I have always wanted to run the latest Windows version available - be it a client or server version. So, this time it is Windows Server 2008's turn. The real reason for starting to run it as a production platform on my Dell laptop is that it is the only way to learn the new features (notably IIS7 in this case).
So, here is a brief overview of my current production environment:
- Installed Windows Server 2008 RC1 (Enterprise Edition) to a freshly formatted hard drive. I originally tried to install it on to a removable USB hard drive, but the installer refused to select partitions from that USB drive, apparently it is not supported.
- Installed the Vista version of my laptop's display driver (Nvidia Quadro FX 350M), had to install by hand, it was not automatically recognised
- Enabled the following roles:
- Application Server
- File Services, this one is needed for Windows Search indexing
- Web Server (IIS)
- Enabled the following features:
- .NET Framework 3.0 Features (all subcomponents)
- Desktop Experience, this one is needed to enable aero glass later on
- Message queuing, this one was a dependency feature of some other feature
- Remote Server Administration Tools, Web Server (IIS) Tools
- Windows Process Activation Service
- Wireless LAN Service, otherwise wireless LAN connections do not work
I wanted my UI to be as close to Vista as possible, so I did the following to enable aero glass:
- Enabled desktop experience feature (mentioned already earlier)
- Started Themes service
- Enabled Vista theme (Desktop -> Personalize -> Theme -> Windows Vista)
- Enabled transparency (Desktop -> Personalize -> Window Color and Appearance -> Enable transparency)
I disabled IE ESC (Enhanced Security Configuration) by setting it off at Server Manager -> Server Summary -> Security Information -> Configure IE ESC
So far I have installed the following software:
- Office 2007 Ultimate + SP1
- Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite + Team Explorer
- Symantec Antivirus
- Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Standard SDK refreshes
- Canon Digital Photo Professional (it requires unblocking the security settings in file properties, last setting in the General tab, otherwise it will throw "Installation program of Digital Photo Professional requires administrator privileges." error message)
So far all of the abovementioned applications have been running without a glitch, and the system generally feels much quicker than Vista. I guess Vista will get this goodness also when SP1 gets out, the server version should have the SP1 code already built in. Standby & hibernate also both work fine.
Only problem I had when installing current versions was Messenger client, the current Live Messenger refused to install claiming that it does not support the operating system. So I had to fall back to Messenger 8.1, which installed and works fine. Only piece of software that I miss is Live Writer, which comes in the same package as Live Messenger and therefore refuses to install. If anybody knows a way to install them, please let me know.