Last night I jumped in and decided to install go forward with my grand plan, namely running Windows Server 2008 as my laptop OS.
Installation
After making sure that I had backed up everything I might be needing
from the old Windows XP install, I basically wiped the whole laptop and
started fresh. A couple of partition deletions later, the Windows
Server 2008 install was underway and on my Lenovo ThinkPad T60 the
installation was pretty much done in 15 minutes.
Thats right, 15 minutes from the install started until I was able to logon for the first time.
No questions are asked during install. No computer name setup, no passwords, nothing. You can pretty much stick the media in the computer, go have a cup of coffee or something, and come back to finalize your installation. Hands off installation at it's very best.
After the first logon, you get presented with the "Server Manager" which under the "Features Summary" states 0 of 36 features installed. Is this really Microsoft? They have 36 features you can add, and they don't force you to disable the ones you don't need? You actually need to make an active choice to enable the features you want? Thats great!
The "Server Manager" itself warrants a post of it's own. By far the best management console to come out of Redmond to date, and the ability to have diagnostics, roles, and features all in one central place like this is something that has been in demand for years. Well done!
On to driver installation. Most drivers were automatically installed, after all Server 2008 shares kernel and codebase with Windows Vista, so this was to be expected. The drivers that Server 2008 didn't handle on it's own, were for the 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 pretty sure they'll install without much problems after a manual download from Lenovo.
Of course, running 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 much locked down when installed. After all, who needs Aero, Windows Media Player and Wireless connectivity on their servers? It is a server OS 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 enable it to compare performance with Vista.
The 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 much fun, so I had to tackle that issue first.
The solution is pretty straight forward, and makes perfect sense, but if you don't know where to look it might pose a problem getting wireless to work.
Wireless
As I mentioned earlier, Wireless LAN features are not installed 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 want to call it an issue, is that by default Internet Explorer is locked down with the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configration settings. For the 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 very quick procedure in Server 2008. In Server Manager browse to the Security Information section and click "Configure IE ESC". 
Aero:
Now, to enable Aero features there are a couple of things that needs to be done. First, use the "Add Features Wizard" to add "Desktop Experience". This requires a reboot, but thats not all, you also need to start the "Theme" service, which is disabled by default. When you have logged back 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, right click on the Desktop select "Personalize" and set the theme to Windows Vista. 
Other
I've installed most of my day to day work applications on the newly installed 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 is an alternative download available. I've seen that others have experienced problems with running 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 plan on testing out Hyper-V on this system, I have to prioritize VMware Server for now. I still have a few template images I need to create, both personally and for the Gallery team.
I might be running the most expensive laptop OS in the world, but so far I'm extemely happy with it. I was even able to join the work domain remotely, via our Firepass SSL VPN solution. I had a small problem with the initial logon for my user account though, as the VPN client wasn't running when the logon box appears. That was easiliy solved by logging on as a local administrator, connecting to the SSL VPN, switching user account and then logging on with my domain user.
Conclusion
Windows Server 2008 performs better, even with the Aero features 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 pretty much 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 back 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 much of a difference that really makes, I don't
know.
My experience with Windows Server 2008 so far really makes me want to get started with upgrading my domain at work and all my servers. I'm literally acing to run adprep /forestprep and adprep /domainprep right 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 whole development team. You've made a great desktop OS, I'm confident it will be great on my servers as well.
41 Comments so far
Rick, on February 20, 2008 at 2:19am, said:
What are the specs of your thinkpad? we're running identical thinkpad T61 (tablets) with 1.8ghz procs and 2gb ram, with vista 32 bit..
performance is .. ok, even with SP1 (I couldn't tell any difference between SP1 not being installed). not as fast as I'd like, but not so slow that i'm hating it. this was a very good read, I think I may give it shot now on my personal testbed.
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Christian Mohn, on February 20, 2008 at 10:14am, said:
@Rick: I've got a 15" T60 Core 2 Duo 2 Ghz with 2GB ram.
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Jesse Mullan, on February 20, 2008 at 8:19pm, said:
OH MAN I AM HOT TO TRY THIS!
I mean, uh, this is very intriguing. Indeed.
