Windows Server 2008 "Aero Enabled" Workstation Edition

By Doug Holland (Intel) (208 posts) on February 12, 2008 at 3:30 pm

Last week Dell shipped me a new Vostro 1700 notebook which I promptly upgraded from Windows Vista Business edition to Windows Server 2008. In this blog post I'll show you how to setup Windows Server 2008 in a Workstation configuration.

Windows Server 2008 installed without an issue although I could not find out how to install Windows Media Player 11 and attempting to download the player referred me to a download for Windows XP 64-bit instead. To install Windows Media Player 11 within Windows Server 2008 you simply have to go to the Server Manager and install the Desktop Experience. Included with the Desktop Experiance feature is the Windows Media Player 11, desktop themes, and photo management tools from Windows Vista.

Desktop Experiance

The following screen shot shows the Desktop Experiance option within the Add Features Wizard. By default however some of these features are not enabled and you must manually enable them. Windows Vista included the new Aero Theme which I must admit I really like and so I began looking at how I could enable this theme within Windows Server 2008. To enable Aero you must first enable the Themes Service within the Windows Services control panel applet, changing its startup setting from Disabled to Automatic.

Services

Themes

Once the Windows Themes service is running you can right click on the desktop and select Personalize, and then choose the Theme link.

Personalization

Theme Settings

You'll notice however that the graphics are set at this point Windows Vista Basic without the Aero Glass support that is enabled by default within Windows Vista on appropriate graphics hardware. If you have an appropriate graphics card within the machine you can enable Aero Glass within Windows Server 2008 by again right clicking on the desktop and select Personalize, and then choose the Windows Color and Appearance link and then change the Color scheme to Windows Aero.

Appearance Settings

When selecting the Windows Color and Appearance link again you'll see the updated version of this form from Windows Vista.

Aero Appearance Settings

With all of these changes in place you'll now have the visual effects from Windows Vista enabled within Windows Server 2008 as the following screen shot shows.

AeroServer2008

Categories: Intel® Software Network 2.0, Software Engineering

Comments (27)

February 14, 2008 7:54 AM PST


Alek Davis		 Good info, Doug. Thanks. BTW, it should be "Experience", not "Experiance".
February 14, 2008 7:56 AM PST


Doug Holland		 Agreed Alek, ... should have spell checked the post first :)
February 18, 2008 3:00 AM PST


Daniel Bedarf		 Thank you!
February 20, 2008 6:13 PM PST


James Dulin		 There is a bit more to configure still. Windows Server, by design, runs most processes as backgroud services. You should go to Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Advanced>Performance>Settings>Advanced>Pr ocessor Scheduling: Adjust for best performance of: and select "Programs". (Background services is selected by default.)
February 21, 2008 6:44 AM PST


Doug Holland		 Thanks James, that is a good suggestion.

- Doug
February 26, 2008 10:17 AM PST


Howard Edidin		 How did you manage to upgrade from Vista Business? I just tried and that option was not available.
February 26, 2008 10:19 AM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Howard,

Maybe I shouldn't have said I "upgraded" because what I meant was that I formatted the drive and started a clean OS install. The end result was that I upgraded, the process by which I got there though was not an "OS" upgrade.

Thanks,

Doug
February 27, 2008 11:26 AM PST


Adam		 I love windows server 2008 on my laptop, but i really misses 'offline files', any suggestions of how to enable it. I found the 'offline files' services but when i try to enable it i get an error...

Please help, hate to go back to Vista, curse of this little problem.
February 27, 2008 12:34 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Adam,

I'm not sure although you could consider dual booting Vista and Server 2008 on your notebook which is what I plan to do once my second hard disk ships from Dell. Otherwise I guess you'll just need a large primary disk and consider partitioning the disk for both operating systems.

If you plan on going that way then check out another of my blog posts where I discuss dual booting Vista and Server 2008:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2008/02/26/dual-boot-w.....rver-2008/

I'll let you know though if I find out how to enable offline files within Windows Server 2008 and will post another blog post on that subject.

