Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta "Aero Enabled" Workstation

By Doug Holland (Intel) (233 posts) on January 9, 2009 at 11:39 am

In February last year I wrote a blog post entitled Windows Server 2008 "Aero Enabled" Workstation Edition where I showed you how you could use Windows Server 2008 as a Workstation operating system. Since Microsoft has now released the beta for the next release of the server version of Windows, Windows Server 2008 R2 which is based upon the Windows 7 kernel I thought I would do the same again. We'll also look at some of the differences between the releases.

Microsoft has made the beta of Windows Server 2008 R2 publically available and you can download it from here.

Installation of the Windows Server 2008 R2 beta went well on the three machines that I have installed it upon although the Windows 7 beta seems to have better driver support for some devices. Just like Intel, NVIDIA has pre-release Windows 7 graphics drivers which were installed by the Windows 7 beta although with Windows Server 2008 R2 beta I had to install the 64-bit Windows Vista driver. Although this is a server operating system I would hope that by the time that Microsoft ships Windows Server 2008 R2 that it would be able to download the same drivers as Windows 7 from the Windows Update site.

Performance of the Windows Server 2008 R2 beta is outstanding and given that it is based upon the same kernel as the Windows 7 beta this was not surprising. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes on ZDNet previously posted some interesting performance benchmarks comparing Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 Build 6956. Both the Windows 7 beta and the Windows Server 2008 R2 beta are build 7000. You can read his post here.

With the NVIDIA Windows Vista x64 drivers installed lets look at how you now enable the Windows 7 aero enabled desktop. Windows Server 2008 R2 allows you to add one or more roles for the server and also one or more features. We'll begin by opening the Server Manager and adding the Desktop Experience feature.

Along with the Desktop Experience feature you may wish to also install the .NET Framework 3.5.1, the Windows Server Backup and associated command line tools, and the Wireless LAN service. We'll next have to open the Services control panel applet which is available from the Start menu within the Administrative Tools programs group. Within the Services applet change the start up type of the Themes and Windows Audio services to Automatic and start both services.

Once these services have been started and assuming you also have the appropriate graphics driver installed you'll be able to enable the aero enabled Windows 7 desktop within Windows Server 2008 R2. Open the Control Panel and under Appearance and Personalization select the option to Change the theme.

If you select the Windows 7 theme you will then have aero enabled, assuming driver support, desktop. Of course you will probably wish to change the standard background and upon doing so you'll observe that the new task bar is transparent and will change color accordingly.

Over the next few days I'll follow up with additional blog posts about using the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 beta releases.

Categories: Software Engineering

Comments (24)

January 12, 2009 4:15 AM PST


Jonathan Stanley		 Now if only Microsoft would make Windows Server 2008 R2 (say support custom 4-socket CAD boxes) available under workstation licensing...
January 12, 2009 7:08 AM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Jonathan,

I completely agree with you that Microsoft should make available a workstation license for Windows Server.

- Doug
January 14, 2009 9:03 PM PST


PaulCole [exmsft]		 Hey Doug, I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 beta on a machine with a 965GME chip. As you noted Server doesn't have the "Windows 7" Intel beta drivers in-box and I can't find a download link for them anywhere. I tried getting them from a Windows 7 x64 installation but the driver signing is wrong and they don't install properly. I have also tried the most recent non-beta drivers from Intel. These work but video playback and some of the aero effects are slow and jittery.

Any suggestions on where I can get signed Intel 64 bit graphics drivers for R2 beta from?
January 15, 2009 10:24 AM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hi Paul,

I can ask some folks for you if you can e-mail me at "doug DOT holland AT intel DOT COM".

Are you on the official Microsoft beta for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2? If so that might be an avenue for accessing newer drivers although don't take that with any authority because I'm not directly involved with those drivers and when and how they would be released to people.

Thanks,

Doug
January 15, 2009 12:13 PM PST


Peter		 +1 For having a Workstation license of Windows Server 2008
January 20, 2009 1:44 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Thanks Peter although I wouldn't expect Microsoft to take that step...
January 23, 2009 11:06 PM PST


Doug Morris		 Hey Doug,

Great write up, just ran into one snag, at the bottom of the Themes window I have an additional warning that states

"One or more of the themes has been disabled by Remote Desktop Connection settings."

Unfortunately, the Windows 7 theme is one of the disabled themes. This is an NVidia 8600m video card, so it is not to shabby, not sure what to make of the error message through as I can find no Remote Desktop setting that would seem to account for this. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

Doug M.
January 25, 2009 9:06 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Doug,

Good to hear from you...

Are you accessing the Windows Server 2008 R2 machine through remote desktop?

When accessing Windows Server 2008 R2 through remote desktop several of the themes are inaccessible. It appears that the steps I listed above only work when you are connected directly to the machine, something I was unaware of before reading your comment.

I connected a few moments ago from my desktop to my laptop, both running Windows Server 2008 R2 beta, and received the same error you did.

Regards,

Doug
January 26, 2009 6:26 AM PST


Dan		 Having the same issue as Doug Morris - "One or more of the themese has been disabled by Remote Desktop Connection settings."

