Tuning 2003 server for workstation use

Santilli

Santilli

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Jan 27, 2002
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Hi

Mercutio: David gave me a legit, license, multiple I think, for my gaming box, 2003 Server. Simply amazing. Thank you David, and God Bless you..

That said, what was the thread to trim down, and use it for a workstation???

s
 
1. Go into Admin Tools - Services and turn the Sound Service on (Automatic and Started, actually)
2. Go into Display Properties and Settings and Advanced and Troubleshooting and turn the Display Acceleration slider up all the way.
3. Set your pagefile to a large, static size (same minimum and maximum). Put a pagefile on every physical drive in the machine if possible.
4. Open Admin Tools > Local Security Policy > Computer Config > Administrative Templates > System and change "Display Shutdown Event Tracker" to Disabled.


Other than that, you're all set. All the server-y stuff that Windows Server does is off by default. Just leave it off.
 
You can also go into services and turn on 'Themes' (automatic and start) and the desktop will look just like XP.

Bozo :mrgrn:
 
Bozo said:
You can also go into services and turn on 'Themes' (automatic and start) and the desktop will look just like XP.

Bozo :mrgrn:
Click to expand...

Ewwww.

You can also make the shutdown menu more normal if you want, but there is not much of a point.
 
Mercutio said:
1. Go into Admin Tools - Services and turn the Sound Service on (Automatic and Started, actually)
2. Go into Display Properties and Settings and Advanced and Troubleshooting and turn the Display Acceleration slider up all the way.
3. Set your pagefile to a large, static size (same minimum and maximum). Put a pagefile on every physical drive in the machine if possible.
4. Open Admin Tools > Local Security Policy > Computer Config > Administrative Templates > System and change "Display Shutdown Event Tracker" to Disabled.


Other than that, you're all set. All the server-y stuff that Windows Server does is off by default. Just leave it off.
Click to expand...

Sweet, I was able to remember 3 of those...I forgot about the DIsplay Acceleration. Quake 4 still looked quite good.
 
Actually, leaving the Indexing service on might well be one of the niftier things you can do with Server 2003. There's a pretty simple recipe for using the Indexing Service + IIS to make super-fast (Google-fast?) searches against the files on your computer.
You have to write custom web page to do it, but it's highly worthwhile.

Anyway This guy has a nice tutorial on the topic.

I've heard that using Indexing can cause performance issues with CD/DVD/game playback, but there is an argument for leaving it on.
 
Mercutio:
The last of your four instructions doesn't seem to go to the right place. Could you check that one?

"4. Open Admin Tools > Local Security Policy > Computer Config > Administrative Templates > System and change "Display Shutdown Event Tracker" to Disabled. "

Computer Config is the part I can't find...

David got all three of the top ones, by the way, and yes, Quake 4 does rock on that machine..

S
 
David's better then he gives himself credit for. It's already disabled.
Thanks

Greg
 
Well, I installed 2003 on a box I'm putting together for a friend. It's going on an old P3 450 MHZ, 512 RAM, Cheetah boot drive.

So far, it seems plenty snappy.

This guy is even less computer savy then I. Is there a way to turn off the control-alt-delete at the start?

Thanks

Greg
 
There are a couple depending on what you want. If you just want to have it log in automagically without a username or password at all then the solution is the same as with Tonys problem in this thread. If you'd like to just make it so that you don't need the control-alt-delete but still have to log in there are instructions on this page of the article which Bozo linked to earlier. (Or I think that's what it does, I havn't actually tried it...)
 
The other really annoying feature is while trying to download Service pack 1, it keeps locking the computer up, since I'm not doing anything with it. :crap:

Anyway to stop that?

S
 
TweakUI for XP works on 2003 after you get the service pack installed. It makes setting up auto-login a snap.

Bozo :mrgrn:
 
If anyone is playing arround with a Windows 2003 trial and happens to reset thier bios, remember to set the clock before you let windows load... After 5 or so days of using the trial I had everything set up just how I like it and now it thinks my 180 day trial is over... Very annoying...
 
Yes, several of my students have experienced that as well.

Speaking of Server 2003, I am really curious to find out what the price difference between Vista Ultimate edition vs. Server Web Edition will be. I have a feeling Web is going to come out looking like a real bargain
 
I really hate it when you do a fresh XP install and forget to set the date in the BIOS before you start and it times out with the stupid activation message before you even get to do anything and you have to reset the BIOS and start all over again.
 
I use the XP64 full Catalysts in 2003 but it seems you need to go out and find your own copy of the .Net 1.1 framework before you install them. .Net 2.0 will not work. I found the control center gave me a lot more useful information on what my AGP interface was doing, without it I had serious performance issues because the system decided not to use any AGP features at all.
 
Sol

I like the control features, and ease of changing resolutions woth the
control panel. Could you elaborate on your post a bit, so I could see EXACTLY what features you are talking about, and how to check them?