Thanks,

Doug
February 27, 2008 12:54 PM PST


spen		 What about DirectX 10,1 on Win2k8? Is it possible?
February 27, 2008 12:54 PM PST


Adam		 Thanks for your reply

I have seen your dualboot post, and that could be a possibility it i don't find a way to enable offline files.

But it could be nice to stay in the same OS all the time. I will continuer searching for an answer, i let you know if i find any.

By the way thanks for a nice blog.
February 28, 2008 10:11 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 In answer to Spen's question regarding DX 10.1 on Windows Server 2008 check out my post tonight entitled "Got DirectX 10.1" (http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2008/02/28/got-directx-101/)?
March 9, 2008 7:42 PM PDT


DAz999		 Great Stuff.
For a complete move to full workstation with all the Vista bits and the annoying 2008 bits turned off check out this page its really comprehensive.

http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/
March 12, 2008 2:30 AM PDT


mred1979		 Thank you for all those tips. One thing i coul't solve is how to share media files within Media Player, the option is gray and i coul't nerver find the solution.

Some here to help me?
March 12, 2008 4:30 AM PDT


Vidar Friis		 Hi.. For all of you trying to enable offline files.. I've did it :)
Regedit : HKLM/System/CurrentcontrolSet/Services/CscService change Start from 3 to 2 .

Best Regards!
March 19, 2008 8:37 PM PDT


Heath Provost		 Changing the start value from 3 to 2 did not work for me. But after playing with it a while I think the following will work for all Windows Server 2k8 installs.

1. By default, 2k8 does not seem to create the C:\Windows\CSC folder, but all the other needed components are installed. If you do not have this folder, just create it manually before proceeding further.

2. Create/edit the following registry keys:

Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CscService\Start
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 2

Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Start
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters\FormatDataba se
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters\CacheLocatio n
Type: REG_SZ
Value: \??\c:\Windows\csc (yes, with the weird looking question mark stuff)

Note: The \Parameters key above may not exist, you will have to create it if it doesn't.

3. Reboot and offline files should be functional.
April 15, 2008 7:49 AM PDT


Arthur Blakely		 I was wondering if you were able to get all the drivers setup right for your vostro 1700? Thanks
April 15, 2008 8:59 AM PDT


Doug Holland		 Hey Arthur,

Actually yes, all the 64-bit drivers for the Vostro 1700 were found by using drivers from the Dell Precision Workstation M90 or M6300 notebooks.

In cases where the driver wasn't appropriate the installed told me so and so using those other drivers was safe.

Regards,

Doug
May 6, 2008 4:43 AM PDT


Sunny		 This was a good tip thanks
May 15, 2008 2:02 AM PDT


Emmanuel Bergerat		 Little ping back on the subject, adding more features to Windows Server 2008 to "look like" a Vista workstation.

Regards,

Emmanuel.
June 23, 2008 4:51 AM PDT


hatem		 sir that was really amazing :) it was my first time to run win 2008 and that was really usefull and really win 2008 rocks (Y)
May 28, 2009 1:06 PM PDT


Paul Krause		 Thanks for the tips. Works great!
July 2, 2009 9:01 AM PDT


gbits		 I know this is backwards, but is there a way to run the Vista games on Win2k8? Just wondering out loud.
July 2, 2009 9:04 AM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Actually many games for Vista do run on Windows Server 2008 and will likely also run on Windows Server 2008 R2 also. I have personally used Microsoft Flight Simulator X on Windows Server without any issues.

Assuming you can get an appropriate driver for your graphics card, sound card, etc. then you shouldn't have any issues. Windows Server 2008 has DX10 or DX10.1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 has support for DX11.

Regards,

Doug
July 2, 2009 9:46 AM PDT


gbits		 I was actually refering to the game pak that came with Vista, solitare, freecell, etc...
thanks for your replies.
gb
July 2, 2009 9:58 AM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Ah, in that case I'm not sure but I'll try and find out ... watch this space.

- Doug
July 2, 2009 10:17 AM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 According to Rafael Rivera of the Within Windows blog,

“The games will need patching to remove the SKU licensing checks ;)”

I'll e-mail some folks on the Windows team and see what can be done about releasing them as an additional feature pack for Windows Server 2008 R2. It is unlikely to be a high priority though :(

- Doug

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