Microsoft released it today 🙂

You can grab the RC Windows Update script here

Believe it or not, Windows Update has been the best and easiest way to get Vista SP1. We beta testers have had good success installing SP1 Beta releases and RC via WU.

You may be required to install at least 3 updates before the Service Pack. After installing those pre-requisites, restart your machine (if required), wait for at least 10 mins or so and then check for updates again. You should be prompted for Service Pack update.

To discuss regarding SP1 and to submit bugs, please visit here

Vista SP1 RC – IE and other native applications getting reset to defaults

UPDATE: This has been fixed, infact the Beta team was not able to reproduce too!

This is bothering many – After installing Vista SP1 RC, some or most of the IE settings and Windows Media Player settings are reset to defaults. Users have reported on IE and Windows Media Player, hope the list stays to these both 😉

Here are mine,

1) IE settings such as Security Settings and Addon got reset and my Flash, Quicktime and Kaspersky Internet Security Web Statistics plugins stopped working and had to reinstall them to see them working (didnt reinstall Kaspersky though)

2) My default DVD/CD player got changed to Windows Media Player

For some, the whole IE settings including Home Page, Favorites got reset. And you can add Java plugin to the plugins list as for some Java plugin stopped working too.

We beta testers have passed the information to Vista SP1 team, hope it will be corrected in the final version 🙂

Vista SP1 RC – Running good

Vista SP1 RC was released few days back to beta testers and soon by next week it will be available to public too for download.

I have been using/testing Vista SP1 from their Beta releases and Its really good. The performance, speed seems to be really improved. You can feel the speed difference when you use applications, more applications being opened.

ComputerWorld has a good review on Vista SP1 RC

And this time Service Pack is not about new GUI or features like in XP Service Pack 2 and its more on reliability, performance and speed. Sure you can expect a good speed increase after installing SP1 for Vista. And there is also good improvement in copying files over network.

There are many articles which may just claim Vista is bad, not good for computing (especially our *other* friends) but if you just ignore them and really get the right machine and use Vista, its a treat! Well, sure there were certain things that went wrong with Vista, but yes, it has come through a rough path and Microsoft did release several updates to Vista which has made it good.

Let me tell you my own example – I am using Vista for at least an year now and haven’t used Flip3d much. Sometimes I even forget that was an feature introduced in Vista! This week I bought a Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 . It has 5 buttons which can be configured and my middle button gets me Flip3d and now, I use it so frequently because its at my reach! I am really impressed with this feature only now, lol.

Microsoft Releases Windows Vista SP1 RC and Windows Server 2008 RC1

Microsoft today announced the availability of Windows Vista SP1 RC

And this time its going to be available to public. From the Vista Team blog,

Today we’re making available the release candidate (RC) of Windows Vista SP1 via Microsoft Connect, and tomorrow subscribers to TechNet and MDSN will have access to those RC bits too. In addition, the RC will be available to the public next week via Microsoft’s Download Center.

And Windows Server 2008 RC1 was also made available for testing today

🙂