Windows Server 2003 Notes

I set up Win2K3 Server on a box at home a few days ago and here are some of the things I've learned.  The first thing I'd like to point out is that there is a pretty good Unofficial FAQ maintained by Windows XP MVP Larry Samuels.

The machine I installed on is a Dell Dimension 4100, P3-1GHz with 512MB ram.  It has a DVD player that was flaking out under XP Pro for some reason (no sound during movies, otherwise fine).  I was at the brink of requesting a new DVD player from Dell, but I managed to get it to work after the Win2k3 install.  Here's what I had to do:

  1. Enable graphics acceleration.  This is under an Advanced button in the Display properties box.  You can get to it either from Control Panel or by right-clicking on the desktop.
  2. Enable the Windows Audio service.  Gotta have this for sound.  This is in the Sounds section of the Control panel.
  3. Install a DVD decoder.  You can buy one from MS if need be for like $20.  For some reason Win2k3 doesn't come with one despite its huge price tag and WinXP does (and you can get WinXP for like $49).  In my case, I was in luck -- I installed the Dell Intervideo WinDVD software that came with the machine and it worked fine under Win2k3.
  4. Games: To get most games to work, follow these same steps, but then enable DirectX, which is disabled by default.  Go to a command prompt or the Start-Run prompt and type "dxdiag".  Click OK.  Click on the Display tab, then click on the Enable button for DirectDraw and Direct3d.

Once this was done, I was able to watch DVDs using either WinDVD or WMP on the machine, which is good news because my wife wants to be able to use it to entertain Ilyana while she's working on her computer.  I was also able to get Ghost Recon to work as a test to see if the OS would support games.  The PC has an old GeForce2 card that seemed to work just fine without any need to download drivers.

The next thing I did was try and install Exchange.  The end goal is to be able to share my schedule with my family, something that Outlook Express and Outlook do not support without a Server product (insane overkill for a family's needs).  I got IIS set up and played with ASP.NET 1.1 a bit, and once I'd finally gotten all of its prerequisites installed, I tried to install Exchange 2000 only to learn that it was not supported.  So I'm now downloading the Exchange 2003 Beta 2 and I'll probably install that tomorrow.

 

7 Comments

  • Yep, Exchange 2000 isn't supported on W2K3. However, you can run it just fine against a W2K3 DC. There's no supported upgrade path from Exchange 2003 beta 2 to RTM, so what I'd recommend is using VMware to set up a W2K VM and putting E2K on it. Use that for now, then when E2K3 is released, you can do a move mailbox-style upgrade.

  • Found this blog entry though google and it contained the vital piece of info we had lacked in order to play DVds under 2k3 -- namely, the hardware acceleration was turned off.



    *bows* Thank ye, kind sir!

  • Thx for this post man, I just spent the last 2 days trying to fix my dvd playback that just went bad for some reason I tried everything. Then found this page and ran the one thing I didn't check the directx directdraw, turned it on and everything works again. No clue how it got turned off but, none the less I am happy that annoying problem is solved. Thanks dude

  • suppose join new clint in the why are taking time

  • is there anyone who can provide a full notes of windows server2003

  • This is a very good note. Could you please release a note for beginners that would help me to learn more about widows 2003 server OS.
    It would be much helpful for me to grasp the major concepts about it.
    Now I am trying to read it by my self for knowledge purpose.
    Thanks,

  • i have a interviwa and i dont have a study materil

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