Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 4)

Following on from my previous posts:

• Windows Server 2008 as a workstation
• Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 2)
• Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 3)

I found two more blogs that also provide some useful tips:

• http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/
• http://www.pronetworks.org/forums/windows-server-2008-rtm-as-a-desktop-os-t101245.html

boot.ini is dead, long live BCDEdit.exe

Since Windows Vista (including Windows Server 2008, Windows 7), Microsoft has changed the way the partitions are managed when you have a dual boot machine. Before Vista (and going back to Windows NT 4.0, I think) there was a file on the boot partition called "boot.ini" which contained  a list of bootable operating systems and which partition they were installed to. On booting, Windows would look at this file and present the user with a list of options matching the list in the file. This made it easy to manually edit the boot options, all you needed to do was edit the file in notepad.exe.

In recent operating systems, the boot options are managed by a program called bcdedit.exe (find in %systemdrive%\windows\system32). A full guide with examples can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/bcd.mspx

Recently I needed to rename my boot options, I had a dual boot set-up with both partitions having Windows Server 2008. One was 32 bit which I have been running for a while, the other is 64 bit (to test out Hyper-V which only runs on 64 bit). Both boot options had the default name of "Windows Server 2008" which was confusing on the boot menu. To rename my 32 bit boot option I executed the following:

bcdedit.exe /set description "Windows Server 2008 x86"

This was while logged on to the 32 bit OS, that command updates the boot name for the current partition. To rename the 64 bit OS in the boot options (while still booted in the 32 bit OS) I need to pass an ID for the partition. The IDs of the available partitions can be found by running bcdedit.exe with no arguments. Once I had this ID, I simply ran:

bcdedit.exe /set {GUID} description "Windows Server 2008 x64"

Where "GUID" is exactly that, inside the curly braces e.g.

bcdedit.exe /set {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} description "Windows Server 2008 x64"

This command allows you to update an option for a partition you are not booted into.

Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition now supports SQL Server 2008

Microsoft has posted the RTM of the update to Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition to enable support for SQL Server 2008. One of the main features is a SQL Server 2008 Projects type in Visual Studio:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en

Remember, "Datadude" is free for people with a license for Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Developer Edition:

http://callumhibbert.blogspot.com/2008/10/visual-studio-team-system-developer.html

DebugView and Windows Server 2008

DebugView is a great tool for development. It will provide a live feed of messages output to the Debug listener. If you make a call to System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine() then that message will appear in the DebugView console. Very useful for development, even more so when working with server products like BizTalk or SharePoint. You can insert Debug.WriteLine() statements into your code and monitor the behaviour of your application in real time.

One added bonus is that calls to System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine() are not included in the Release build of your assemblies so you're not peppering your code with statements you don't want running in production.

I've used this tool for a long time but I've discovered on Windows Server 2008 you need to run it with Elevated Privileges to be able to capture events from the Kernel and Win32. You need these enabled (under the "Capture" menu) so catch messages from applications hosted in IIS etc.

Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 3)

Most people will want to use Windows Live Messenger, unfortunately the installer from the "Get Live" site (http://get.live.com/) does not work with Windows Server 2008.

One way around this is to download Windows Live Messenger Version 8.1 from Microsoft.com. You can find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d78f2ff1-79ea-4066-8ba0-ddbed94864fc&displaylang=en

This works fine for Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 2)

Continuing from my last post about using Windows Server 2008 as a workstation there are some changes to make to Internet Explorer to make it more usable.

As per Windows 2003 Server, the operating system employs the "Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration" component to lock down IE. This makes total sense when Windows Server 2008 is being used as a server but when using it for general use its not user friendly.

In Windows 2003 Server you were able to completely un-install the "Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration" component from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. That is not possible in Windows Server 2008 as the component is baked into the OS. You can't remove it but you can disable it.

To do this open Server Manager (Start --> Administrative Tools --> Server Manager). On the right hand side under the "Security" section, click on "Configure IE ESC". This opens a new dialog box where you can disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration for Admins and/or Users.

Windows Server 2008 as a workstation

I have been using Windows Server 2008 as a my main workstation lately and my experiences have been wholly positive but there are two niggling issues. Fortunately both are easily resolvable.

The first is that by default, the use of MSIs is prohibited (okay, this is more than a niggle). To be able to install additional programs you need to change the Local Group Policy. To do this run "gpedit.msc" and navigate to "Computer Configuration\Administrative Temaplates\Windows Components\Windows Installer". Change the "Disable Windows Installer" state to "Enabled".

The second issue is the annoying "Shut Down Windows" dialog that appears everytime you want to shutdown your box. This dialog box requires that you enter a reason everytime you shutdown or restart your box. I have found multiple articles and blogs that suggest you need to change the Local Group Policy. Done by running "gpedit.msc" again, navigating to "Computer Configuration\Administrative Temaplates\System" and changing the "Display Shutdown Event Tracker" state to "Disabled". But this does not appear to work, at least it didn't for me. What did work was editing a registry value. Open regedit.exe and go to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsNT". Create a new Key called "Reliability" and add a DWORD value at that location. The name should be "ShutdownReasonOn" and the value should be "0".

Repairing the .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0 on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

I had a problem recently with some files from the .NET Framework 2.0 being corrupt. I think the root cause of the problem was use of Virtual Machines. Anyway, I needed to repair the .NET Framework 2.0, specifically aspnet_regiis.exe.

The problem is that under Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 these components are part of the operating system so you can't do a repair with the MSI like you normally can with installed programs. After doing some digging I found the answer here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/03/26/how-to-repair-the-net-framework-2-0-and-3-0-on-windows-vista.aspx

The short story is to run "sfc /scannow" with elevated privileges.