Get the Windows Server 2008 Workstation Converter

• Download Serv08Convert10.zip (11.2MB)
• View previous versions.

Support & Suggestions

• On this page (http://converter.win2008workstation.com/) using comments.
• At the Forums in the ‘Windows Server 2008 Workstation Converter’ section.
• By contacting sawo via email: sawo.777 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Features of the Converter

General

Visual Tweaks

Network

Games

Other

Delay Activation

Possible commandline parameters

-audio      Enable windows audio
-cpu        Optimize CPU performance for programs
-ie         Disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration
-dotnet     Install .NET Framework 3.0
-superfetch Enable SuperFetch
-desktop    Install desktop experience
-themes     Enable themes
-cad        Disable CTRL+ALT+DEL at Startup
-events     Disable shutdown event tracker
-name       Change computer name
-wireless   Enable wireless networking
-offline    Enable offline files
-search     Enable windows search service
-autologin  Enable auto logon
-delay      Delay activation
-check      Check the remaining days left until activation
-uxtheme32  Apply the UxTheme Patch for 32bit systems
-uxtheme64  Apply the UxTheme Patch for 64bit systems
-sidebar32  Install the sidebar for 32bit systems.
-sidebar64  Install the sidebar for 64bit systems.
-joy32      Install the control panel item for game controllers on 32bit systems.
-joy64      Install the control panel item for game controllers on 64bit systems.
-cursors    Install the vista aero cursors.

More information can be found in Readme.txt and Changelog.txt.

1. Open the Start menu and click Run. Now enter SystemPropertiesPerformance and click OK. In the Performance Options window at least check the Show thumbnails instead of icons option. If you are using themes you should also check the Use visual styles on windows and buttons option to keep you theme.

2. If we now browse to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpapers\ as a test we can see that we now have previews for pictures! Previews should also work for most movie files. Note that you have to set the View to Small Icons, Medium Icons, Large Icons or Extra Large Icons in order to see the previews.

1. To get the Game Controllers item in your Control Panel download joy_32bit.zip from FreeUNH.org, unlimitednethosting.com, rapidshare or megaupload if you are using the x86 version of Windows or joy_64bit.zip from FreeUNH.org, unlimitednethosting.com, rapidshare or megaupload if you are using the x64 version. These files are taken from respectively a clean installation of Windows Vista Ultimate x86 and Windows Vista Ultimate x64. The .cpl files of Windows Vista don’t work.

2. Right click joy_32bit.zip or joy_64bit.zip and choose Extract All in the context menu. Choose as destination C:\Windows and optionally uncheck Show extracted files when complete. Click Extract and choose Yes when asked if you want to merge the System32 (and SysWOW64 in x64) folder.

3. In the Start menu click Control Panel.

- If you use the Modern View, click the Hardware and Sound section and choose Set up USB game controllers.

- If you use the Classic View, doubleclick the Game Controllers icon.

4. Configure your game controller and play!

Thanks to microslav for this nice trick and Mark for the files!

1. Download aero_cursors.zip from FreeUNH.org, unlimitednethosting.com, Win2008Workstation, rapidshare, megaupload or 4shared.

2. Open aero_cursors.zip and browse within the archive to the folder cursors. Within the cursors folder select all files by pressing ctrl+A, click with your right mouse button on the selection and select Copy.

3. Browse with Windows Explorer to C:\Windows\Cursors and click Paste in the Edit menu. All Aero cursors will now be unpacked to your system.

4. Go to the root of the aero_cursors.zip archive and double click at the aero_cursors(.reg) file. Click Yes when the Registry Import warning appears.

5. In the Start menu click Control Panel.

- If you use the Modern View, click Mouse in the Hardware and Sound section.

- If you use the Classic View, doubleclick the Mouse icon.

In the Mouse Properties window click tab Pointers, select Windows Aero from the Scheme dropdown list. Optionally you can also check the Enable pointer shadow.

6. Enjoy the smooth looking mouse pointers and cursor animations!

1. First you have to download the language pack. Download the language packs via the following direct links or from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e9f6f200-cfaf-4516-8e96-e4d4750397ff.

