Use Windows Server 2008 As Workstation

[Guest Reimar]

Using Windows Server 2008 as a SUPER workstation OS

Vijayshinva Karnure, a IIS, ASP and ASP.NET troubleshooter as well as a consultant for developers and system admins of Microsoft India is so cool! He has published an article on how you, yes, you can turn Microsofts latest Windows Server release into a SUPER FAST workstation complete with Hyper-V (hardware virtualization capabilities). Well he beat me to the punch, and this probably has a lot more merit than the Server 2003 as a Workstation guide that we published here shortly after the release of Server 2008's predecessor, due to the addition of Hyper-V which does not ship -even with Vista Ultimate.

Windows Server 2008 is the best OS to be released till date from Microsoft's stable. And the moment I got hold of the RTM build I could not resist installing it on my workstation. Due to the nature of my work I always prefer running a Server OS on my main workstation... I have been running Windows 2003 disguised as XP (with all the themes and stuff) all these days.

So here is my tale of how I went about setting up Windows Server 2008 to look and fell like its desktop counterpart Windows Vista.

1. Enable Hardware Virtualization

My workstation is a x64 machine with hardware virtualization capabilities. This means I can run Hyper-V on my machine. Even if your machine's hardware supports virtualization it is most likely not going to be enabled by default. You have to enable it via your BIOS setup.

2. Install the latest Graphics and Audio drivers

Being a server OS Windows 2008 carries with it basic graphics and audio drivers. To utilize the full strength of your hardware ensure you install the latest drivers for both graphics and audio hardware. Only with the proper graphics drivers will you be able to enable the "Aero" experience on Windows 2008.

3. Desktop Experience Feature

The Desktop Experience Feature enables a bunch of stuff that is by default present on a desktop OS. Most importantly it includes Themes, Windows Media player and the Aero related features. You will have to enable it form the Server Manager. The "Turn Windows features on or off" / "Add remove windows components" has all been rolled into the Server Manager now.

Server Manager > Features > Desktop Experience

Installing the Desktop Experience feature does not enable them. You have to manually set them up.

4. Themes

To enable Themes you will basically have to enable the Themes Service. Again being a server OS it is not enabled by default.

Services.MSC > Themes

Set the start up type to Automatic

Enabling the Aero Theme.

For this go to Control Panel > Personalization >Theme and select Windows Aero

5. Search

Search is also disabled by default on Windows 2008. Searching is important for me as I use it a lot to find my emails. To enable search you will have to add the File Services Role via Server Manager.

Server Manager > Roles > File Services > Windows Search

Outlook relies on this search service.

6. Disable Shutdown Event Tracker

Since I am using it as a workstation I do not want to keep a track of all the Shutdowns. The Shutdown Event Tracker is the pop up that you get asking you for a shutdown reason. To disable it

Open mmc.msc

Add the Group Policy snap-in

Under Administrative Templates expand System

Set Display Shutdown Event Tracer to Disabled

7. Audio

For audio you need to enable the Windows Audio service. You do this by setting the startup type to Automatic.

Services.msc > Windows Audio

Ensure you have proper drivers for your audio hardware... for me the default driver was not enabling the headphones ... it started working fine after I got the proper driver.

8. SuperFetch

As a workstation, enabling SupertFetch will give you that additional bit of responsiveness. The SuperFetch services is disabled by default and when you try to enable it you will most likely get an error message "The operating system is not presently configured to run this application"

Run Windows Server 2008 as Workstion OS and you've the fastest Windows you ever worked on.

Vijayshinva Karnure, a IIS, ASP and ASP.NET troubleshooter as well as a consultant for developers and system admins of Microsoft India is so cool! He has published an article on how you, yes, you can turn Microsofts latest Windows Server release into a SUPER FAST workstation complete with Hyper-V (hardware virtualization capabilities). Well he beat me to the punch, and this probably has a lot more merit than the Server 2003 as a Workstation guide that we published here shortly after the release of Server 2008's predecessor, due to the addition of Hyper-V which does not ship -even with Vista Ultimate.