Remote Desktop is disabled in system settings. Currently connected directly to the machine. Might be a driver issue or require additional roles/features (currently have no roles configured and only the desktop experience feature). Installed Windows 7 x64 beta drivers for ATI Radeon catalyst
January 26, 2009 7:00 AM PST


Dan		 Resolved the issue by adding the Remote Desktop Services role. Selected the Remote Desktop Server role service with the desktop vista features enabled. The error message no longer appears on the Personalization page and I am able to select the Windows 7 glass theme.
January 26, 2009 9:44 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hey Dan,

I'm glad you were able to resolve the issue although I'm not sure why you needed to add the Remote Desktop Services role.

I just checked and I do not have that role installed upon my Windows Server 2008 R2 beta (build 7000) machine. Could it be that the Windows 7 x64 beta drivers you installed from ATI required a reboot and installing the role forced a reboot?

- Doug
January 29, 2009 9:12 AM PST


Dan		 Not sure why it was required in my case. Definitely the machine had been rebooted multiple times since the drivers were installed. Could be something got stuck in the registry related to Remote Desktop or the order that I installed things or when I first tried to enable Aero. Whatever the cause installing that Role fixed the issue - at some point I should try to remove the Remote Desktop role and see if Aero remains actived.

It is weird it said Remote Desktop settings were disabling Aero, when in fact Remote Desktop was turned off in system settings. Leads me to believe the Personalize GUI somehow thought that Remote Desktop was enabled when it was not.

Would be interested to hear if installing Remote Desktop role fixed the issue for Doug M as well.
February 8, 2009 5:10 AM PST


Crispin		 Just confirming that adding the Remote Desktop Services role also "enabled" me to select Aero based themes here as well. Am using an NVIDIA 8800 GTS card with the latest WDDM 1.1 Windows 7 driver.

odd that it needs this role enabled to correctly enable Aero, but i'm sure MS will address that before it goes gold.
February 9, 2009 6:22 AM PST


Dan		 Fyi, I removed Remote Desktop role and Aero continues to work. Main reason to remove the role was to enable Outlook Cached Exchange mode; which isn't supported on a Terminal Server environment.
February 16, 2009 9:28 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 With Windows Server 2008 R2 (builds 70xx) that I have seen, it has not been necessary to have the Remote Desktop Services role enabled.

I'll do a clean install within the next week or so and see if I am able to replicate the issue you guys experienced although to date I haven't had that issue. I have a machine at home with an EVGA NVIDIA 8800 GTX and so I'll try that machine given the comment by Crispin.
February 21, 2009 8:19 AM PST


Jim		 I would lie to hear about those that have installed it on thier laptops and the experieince they have using the management tools within thier infrastructure?
February 21, 2009 12:21 PM PST

Doug Holland (Intel)
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 Hi Jim,

I'm using the build on a notebook with a dual core processor and 4Gb of memory and it is very responsive although I'm using it as a workstation and do not use it to manage other infrastructure.

Anyone else have any comments for Jim?

- Doug
March 13, 2009 1:25 AM PDT


Bas van Atteveldt		 On my install, enabling Remote Desktop was also required (even after several reboots and several reinstall's from scratch).
April 5, 2009 7:55 PM PDT


Brent		 I had same problem. Build 7068. Could not select the Aero theme, or download a theme from the internet.
As soon as I installed Remote desktop roles and rebooted, I could then select the Aero theme.
May 8, 2009 8:20 PM PDT


Matt		 I had the same issue with build 7100, needed to add the Remote Desktop Services to get aero, then disabled and aero stuck. i noticed when i was installing the Remote Desktop Services role it asked if i wanted to install the ability to use aero, i guess that stayed even after uninstalling.

One thing is that when doing multi-monitor remote desktop ("use all my monitors" setting) i was not able to get aero to work. Given how well everything else works that's a very nit-picky observation, hard to complain about that. :)
June 4, 2009 12:55 PM PDT


onklip		 It is weird it said Remote Desktop settings were disabling Aero, when in fact Remote Desktop was turned off in system settings. Leads me to believe the Personalize GUI somehow thought that Remote Desktop was enabled when it was not.
June 4, 2009 12:59 PM PDT

Doug Holland (Intel)
Total Points:
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Status Points:
12,580
Black Belt
 Hey onklip,

What build were you running?

If the bloggosphere is to be believed there will be an RC2 build (build 7201 possibly) that will be available on MSDN and TechNet soon although it might not be made publically available.

RTM should be in July though...

- Doug
June 24, 2009 6:55 AM PDT


ilberto		 Any windows server alone, is basically a workstation by its nature, since you have to buy aditional CAL´s if you need more users to connect to it. Without additional CAL´s, a windows server installation is no more than a workstation, since it gererally comes with 1~5 CAL´s, depending on the windows version, and you need a CAL, for any single user/device that will use any resource from that server... independently of what will be used, files, printers, internet, doesn´t matter.
September 27, 2009 9:42 AM PDT


Adrian 		Use dreamspark guys if your a student. You get student licenses for a lot of their development software including windows server 2008 R2 and VS2008.

My institution (which is surprising because it is a community college) was listed so all I had to do was put my student email and confirm it.

Dreamspark.com

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