My new T61 is sitting on my desk. It makes me feel all funny inside.
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Rick, on February 20, 2008 at 9:25pm, said:
What's the memory usage, with and without Aero? (still trying to put together test computer to try this myself).
And have you had any experience with in place upgrades yet?
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Christian Mohn, on February 20, 2008 at 11:10pm, said:
@Rick: I haven't looked at memory usage with/without Aero. I did stick in a new memory module in my laptop today though, so now it's a 3GB instead. I might do some memory comparisons tomorrow, time permitting.
I didn't do an in place upgrade, since XP isn't exactly the upgrade path for a server OS. I will be doing in place upgrades of servers at work though, and I'll make sure to post something when I've done that as well.
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Rick, on February 21, 2008 at 2:08am, said:
Excellent, I'lll look forward to it. I now have an older Dell Powervault 745N that I'll be testing this on (P4, 2.8ghz w/HT on, 1gb ram, CERC SATA 1.5/6 channel raid controller).
I'm going to try an in place upgrade on this first, just to note how it goes (driver wise, it's not running any services right now), before I do a clean install.
I'm just worried that 1gb of RAM may not be enough, for an eventual production server.
Also, will you be testing it in a virtual environment as well?
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Jesse Mullan, on February 21, 2008 at 6:38am, said:
Okay, I unpacked the laptop and played with it some... now it's time to figure out how to dual-boot linux and windows. However, I am on the MSDN site and I don't know whether to get the Hyper-V edition or the regular. I'm going to build out the laptop and eventually my desktop to each run host operating systems and then a pile of virtual systems (for development), so do I go with the Hyper-V to start? I might as well download both images. If you see me online we should chat about this, 'cause I feel that I could use a little hand holding while being re-inducted into the Microsoft fold.
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Christian Mohn, on February 21, 2008 at 8:59am, said:
@Jesse: Somehow I doubt that you will be using Hyper-V for your virtualization needs, as you are probably going to need to move the VMs around between Windows and Linux, no? If so, you need VMWare Server.
Hyper-V might be fun for you to play around with and test though, and Hyper-V is just another "feature" you add in Windows 2008 Server Enterprise.
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Jesse Mullan, on February 21, 2008 at 3:20pm, said:
Like I said, I'm downloading both versions from MSDN. Which did you use, Server 2008 or Server 2008 without Hyper-V?
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Christian Mohn, on February 21, 2008 at 3:23pm, said:
@Jesse: I'm running Enterprise 64.
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Rick, on February 23, 2008 at 3:01am, said:
While I didn't time the installation, it did go by very fast, much faster then my last XP installation. I ended up dual booting my workstation (Asus A*N32-SLI Deluxe, AMD Athlon x64 3700, 2gb ram, 2*7800GT in SLI, ATI Radeon 9200 - for the 2nd screen, and 4 hard drives).
While the initial memory footprint (for me it was around 450 megabytes) leaves a lot to be desired, over all I'm really, *really* liking it.
This was the 32 bit Standard version with Hyper-V.
Time to download drivers, and install AutoCAD.
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Chris Meller, on February 25, 2008 at 11:20pm, said:
So I was originally disappointed that in Vista I didn't get the pretty alt-tab window that I'd seen in pre-release screenshots... but now you have one of it on Server 2k8.
Am I just missing something? I assumed if it wasn't present on the initially configured theme, that it had been cut...
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Rick, on February 26, 2008 at 2:17am, said:
While I haven't had a chance to really sit down and play with it, I must say I was a bit surprised to see that I could enable SLI - I'm very tempted to try some gaming on it (just for kicks).
Unfortunately, neither Vista nor Server 2008 support my PCI based Radeon 9200 - so no dual screen action yet. Vista support (and I'm assuming Server 2008) for Radeon cards go back only as far as the 9500.
What alt-tab window are you talking about?
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Adam, on February 27, 2008 at 9:50pm, said:
As a laptop user i used to use 'offline files' on my vista, but i can't get it up and running on the server 2008, found the 'offline files' services but are unable to enable it.
any suggestions on how to solve this?