You will have to make two registry changes to enable this service. I basically copied them over from my Vista machine.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

EnablePrefetcher DWORD 3

EnableSuperfetch DWORD 3

9. Get a codec pack.

For media hungry buffs download a codec pack. This will ensure you can play all media files.

10. Enable Hyper-V

With Hyper-V you can run virtual machines on your workstation. This is useful if you want to run your tests on older OS versions. Enabling Hyper-V is easy

Server Manager > Roles > Hyper-V

Remember you need a Hyper-V enabled Windows 2008 licence and also your hardware has to support virtualization.

Also If you are using an existing VHD it may ask you to re-Activate Windows as it detected hardware changes.

One good thing about Windows Server 2008 is that it no longer asks for the i386 folder like Windows 2003 while you enable features.

[Veazer]

Sounds great, I'm looking forward to trying it. I'd like to see some Server 2008 vs. Vista benchmarks, everyone's talking about how much faster it is.

There's a great utility for users who want to use Win2K3 server as a workstation here, I wonder if they'll release a similar utility for Server 2008.

[Wolfie]

My concern is 3rd party support for hardware, such as GFX drivers. My rig is primarily a gamer machine, so i need to know i have the support for the OS

[Guest Reimar]

My concern is 3rd party support for hardware, such as GFX drivers. My rig is primarily a gamer machine, so i need to know i have the support for the OS

Wolfie, if you have a 2. Hdd in your comp, disable the main hdd and install Server 2008 on the 2. hdd. Within booting of the comp you can choose the hdd wich you want to use for startup!

I do it at this way with Vista ultimat and Server 2008. Some MB using F2, F8 or F11 within booting to choose the Bootdrive. Easy!

Most of the Vista Driver will work on Server 2008 as well.

Cheers.

[Veazer]

My concern is 3rd party support for hardware, such as GFX drivers. My rig is primarily a gamer machine, so i need to know i have the support for the OS

I've had no problems with XP drivers on Win2K3 with exception of one bluetooth driver. As for gaming, I've seen one user posting benchmarks of Win2K3 vs XP after a fresh install and Win2K3 was 20% faster. That's a very considerable fps increase!

[Wolfie]

might give that a try someday... thanks for the tip

[Guest Reimar]

might give that a try someday... thanks for the tip

I run the FS-X on Server 2003 and it's much better than on XP or Vista. I'll instll FS-X even on Server 2008 but that need timme which I din't have the nex 2-3 weeks! And that install to be complete take a bout 2 days!! Nearly 100 GByte in tataol for just the OS, FS-X and the AdOn's!

Cheers.

[Veazer]

BTW Reimar, how is resource usage on 2008, particularly memory usage? MS is saying you need 1 GB just for the server core. That seems very high for an OS with no GUI.

[Guest Reimar]

BTW Reimar, how is resource usage on 2008, particularly memory usage? MS is saying you need 1 GB just for the server core. That seems very high for an OS with no GUI.

Will check later because I use it just as a dual boot on this computer. But right now I'm capturering the connection for a few hours to "screw" TRUE. They should explain why the speed drops dramtically in the evening since some days! And I need to have an prove because if they come that would at daytime and at day the speed is fast.

Cheers.

[sjaak327]

I'm running server 2008 for some time now, first as RC, and since two weeks the RTM. Indeed I had enabled aero and other stuff, and it even is able to run games, but of course I run it as exchange server, so memory usage is high.

Hyper-V is still in beta, but looks promising. It is supposed to run hyper -v aware OS better then legacy os like Linux, but I'm running centos, and it runs fine. Not slower then under Vmware.

Server Manager is a great addition and makes it easy to manage the server. It runs quicker then server 2003, especially booting time is shorter.

Server core is a nice idea, especially in terms of security (reduced attack surface), but it limits you in what you can do, IIS for instance will not run on server core. I'm sure server 2008 is able to run on 512 mb (did that in Vmware), but you won't run much in addition to the OS.

One negative thing is the new server backup, it's rubbish. Luckily you can still use the old ntbackup from server 2003.