Windows Server 2008 as desktop laptop OS - h0bbel.

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Last night I jumped in and chose to install go forward with my grand prepare, namely working Windows Server 2008 as my laptop OS.
Installation
After making sure that I had backed up everything I may be needing
from the previous Windows XP install, I basically wiped the entire laptop and
started clean. A few partition deletions later, the Windows
Server 2008 set up was underway and on my Lenovo ThinkPad T60 the
installation was quite significantly done in fifteen minutes.
Thats appropriate, fifteen minutes from your install started out until finally I used to be able to logon for the 1st time.
No concerns are asked throughout install. No pc identify setup, no passwords, practically nothing. You can quite much stick the media within the pc, go have a very cup of coffee or a thing, and appear back to finalize your installation. Fingers off set up at it can be very best.
After the first logon, you obtain presented with the "Server Manager" which beneath the "Features Summary" states 0 of 36 characteristics installed. Is this truly Microsoft? They've 36 characteristics you can include, and they don't force you to disable those you do not want? You truly should make an active option to allow the functions you would like? Thats excellent!
The "Server Manager" itself warrants a post of it is own. By far the finest management console to come out of Redmond to date, and the ability to have diagnostics, roles,office professional 2010 sale, and features all in one central place like this is something that has been in demand for years. Well done!
On to driver set up. Most drivers were automatically installed, following all Server 2008 shares kernel and codebase with Windows Vista,Office Home And Student Product Key, so this was to be expected. The drivers that Server 2008 didn't handle on it really is own,Windows 7 Home Premium, were for that most part handled by Lenovo System Update which identifies my system as Vista. The only thing I'm missing at this point are the Bluetooth drivers, but I'm quite certain they'll set up without much problems soon after a manual download from Lenovo.
Of course, working Windows Server 2008 as a desktop OS means that you will have to manually configure a few items. Unlike previous Windows Server versions, Server 2008 is pretty significantly locked down when installed. Following all, who needs Aero, Windows Media Player and Wireless connectivity on their servers? It is actually a server OS soon after all. Well, as it turns out, I do. If you can call Aero a need that is, but I just had to try and permit it to compare performance with Vista.
The very first "problem" was wireless connectivity. The wireless driver for my laptop seemed to be installed ok, but I was competely unable to find, and much less connect to, any wireless network. This was pretty infortunate, as I only use the laptop on wireless connectivty at home. Sitting on the floor with a cable attached to my wireless access point wasn't significantly fun, so I had to tackle that issue first.
The solution is rather straight forward, and makes perfect sense, but if you don't know where to look it may pose a problem getting wireless to work.
Wireless
As I mentioned earlier, Wireless LAN features are not set up by default. All you have to do, is to add the "Wireless LAN Feature" to the server. That brings us to the new "Server Manager" console that Microsoft provides in Server 2008. Start "Server Manager", click on "Features" then go to "Add Features" and right at the bottom you'll find "Wireless LAN Service".
Internet Explorer Security
The second issue, if you would like to call it an issue, is that by default Internet Explorer is locked down with the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configration settings. For your most part thats a good idea, and I'll leave it enabled on all my real servers at work, but when using it as a desktop OS it is just annoying. Disabling it is a bit different that from Server 2003, but it's a quite quick procedure in Server 2008. In Server Supervisor browse to the Security Information section and click "Configure IE ESC".

Aero:
Now, to enable Aero characteristics there are a few things that needs to be completed. First, use the "Add Capabilities Wizard" to include "Desktop Experience". This requires a reboot, but thats not all, you also have to start the "Theme" service, which is disabled by default. When you have logged again in, launch "Server Manger" and browse to "Configuration" -> "Services" and locate the "Themes" service. Change the value from "Disabled" to "Automatic" and start the service. After the service starts, correct click on the Desktop select "Personalize" and set the theme to Windows Vista.
Other
I've put in most of my day to day work applications on the newly set up laptop. Lotus Notes 8, VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, Firefox etc. The only problem I've encountered so far, was installing MSN Live. The standard download doesn't install on Server operating systems, but there's an alternative download available. I've seen that others have experienced problems with operating VMware Workstation 6 and Hyper-V simultaneously, but I've yet to test Hyper-V here, nor run any VMware products on top of it. While I strategy on testing out Hyper-V on this system, I have to prioritize VMware Server for now. I still possess a few template images I should create,Microsoft Office 2007, both personally and for the ############## team.

I may be running the most expensive laptop OS while in the world,Windows Server 2003 Online Training Tutorials, but so far I'm extemely happy with it. I used to be even capable to join the work domain remotely, via our Firepass SSL VPN solution. I had a small problem using the initial logon for my user account though, as the VPN client wasn't working when the logon box appears. That was easiliy solved by logging on as a local administrator,Office Professional Key, connecting to the SSL VPN, switching user account and then logging on with my domain user.
Conclusion
Windows Server 2008 performs better, even together with the Aero capabilities enabled, than Vista ever did on the same hardware. To
me, this a bit strange, even if a lot of services are still disabled,
as the codebase is fairly considerably the same as Vista. For all I know, Vista
might perform better now that Service Pack 1 has been released, but I
don't anticipate changing again any time soon. Another factor here is
that I had the 32bit version of Vista installed, while I'm now running
64bit Server 2008. How significantly of a difference that genuinely makes, I don't
know.
My experience with Windows Server 2008 so far genuinely makes me want to get began with upgrading my domain at work and all my servers. I'm literally acing to run adprep /forestprep and adprep /domainprep correct now, but I'll wait until I'm physically at work though.
Mr. Patrick O'Rourke from the Microsoft Server Divison, if you are still reading this site please send my regards to the entire development team. You've made a wonderful desktop OS, I'm confident it will be great on my servers as well.