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Christian Mohn, on February 27, 2008 at 10:25pm, said:
@Adam: Thats interesting, I normally use that for my work home folder too, but I haven't tried setting it up on the Server 2008 install yet. I'll try that when I'm back at the office though.
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Rycase, on March 4, 2008 at 7:37pm, said:
You are referring to windows key + tab... not alt-tab.
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Windows XP lovers « But the obvious, on March 5, 2008 at 8:59pm, said:
...chive/2008/02/11/using-windows-server-2008-as-a-super-desktop-os.aspx" target="_blank">here and here.
If you don
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Heath Provost, on March 20, 2008 at 4:40am, said:
Offline files in 2k8
1. By default, 2k8 does not seem to create the C:\Windows\CSC folder, but all the other needed components are installed. If you do not have this folder, just create it manually before proceeding further.
2. Create/edit the following registry keys:
Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CscService\Start
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 2
Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Start
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters\FormatDatabase
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
Key: KLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters\CacheLocation
Type: REG_SZ
Value: \??\c:\Windows\csc (yes, with the weird looking question mark stuff)
Note: The \Parameters key above may not exist, you will have to create it if it doesn't.
3. Reboot and offline files should be functional.
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Igor, on March 28, 2008 at 5:08pm, said:
Any luck installing bluetooth?
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Tim Anderson’s ITWriting - Tech writing blog » Windows Server 2008 is better than Vista, but why? , on April 18, 2008 at 9:49am, said:
...1-17% faster than Vista SP1, running a couple of benchmarks which test typical client applications. Christian Mohn concurs:
Windows Server 2008 performs better, even with the Aero features enabled, than Vista ever did on t...
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Windows Server 2008 ? meglio di Vista, perch? ? » Italia SW, on April 21, 2008 at 12:56pm, said:
...ver 2008 ? risultato pi? veloce dell?11-17% rispetto Windows Vista SP1.
L?articolo di Christian Mohn (System Administrator) ? meno tecnico, sono le sue considerazioni dopo aver concluso l?insta...
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Is Windows 2008 Server the savior for the Windows faithful? | Pack Rat Studios, on April 23, 2008 at 1:52pm, said:
... that probably falls at the graphics driver?s feet. The second article that caught my eye was Christian Mohn?s in which he explained his experience using Windows 2008 Server as a desktop OS.
From Christian Mohn...
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Jan Egil R, on April 24, 2008 at 11:05pm, said:
Hi!
I`ve also installed Windows Server 2008 on my T60 laptop, and everything works fine except bluetooth, which I`m unable to install the driver for.
Anyone got any luck regarding this?
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Jan Egil R, on April 24, 2008 at 11:15pm, said:
Here is the answer to get bluetooth working: Fn + F5 :)
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jason, on April 26, 2008 at 8:50pm, said:
has anyone had success with getting the bluetooth drivers working? They are enabled in the FN + F5 but have 3 devices showing as unknown in DM even with the thinkpad driver download and also tried the WIDCOMM drivers.
thanks for the original overview of 2008 on the T60. I am anxious to get a clean bill of health in the DM.
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jr, on April 27, 2008 at 8:54am, said:
has anyone been able to install Windows Live Services ? like Messenger?
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garry, on July 24, 2008 at 6:10pm, said:
Was anyone able to get the IBM Client Security Solution/Password Manager working? Looks like it recognizes the OS as a "server" and won't install.
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Christian Mohn, on July 25, 2008 at 12:05am, said:
@Gary: I haven't tried that on Windows 2008 server, at least not yet. :-)
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klimass, on August 7, 2008 at 11:14pm, said:
thanks man for the tutor, I was trying to run wireless all day, thanks a lot!!!
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Les, on August 18, 2008 at 5:59pm, said:
Is it necessary to run Enterprise Edition W2K8, or will Stanard Edition suffice for home user? I have 32-bit achitechture, Intel Core Duo 3.16Ghz, 4GB RAM, 1TB disk...
