How to transform Win2K3 into a Workstation Developement OS ?

Question

Hello guys,

Here is a question not directly related to programming.

Being fed up with Microsoft Windows XP Professional, and the lots of eye-candy, I want to try Microsoft Windows Server 2003 as the main OS on my development PC. (The other reason is a better version of IIS than 5.1). And knowing that Win2K3 was originally designed as a Server OS, I think that I should make it somehow more "workstation friendly".

My question is: How do I transform Win2K3 (Standard Edition most probably) into a Workstation OS? Any articles or links are highly appreciated.

PS: My development PC must run mainly MS Visual Studio 2008, MS SQL Server 2008, MS Expression Studio 2, different Oracle software (10gR2, ExpressEdition, 11g) and other little utilities (a testing framework, a subversion tool - TFS, a web browser, a bittorrent client, etc). All of this are compatible with Win2K3, as I previously checked.

Tnks

Answer 1

You shouldn't run into any issues running those applications on Server 2003.

The last time I personally ran 2003 on a workstation the only real big change was changing the security settings of internet explorer.

If you run one of the free anti-virus software packages you may find that they will not install on a Server OS.

edit: As another poster has suggested I would also go straight to server 2008 if it is an options. Server 2008 runs very well as a workstation OS and if you're hardware supports it the virtual server works very well.

Answer 2

None of the software types you've listed has any workstation-biased dependencies that I'm aware of. Expression Blend may suffer a bit depending on your hardware and drivers, as WPF is a little more demanding of visual goo than most other development tools for Windows forms.

Answer 3

Here's links for turning 2003 into workstation:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows+server+2003+workstation+converter

If you'd like use Windows Server 2008 as a workstation, runs much better (faster) than a regular Vista install:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=windows+server+2008+workstation+converter&aq=1&oq=windows+server+2008+work

or try getting your hands on Windows 7 RC1 which runs quite well.

Answer 4

I only server OS as my workstation, I had Server 2003 before I switched to Server 2008. There's a guide you can find here http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/.

You shouldn't run into any problems. Most of windows xp drivers will work on server 2003, however, some apps won't. Especially those that check for the OS version before installing. But you shouldn't have any problems with VS2008, Expression and anything you posted.

For me the only thing that was troublesome was running iTunes on server 2003, it doesn't look as good.

And if you like the eye candy you can turn it on by starting the Theme service and changing a few settings.