Windows Server 2008 is the fastest OS I have ever used. It’s truly amazing at how fast it performs every task I throw at it. With this said, below is a guide on how you can customize it to look just like vista. Making it a great looking development machine!!!

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 SuperFetch 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”

   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.

11. Processor Scheduling

    As pointed out in a comment on my previous post; On Windows Server 2008 background services are given preference over interactive programs. You can change this behavior by

    Control Panel> System and Maintenance> System> Advanced System Settings> Advanced> Performance> Settings> Advanced> Processor Scheduling

    Setting this to Programs will make foreground programs more responsive.

12. Visual Effects

    One thing you will notice on Windows Server 2008 is that by default you will not see Preview Thumbnails in your Documents / Music / Video folders. This has to be enabled explicitly.

    Control Panel> System and Maintenance> System> Advanced System Settings> Advanced> Performance> Settings> Visual Effects

    Based on your preference you can tweak these settings.

13. Power Options

    Do your bit for a Green World! The Balanced (default) power plan on Windows Server 2008 does not turn off hard disks by default. On Vista hard disks are turned off after 20 mins. You can change this by

    Control Panel> Hardware and Sound> Power Options> Change plan settings

    It does take a bit to kick start the hard disks when you resume work but that’s a sacrifice worth making for a greener world."

Source

Using Windows Server 2008 as a SUPER workstation OS

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