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Christian Mohn, on August 18, 2008 at 9:03pm, said:
@Les: No need for enterprise just to run it on a Laptop. :)
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Andrew, on October 30, 2008 at 4:10pm, said:
Christian,
I have the 64-bit 2008 Server installed as well, on pretty much the same machine (T60). Have you had any problems with your battery life? My battery meter would read, with a fully charged battery, 3:38 but after 25 minutes or so of browsing the web, it kicks into hibernation. When I resume, the battery would indicate
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Fifty, on November 12, 2008 at 8:06pm, said:
Hi,
i am trying to turn on desktop experience but i cant find it on de add features, to turn on the check box.
Im using Windows server 2008 HPC!
I want like you Aero function working!
Thanks
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GMan, on December 11, 2008 at 6:03pm, said:
Christian, to enable to have the Aero on Server 2008 you will need to set the "Themes" service to "Automatic" under and start the service under "Services".
Andrew, the battery issue is related to the Lenovo T60 Power Management Drive. There is a SYstem Update utility you can download from IBM. It's Call ThinkVantage System Update. It installs all the desider or latest and greatest.
For all you Windows Server 2008 I also found a way to add the Gadget Sidebar.
Let me know if you want me to post it.
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Anonymous, on March 29, 2009 at 7:28am, said:
I use Server x64 on my laptop, and am pretty happy with it.
You mention:
They have 36 features you can add, and they don't force you to disable the ones you don't need?
But the shutdown tracker is enabled by default and is awful annoying, first thing any desktop running windows server needs to do imo is disable that.
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GMKovach, on November 7, 2009 at 6:57am, said:
Hey! Just found this and it works great!...but...Has anyone gotten the ThinkVantage Update 3.14 working? It installs fine but it runs to about 10% then throws an error about gathering user info. I have .Net 1.1 Sp1 and the Thinkvantage Update patch installed. Any one have success with this?
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NewDeveloper, on January 22, 2010 at 8:41am, said:
I want to install Win server 2008 on my laptop for development. Is there inexpensive antiviris software out there?
I have a Dell 1737 with 4GB. will that be OK?
I need help and suggestions on how to do this. I am not a windows Developer and no nothing about what setting up the right laptop environment.
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Pablo, on February 1, 2010 at 2:22pm, said:
I just wanted to say thanks a lot. I was trying to configure a Windows 2008 R2 test server and couldn't get the wireless to work - even though I evenually managed to get a working driver. Adding the Wireless LAN "service" fixed my problem
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tsadigov, on February 27, 2010 at 9:53am, said:
Hi
im a software developer.I installed 2008 r2 on my laptop (i7 720qm, 6gb ram:1333) because I want my TFS server, our company uses svn and my mission is to use TFS to proove tham that it has far more features.
About winServer 2008 r2, the wireles thing made me crazy because I didnt know where look for the problem. For 2 days I had no internet at home. The diagnose should have told me the reason. I also could not install NET framework, then I fund that it is also a feature in ServerManager.
But anyway now Im working on in and its a good OS.
One problem I still have is Bluetooth. Is this a feature I need to enable.
its good
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Rashid Amin, on April 1, 2010 at 8:58am, said:
To answer you question: "Another factor here is
that I had the 32bit version of Vista installed, while I'm now running
64bit Server 2008. How much of a difference that really makes, I don't
know..."
It makes a HUGE difference. Just imagine, your entire OS is running on the 64-bit platform. 64 bit programs utilize the complete width of the 64bit CPU cycle while 32-bit programs only use half of that. So while your 32-bit programs will pretty much handle similarly or slightly faster (due to the faster 64bit OS handling encapsulation), your regular windows instructions and commands will be executed almost twice as fast minus overhead. I never understand why people are afraid to install the 64 bit versions of the servers and workstations. One of the most fundamental features of 64-bit hardware is backwards compatibility. So while 32-bit programs will not take full advantage of the instruction cycles, they will all work...
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blog.nhaslam.com | Using Windows Server 2008 as a Desktop OS… , on May 20, 2010 at 3:55pm, said:
...ed in Vista is sitting at around 950mb, Server 2008 is sitting around the 800mb mark. Related Links http://h0bbel.p0ggel.org/windows-server-2008-as-desktop-laptop-os http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1218 ...
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