Windows Server 2008 x86 (32bit)
English, German, Japanese, French, Spanish
6001.18000.080118-1840_x86fre_Server_LP_1-KRMSLP1_DVD.img

Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil)
6001.18000.080118-1840_x86fre_Server_LP_2-KRMSLP2_DVD.img

Italian, Russian, Portuguese (Portugal), Dutch, Swedish
6001.18000.080118-1840_x86fre_Server_LP_4-KRMSLP4_DVD.img

Polish, Turkish, Czech, Hungarian
6001.18000.080118-1840_x86fre_Server_LP_5-KRMSLP5_DVD.img

Arabic, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hebrew, Greek, Thai, Ukrainian, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian Latin, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian
6001.18000.080118-1840_x86fre_Server_LP_6-KRMSLP6_DVD.img

Windows Server 2008 x64 (64bit)
English, German, Japanese, French, Spanish
6001.18000.080118-1840_amd64fre_Server_LP_1-KRMSLPX1_DVD.img

Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil)
6001.18000.080118-1840_amd64fre_Server_LP_2-KRMSLPX2_DVD.img

Italian, Russian, Portuguese (Portugal), Dutch, Swedish
6001.18000.080118-1840_amd64fre_Server_LP_4-KRMSLPX4_DVD.img

Polish, Turkish, Czech, Hungarian
6001.18000.080118-1840_amd64fre_Server_LP_5-KRMSLPX5_DVD.img

Arabic, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hebrew, Greek, Thai, Ukrainian, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian Latin, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian
6001.18000.080118-1840_amd64fre_Server_LP_6-KRMSLPX6_DVD.img

2. Mount the downloaded .img (cd image) with cd emulation software like Daemon Tools. (Rightclick the Daemon Tools icon in the Systray -> Virtual CD/DVD-ROM -> Device 0: [E:] Empty -> Click Mount Image. In the Files of type dropdown list select All Files (*.*), then select your languagepack.img file)

3. In the Start menu click Control Panel.

- If you use the Modern View click Change Display Language in the Clock, Language and Region section.

- If you use the Classic View, doubleclick Regional and Language Options and go to tab Keyboards and Languages.

Click the Install/uninstall languages button.

4. At the Install or Uninstall Display Languages page click Install Languages.

5. At the Select the languages to install page click Browse and browse in your Virtual CD/DVD-ROM device to the folder langpacks. Click the language you want to install and click Select Folder.

6. Verify the language you want to install and click Next.

7. Review the Microsoft Software License Terms. If you accept them select I accept the license terms and click Next.

8. Click the Install button!

9. Get a cup of coffee while installing, it will take a while.

10. After the installation has finished you can optionally directly change your own language to the one you installed and also apply it for all other accounts on this computer.

11. I love my native language!

Prerequisite: You must have the Desktop Experience feature installed.

1. Download and install the appropriate version of Windows Mobile Device Center from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx. This doesn’t have to do with any Windows Mobile device, but it is needed to get the Sync Center option in the Control Panel.

Note: If you haven’t installed the Desktop Experience feature before you install Windows Mobile Device Center, you will get the error: The Update could not be installed because at least one Windows component required by Windows Mobile Device Center is missing.

2. In the Start menu click Control Panel.

- If you use the Modern View, click the Network and Internet section and click Enable offline Files.

- If you use the Classic View, doubleclick the Offline Files icon.

In the Offline Files window click Enable Offline Files to start using offline files.

3. Close the Enable Offline Files window by clicking OK and choose Yes when asked if you want to restart your Computer.

4. After the restart go to the networking folder you want to make offline available, right click on it and select Always Available Offline. A local copy will now be made.

5. Now you can work on the files, even if the laptop is disconnected!

How to create .reg files

1. To create a .reg file from the following registry values, choose Run from the Start menu, enter notepad and click OK.

2. Copy the contents of a Registry Tweak block from this page and paste it into notepad.

3. In the File menu click Save, and browse to the folder you want to save the file. Use as File Name myregfile.reg and select All Files in the Save as type dropdown box. Now click Save.

4. Browse to the folder where you saved the .reg file in and Doubleclick it. If you get a confirmation, click Yes to import the file into your registry!

Registry Tweaks

Shutdown Event Tracker

Disable Ctrl+Alt+Del

Performance for Programs

Enable SuperFetch Service

If you import this registry file you can skip step 1-4 on the Enabling SuperFetch page.

Prevent Stuttering Sound

If SystemResponsiveness is set to 100 (default in Server 2008), it means that all processes are given a higher priority than multimedia. In Windows Vista the default value is 20. This is a addition to the article Enable Sound Acceleration.