Thanks

Greg
 
Sol said:
I use the XP64 full Catalysts in 2003 but it seems you need to go out and find your own copy of the .Net 1.1 framework before you install them. .Net 2.0 will not work. I found the control center gave me a lot more useful information on what my AGP interface was doing, without it I had serious performance issues because the system decided not to use any AGP features at all.
Click to expand...

That is odd. I use the full Catalyst drivers with .Net framework version 2.0.50727 and it works great. I am running the x64 drivers on Windows XP x64, not 2003 Server.
 
Hi
Swede: Nice to have you here. 2003 server is a different animal then XP.
Hence the thread.

I currently have a bunch of computers running XP, and, what works on them does not usually work on 2003 server.

Hence this thread.

2003 Server is incredibly fast, and a joy, but games, and drivers are a a bit touchy, though usually doable, with the aide of the folks here, like Mercutio, and Ddrueding.

Sincerely

Greg
 
theSwede, are you sure you don't also have the 1.1 framework installed? It's quite possible that it's actually included on the install media for XP64 since it was available before the 64 bit release and was moved via windows update at that time. Because 2003 is a server OS they don't ship it with as much extra stuff so admins have a bit more control.

The features I'm talking about are what ATI refer to as "Smart Gart". It's the bit that auto detects your system configuration at startup and tries to optimize everything and then test that it's stable. Occasionally it does an average job, especially when your trying to use an nvidia chipset with an ATI video card and both attempt to provide an AGP driver.
 
I am 100% sure that I don't have the 1.1 framework installed. But I just realized that am using the 6.3 version of the Catalyst drivers, and there are newer versions available. I don't know how they work with .Net framework 2.0.

My workstation at work also has a ATI card installed and runs the Catalyst drivers without problem. It is a Windows 2003 Server web edition and has both the 1.1 and the 2.0 versions of the .Net framework installed. I could try to uninstall the 1.1 version to see if it still works, but I am not sure if it possible. As far as I remember the .net framework 1.1 is included with 2003 server and is not possible to uninstall.

Greg,
You should know that the difference between 2003 Server and the 64-bit version of Windows XP is very, very small.
They are built from the same source tree.
The version of the core kernel dll's are the same (Windows XP 32bit has 5.1.2600, Windows XP 64bit and 2003 Server both has 5.2.3790).
The 64bit Windows XP and 2003 Server is shipped with IIS 6.0 and both supports NUMA (as does 32bit Windows XP from SP2).
All of the new API's that is listed as "2003 Server only" are available in the 64 bit version of XP (for example SetProcessWorkingSetSizeEx() and GetProcessWorkingSetSizeEx()).
If you look at the screen dump above you will even see that "srv03_sp1" is embedded into the version string of Windows XP x64.

May I ask which programs you are using that doesn't work in 2003 Server. In my experience that is very uncommon.
[/b]
 
Swede:
I couldn't get Quake 3 to install. So, I did the install on my XP 32 bit machine, copied the folders over to the 2003 server machine, and it works fine.

I can't get PowerDVD to install on 2003, and they say it's not supported.

Couple others that slip my mind.

Get back to you, when I get the ram replaced for that machine.
 
PowerDVD version 6 installs fine on Server 2003. I'm sitting at a Server 2003 machine that has it installed right now. :)
 
I'm using 5.0, plus patch, and, I've bought the audio upgrade package, as well.

Greg
 
After working with "Longhorn" server, I don't think it will be easy to turn it into a desktop OS. Damn :cry:

Bozo :mrgrn:
 
I had the pleasure today of needing to do an emergency mass-hardware replacement on a Server 2003 machine.

The machine was a whitebox server built by one of the local screwdriver shops, but it was a Windows Server 2003 with some kind of business-critical database running on it.

The PC was a P4/2.8GHz running on a Via-based ECS motherboard (Who uses Via chipsets for Intel CPUs? And who puts ECS-anything in a server?).
Of course, I had nothing like that sitting around. My experience with most versions of Windows has been that if you're replacing the motherboard, unless the chipset is the same or really close, Windows is probably going to shit itself.

So I was fully expecting to have to do a repair install, maybe even data transfer/recovery, after I popped in a replacement power supply and the only motherboard and CPU I had on hand, a Gigabyte nvidia-6100-based board with an X2/4200.

Nope. Server 2003 booted but, switched to the multiprocessor HAL and cheerfully grabbed all the drivers off the Gigabyte install CD. It didn't even need any user interaction until it got to the onboard sound devices. I was expecting three or four hours of work, ended up needing maybe 40 minutes total. The mass hardware change was almost Linux-like in its simplicity.
 
I'm enjoying the Win2K3 install that I put on my home machine.

I used nLite, as usual, and built a slipstream of Server 2003 Enterprise VLK with the most current custom hotfix pack, the SP2 beta, and WMP 11 beta. (WMP11 heavily modified by nLite so it doesn't do any calling home to MS and several other things).

Runs great, I really like it.
 
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