SmittyJensen
December 8th, 2009, 03:21 AM
I recently got access to a bunch of Microsoft's products (student), and was wanting to try something new. I settled on Server 2008 Enterprise (Enterprise just sounds cooler than Standard :)). Here's my adventure with it:
I downloaded the ISO (from a specialized MSDN), and then extracted the files from the ISO onto a folder on my hard disk. I then ran setup.exe, downloaded the updates for the installer, and installed over my existing XP install (renaming Windows to Windows.old). It asked pretty much no questions, except for which edition of Windows I wanted to install and if I really wanted to install the product (you know, the usual).
After about 10-15 minutes, I came back to my computer and the installation was finished. On first boot it asked me to make a new password for the "Administrator" user. It had to be a really hard password, as it seems it will only take a password with at least one uppercase letter, one number, and one alpha-numerical character (don't quote me on this). I logged on afterwards. before I actually got to my desktop it asked me to press CTRL + ALT + DEL (to show the desktop). I still need to turn that off.
Upon the initial desktop, it was pretty bare. No audio, no windows media player, no Aero. I quickly installed my graphics card drivers and audio card driver, then I made the Windows Audio service start on boot (it isn't enabled by default, it seems).
I rebooted a few times (after installing one driver, then another, etc.). You can enable the "Windows Desktop Experience" feature, which provides Aero and what not. I chose not to -- why should I?
Disabled a few things, changed the wallpaper, and am now installing updates. Here's what it looks like so far:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1692/reviewk.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/i/reviewk.jpg/)
I'll keep updating my thread to tell everyone how my experience has been. So far, so good. No crashes, freezes, or any real problems. It seems very fast. I don't claim to know it all, so if you see any typos or anything just let me know and I'll correct it.
I downloaded the ISO (from a specialized MSDN), and then extracted the files from the ISO onto a folder on my hard disk. I then ran setup.exe, downloaded the updates for the installer, and installed over my existing XP install (renaming Windows to Windows.old). It asked pretty much no questions, except for which edition of Windows I wanted to install and if I really wanted to install the product (you know, the usual).
After about 10-15 minutes, I came back to my computer and the installation was finished. On first boot it asked me to make a new password for the "Administrator" user. It had to be a really hard password, as it seems it will only take a password with at least one uppercase letter, one number, and one alpha-numerical character (don't quote me on this). I logged on afterwards. before I actually got to my desktop it asked me to press CTRL + ALT + DEL (to show the desktop). I still need to turn that off.
Upon the initial desktop, it was pretty bare. No audio, no windows media player, no Aero. I quickly installed my graphics card drivers and audio card driver, then I made the Windows Audio service start on boot (it isn't enabled by default, it seems).
I rebooted a few times (after installing one driver, then another, etc.). You can enable the "Windows Desktop Experience" feature, which provides Aero and what not. I chose not to -- why should I?
Disabled a few things, changed the wallpaper, and am now installing updates. Here's what it looks like so far:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1692/reviewk.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/i/reviewk.jpg/)
I'll keep updating my thread to tell everyone how my experience has been. So far, so good. No crashes, freezes, or any real problems. It seems very fast. I don't claim to know it all, so if you see any typos or anything just let me know and I'll correct it.