If you don’t know what to do with this Registry Tweaks, read How to create reg files!

Thanks to EarthQ for the registry keys!

In this tutorial I will describe a 32bit and a 64bit installation.

Windows Server 2008 32bit

1. For the 32bit edition of Windows Server 2008 download gameux_32bit.zip from FreeUNH.org, unlimitednethosting.com, Rapidshare, Megaupload or 4Shared and extract the file gameux.dll to C:\Windows\System32\.

2. After extraction of the 32bit gameux.dll, register the file by running regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\gameux.dll in Start -> Run.

Windows Server 2008 64bit

1. If you use the 64bit edition of Windows Server 2008, download gameux_64bit.zip from FreeUNH.org, unlimitednethosting.com, Rapidshare, Megaupload or 4Shared and extract the gameux.dll in the folder System32 to C:\Windows\System32\ and the file gameux.dll in the folder SysWOW64 to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\.

2. After the extraction of the two gameux.dll files to the System32 and SysWOW64 folders, register the two .dll’s by running the command regsvr32 C:\Windows\System32\gameux.dll C:\Windows\SysWOW64\gameux.dll.

Now the games that need gameux.dll won’t complain about it any longer!

In this tutorial we will leave Data Execution Prevention only enabled for essential Windows programs and services. All programs and games you install won’t use DEP anymore. As an example I show you how I fixed Dungeon Siege II, but this works for applications and other games too!

Example of crashing game “Dungeon Siege II” before disabling DEP

1. Open the Start menu, right click at Computer and select Properties in the context menu.

2. On the left below Tasks click Advanced system settings. In the Performance section click Settings. After that the window Performance Options shows up, go to the tab Data Execution Prevention, select Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only and click OK.Click OK when you are notified that you need to restart your computer.

3. Restart your computer and probably you can now play your favourite game or run the program that didn’t work before!

Game is now working! As you see I only didn’t insert the game disk.

Patching msi packages can be done either manually or automatically.

Manually

1. Create a new folder somewhere on your harddisk, select all files from the UT3 dvd and copy them to the newly created folder.

2. Download the Orca MSI Editor from FreeUNH.org, unlimitednethosting.com, Rapidshare, Megaupload or 4Shared, and install the tool.

3. Right click on the Unreal Tournament 3.msi setup file in the folder you copied the UT3 dvd files to, and click Edit with Orca.

4. In the Orca MSI Editor click the table LaunchCondition on the left, next right click the condition that was preventing us from installing UT3 and click Drop Row. Click OK when asked if you want to continue.

5. Now save the change by clicking Save in the File menu. You can close the Orca MSI Editor now.

6. Launch the Installation of Unreal Tournament 3 by double clicking SetupUT3.exe from the installation folder of UT3 on your harddisk.

7. Play UT3!

Automatically

Thanks to Sky_Dynasty for the tip!

1. Download MSI File Install Fixer.zip from Win2008Workstation or MSI File Install Fixer.rar from MediaFire.

2. Read the ReadMe.txt inside the archive.

3. (Hopefully) install the game or application!

Installation

To install Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 64bit, do the following steps:

1. Start the Server Manager by clicking the Server Manager icon in the systray, or the Server Manager shortcut in directly the Start menu or in the menu Administrative Tools.

2. In the Server Manager click below the category Roles Summary on Add Roles.

3. At the Before You Begin page click Next.

4. Check the Hyper-V role and click Next.

5. Review the introduction and notes and click Next.

6. At the Create Virtual Network page check your internet connection network card to have internet in your virtual pc’s, or leave it to leave your virtual pc’s offline. Then click Next.

7. Review the roles to install and your settings, then click Next.

8. After installing the Hyper-V serverrole, click Yes to restart your computer.

9. After the computer has restarted the Hyper-V setup will be completed. After the installation has completed click Close to finish the wizard.

10. To create, start and configure virtual pc’s go to the Server Manager as described in step 1, expand Roles -> Hyper-V -> Microsoft Hyper-V Servers and finally click your computername.

My own Hyper-V installation

My Hardware: Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 Motherboard with DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU.

Directly after the Hyper-V Serverrole installation had finished I tried starting a virtual machine, but got the message “The virtual machine could not be started because the hypervisor is not running.”. I looked this error up on the internet, and it came out that I had an old version of my bios software (< stepping 3). Your processor needs at least stepping 3 to run Hyper-V. To check which stepping you currently have download and run CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.com/.

