Goodbye Vista: Installing Windows Server 2008 on a Dell XPS laptop
Vista was driving me nuts! I could not believe how slow it was. The hard disk was always thrashing, the machine ran hot and the battery life was pants. I had spent hours optimizing my environment; first deleting all the 'bloat ware' installed by Dell, then stopping every service I did not recognise and finally removing every entry I could from the start-up registry entries (i.e. HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run).
The biggest culprit for wasting system resources was Vista's SuperFetch. Which idiot thought this up?? The service reads all the files on the computer and 'analyses' what you have done before and predicts what you may need in the immediate future and then loads the application and data into memory so you get fantastic performance if, and this is a big 'if', you happen to ask for the application or data that it thinks you want. In reality, the performance of the whole PC suffers as this silly service just wastes your PC's resources doing things that you do not need. Ahhhhh! I wish I had a shotgun and a time machine to get that S.O.A.B.!
My laptop is no slouch either. A Dell XPS M1530 laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB 5,600RPM hard drive and a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card driving a 1680x1050 pixel TrueLife TFT. So I was particularly annoyed by the lack of performance provided by Vista. The laptop was rated as 4.9 out of 5 in Vista's own performance benchmark; 5 been the best machines that were around when they were developing Vista. Clearly they were benchmarking how much system resource they could waste rather than focus on end-user performance!
As I develop server-based applications on the SQL Server 2005 BI suite, I had installed VMWare Workstation so I could run multiple virtual machines – one for each of my client's server configurations. I find VMWare much more flexible than Virtual PC, but then again, it's not free! What seemed silly is that the Windows Server 2003 instances running inside the virtual machine seemed much faster than Vista itself, especially when copying files across the network!
When I heard the news that SQL Server 2008 had finally shipped, I decided that it was time to do something radical: upgrade to Windows Server 2008 as the native OS and install SQL Server 2008! As a consultant on the road, I cannot afford to be without my machine for too long, so I decided the safest option would be to buy another hard drive and take the Vista disk out and replace it with a shiny new 7,200RPM hard drive. Well performance is everything!
Before taking the Vista hard drive out, I created backups onto my NAS drive and also copied onto a memory stick all the device drivers that Dell had kindly created in the c:\drivers folder (after checking they were the latest versions of course!).
The installation of Windows Server 2008 on my laptop went like a dream. Every time the OS found a new device, I simply pointed it at the root of the memory stick and, bingo, it installed without a glitch. The only devices that failed were the ones that Dell had forgotten to place in the c:\drivers folder or for my own printer/scanner. These were soon downloaded from Dell and Canon's web sites.
Why did it go so smoothly? Well Windows Server 2008 shares the same kernel as Vista and the device driver model is the same. So a Vista device driver will work with Windows Server 2008 and visa versa. However, be aware that this will only work with the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2008 as very few device drivers are available for 64-bit Windows.
A very Desktop Experience
Of course Vista does have some charms and I soon came to miss certain applications like Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Media Player. I tried finding them on the Microsoft Download site but to no avail. Windows Media Player is built into Vista and therefore not provided as a separate download. I searched the internet for clues as to where I could get them from, but to no avail. Several days went by before I found www.win2008workstation.com which has many tips on how to turn Windows Server 2008 into a workstation. This includes how to turn on something called the Desktop Experience. I followed the procedure and my desired applications magically appeared. However, some undesirable applications also popped up like Windows Defender (what junk!), Windows Mail, Windows Contacts and Windows Calendar. Unfortunately, you get all or nothing. There is no fine control over which of the Vista applications get installed. At least you can disable Windows Defender by disabling the related service.
Virtual CD-ROM
Eager to install SQL Server 2008 from a freshly downloaded ISO image, I started scouting for a way to load an ISO images as a virtual drive. I figured there must be a way to load an ISO image built into the OS itself. However, I could not find the right command-line, but I am sure there is someone out there that knows how to do it! So I tried my old favourite Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel which is a free download originally developed by Microsoft but now provided as an unsupported utility. To my surprise this worked a treat. Amazing since it was last updated in 2006!
Burning Desire
Over the years I have been a great lover of Nero Burning ROM. The main application had a simple but powerful user interface. However, the Nero package has grown out of all recognition over the years and offers so many utilities to do things I never imagined I needed (i.e. bloat ware) that I refuse to install it on my machine. Unfortunately the original Nero Burning ROM cannot be purchased separately, so I needed an alternative. After a perusal of Wikipedia, I found some freeware called Express Burn. The UI is almost identical to Nero Burning ROM and seems to work well. However, beware that many of the menu options are actually links to upgrade you to the paid for version. If anyone has an alternative suggestion, please let me know.
One frustration is that the DVD+/-RW drive was not originally visible to Express Burn unless I am logged in as Administrator, even though my own account belongs to the local administrators group! Clearly this is due to some obscure Local Security Policy. I did some fiddling about and amazingly today, as I write this blog entry I find that the DVD+/-RW drive has become visible to Express Burn again. Perhaps it was something I did (although I know not what) or the pressure of public exposure that made my device behave itself.
Well Connected
One slightly problematic device I had was my 3 USB mobile internet modem. This worked fine on first installation then stopped working for no apparent reason. I figured out it may be something to do with the Windows Firewall which, if I remember correctly, first appeared when I switched on the Desktop Experience. However, after tinkering with the firewall settings the device would still not work. I tried installing the latest device drivers, but to no avail. I uninstalled the device software and decided to ring 3's support line, confident in the knowledge that they would be no help at all; after all how many customers have mobile internet installed on a server?? Of course, several days passed before I resolved to get the problem fixed. Just prior to the call I thought I would prepare by reinstalling the device so the details of the problem would be fresh in my mind. Well blow me, the damn thing started working!
Mouse Problems
The one device that I have real problems with is my Logitech V470 Cordless Laser Mouse for Bluetooth. I can add it as a Bluetooth device, but it will not actually work. If I install the latest SetPoint software from Logitech, the mouse pointer jumps all over the place like a demented wasp. Ideas anyone?
My tool bag
I often find it useful to know what other consultants in the field carry around in their 'tool bag'. Well, here is my set of applications currently installed on the laptop:
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 including IIS 7.0
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition including SSAS, SSRS and SSIS and the new Adventure Works 2008 database samples.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
- MSDN Library
- Microsoft Office 2007 with "Save as PDF" enhancement
- Microsoft Data Mining Add-ins for Excel 2007
- UltraEdit – fantastic text and code editor I have been using for many, many years
- Password Safe – I use this freeware to hold the username/password to over 100 web sites and bank accounts. They are all safe inside a heavily encrypted file which can be safely backed up to my NAS drive or memory stick without any danger of someone else been able to open the file.
- PowerMarks – the easy way to move your internet favourites from machine to machine
- Adobe Acrobat Reader – of course!
- Primo PDF – freeware alternative to Adobe Acrobat Distiller for creating PDF files
- Paint.NET – what a great free alternative to Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Ultratagger – easy to use MP3 tagging software
- FileZilla – great freeware FTP application
- WinZip – the de facto standard
- Apple iTunes for my iPod and (future) iPhone
- www.iDrive.com on-line backup
- Express Burn DVD/CD-ROM burning software
- 3 USB mobile internet
So if you are thinking of making the move from Vista to Windows Server 2008, do it now! The stability, performance, flexibility and power of Windows Server 2008 can be yours.
Good luck!