To upgrade the bios I went to the support site of my motherboard and downloaded the newest version of my bios. First I created a Windows startup disk. After creating the startup disk I extracted the files m56ss3.f4e and FLASH895.EXE to that floppy. Next I rebooted my pc and booted up from the floppy. After the I got the command prompt of the startup disk I entered the following command flash895 m56ss3.f4e to upgrade my bios software. After the upgrade had completed I reset the pc, went to the bios and Enabled hardware virtualization.

“Now my Hyper-V MUST work” I thought, but after clicking Start of a Virtual Machine I again got the message “The virtual machine could not be started because the hypervisor is not running.”!! I did some research, and I found that the hypervisor was not added to my Boot Environment. To add the hypervisor to the boot environment start the command prompt and enter the following command: BCDEdit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto. After you get response “The operation completed successfully.”, reboot your system and Hyper-V should work now! If not, take a look in your Hyper-V Event Viewer (See Troubleshooting) and try to find out what the problem is.

Troubleshooting

Question: How can I see if my CPU supports Virtualization?

Answer: Download the tool SecurAble and look if your processor supports 64bit, Hardware DEP and Hardware Virtualization.

Question: After creating a new Virtual Machine in the Hyper-V section in the Server Manager and clicking Start, I get the error message: “The virtual machine could not be started because the hypervisor is not running.”

Answer: The Hyper-V hypervisor needs to be running. If it isn’t running there are probably errors when starting the service. Errors of the Hyper-V Server Role can be found in the Server Manager under Diagnostics -> Event Viewer -> Custom Views -> Server Roles -> Microsoft Hyper-V. Search the error messages at google or in the Server Virtualization section at the Technet Forums.

References

• Server Virtualization at Microsoft Technet Forums
• …

1. Start the Server Manager by clicking the Server Manager icon in the systray, or the Server Manager shortcut in directly the Start menu or in the menu Administrative Tools.

2. In the Server Manager click below the category Roles Summary on Add Roles.

3. Click Next in the Before You Begin screen.

4. In the Select Server Roles screen check File Services, then click Next.

5. You can eventually read the Introduction to File Services, and click Next.

6. Select the Windows Search Service in the Role Services list. You can optionally uncheck the File Server role.

7. Select your setting for the volumes you want to index.

8. At the Confirm Installation Selections page click Install to start the installation of the Windows Search Service role.

9. After the installation has finished click Close. The Windows Search service has now automatically be started and will be indexing your system during idle time!

The answer is clear: Windows Server 2008 has almost exactly the same features as Windows Vista (SP1), but is remarkably faster and more stable! People say: “It’s Windows Vista without the bloat“!

Here are four great benchmarks about Windows Vista (SP1) versus Windows Server 2008:

• exo.blog: Windows “Workstation” 2008 - Vista Done Right?
• WastingTimeWithMikeAndAri: Windows Server 2008 10% faster, uses 2/3 the ram of Vista
• Jayson Rowe’s Ramblings blog: Windows Server 2008 “Workstation” Take 3
• Article from PC Games Hardware Magazine (German): DirectX 10 ohne Vista (rapidshare/pdf)

Beside the speed, Windows Server 2008 also includes:

• Microsoft Internet Information Services 7: Fully featured webserver;
• Hyper-V: Virtualization integrated in the Operating System.
• Terminal Services: Work with multiple users simultaneously on one fast PC.
• Much more!

Install Windows Server 2008 Now!!

Wish List

Method 1: Windows Update

1. The easiest way to get drivers is to open up the “Windows Update” application in Windows Vista / Server 2008 by clicking Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Update. In the upper left of the Windows Update window click Check for updates, and wait until the search has finished.

2. Click the View available updates link to look if there are drivers for your devices.

3. If there are (newer versions of) drivers available they will be listed here. Check the boxes if they are not already checked and click Install at the bottom right to install the updates and device drivers if available. In my case no drivers are available.

Method 2: Manually download them

To visit the manufacturer for drivers you first have to know information about the hardware that isn’t installed yet. To view the drivers you still need open the Server Manager by right clicking on Computer, and clicking Manage. In the Server Manager expand Diagnostics and click Device Manager. The Windows Device Manager probably won’t tell much more about the unknown devices than Audio Device or even Unknown Device.

1. To find out what the real names of the devices are first go to download and install the tool Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition from the Lavalys website or download.com.

2. After you installed Everest, start the program. Now you can look for two things: the exact type of your motherboard (2a), and the the devices that are not installed yet (2b). The best is to install the drivers for your motherboard first.

2a. Motherboard: To view the exact type of your motherboard, expand Motherboard and click Motherboard to view its name. For the motherboard there is often an url to go to the product page of the manufacturer. On this page search for links like downloads/drivers/support and download the Windows Vista drivers.

2b. Other devices: To view which devices you haven’t installed yet expand Devices and click Windows Devices for devices you attached to your motherboard. When you click an unknown device you will see the device name and manufacturer most times. Search with your favorite search engine for the manufacturer and/or device name and look for the Windows Vista drivers. In this screenshot I the SM Bus Controller driver isn’t installed.

3. After you downloaded the drivers you can install the drivers in two ways: Automatically (3a) or Manually (3b).

3a. Automatically: You can install the drivers automatically by just following the instructions and installation files in the driver package. There is not much more to say about.

3b. Manually:

1. Sometimes manually installing the drivers just don’t work because the installer is not packed in a compression that is readable by WinRAR (download from http://www.rarlabs.com/), but if it is possible extract the driver package with WinRAR by right clicking on the file you downloaded, then choosing extract to name subfolder.

2. Open the Device Manager in the Server Manager like described on the top of this page and double click the unknown device. Change your view to tab Driver, and click Update Driver. (Here I just selected the networking card that is already installed because I don’t have any not installed devices, but it’s almost the same procedure.)

3. Choose Browse my computer for driver software if you are asked how to search for driver software.

4. Click browse and select the driver folder in the folder you extracted in step 1.

5. Click Next so Windows will search the folder including subfolders for drivers.

6. If the right driver is found it will be installed immediately. After the installation has finished click the Close button. Now your driver is installed!

Method 4: Ma-Config.com

(thanks Valorisa)

The website in this method is french, but that won’t be a problem if you just click the right links/buttons!

1. Start Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to the url http://ma-config.com/accueil.html and click Démarrer la détection (Start Detection).

2. At the Installation du Plug-in HardwareDetection page Installation automatique (automatic installation). When asked to install the ActiveX control, accept the security warning by clicking Install.

3. In the Installation de logiciel “Ma-Config.com” window click Suivant (Next). Select Standard as mode d’installation (installation type) and click Suivant. Choose the location to install and click Suivant again. Start the installation by clicking Installer (install). After the setup has finished, click Terminer (End). The driver detection will now start. - If the driver detection crashes, just use this url in stead of the url in step 1 to get it working. (at least, that worked for me!) -

3. After the detection has completed a list of devices will be shown. If drivers are available click in the right corner beside the magnifying glass at Télécharger mes drivers (Download my drivers). At this page you can download the drivers you want by clicking at Télécharger (Download) behind the green arrow.

4. In the window that opens next scroll down till you see the title Téléchargement. Click the picture of the hard disk and you got your driver! You can now install them either automatically or manually using the instructions in Method 2.

5. After you installed all drivers you can remove the ActiveX control by clicking Control Panel in the Start menu, opening Programs and Features, and double clicking Ma-Config.com.

Method 5: DriverAgent.com

If the three other methods didn’t work or if you just don’t want to try them, visit the website http://www.driveragent.com/, click the Scan Now button and install the plugin when asked. Your computer hardware will now be examined to check if there are drivers available for your specific operating system/architecture. The disadvantage is that, if there are drivers, you need to pay for an account in order to download the drivers. That’s why I added this as the last solution for driver problems.

1. Download GTA2DirectXFix.zip from Win2008Workstation, RapidShare or MegaUpload.

2. Open the .zip, select dmusic(.inf) and dmusic.dll, right click and choose Copy.

3. Open an Explorer Window and browse to C:\Windows\System32. Right click at a white spot in the screen and choose Paste.

4. Scroll to the file dmusic(.inf), right click the file and choose Install. Now play GTA2!

If games won’t install because the installation says your Operating System is not supported, the article Installing Unreal Tournament 3 might help you. If you have problems with crashing games or applications take a look at the Disable Data Execution Prevention article. When you get the message gameux.dll is missing, read the tutorial Missing gameux.dll. To get your Game Controller working read the Game Controllers tutorial!

Games Compatibility