Windows 2008 R2 as a Desktop OS
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Hi Has anyone experimented with using Windows 2008 R2 as a Desktop OS? Just wondering as I need to build myself a development Machine, but also want the ability to run my games and "relaxation items" when I want to.. Does Windows 2008 R2 Come with all the standard windows stuff such as DirectX/Audio/Graphics but just disabled? JC
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Hi Has anyone experimented with using Windows 2008 R2 as a Desktop OS? Just wondering as I need to build myself a development Machine, but also want the ability to run my games and "relaxation items" when I want to.. Does Windows 2008 R2 Come with all the standard windows stuff such as DirectX/Audio/Graphics but just disabled? JC
You probably could get away with it, but; a) some game installers might not accept the os b) do you really want your games risking the stability of your dev machine? I think it would be better to chuck in a second hard disk and dual boot, and have win7 as the second os (that would also then give you a second test platform for any client side apps.
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Hi Has anyone experimented with using Windows 2008 R2 as a Desktop OS? Just wondering as I need to build myself a development Machine, but also want the ability to run my games and "relaxation items" when I want to.. Does Windows 2008 R2 Come with all the standard windows stuff such as DirectX/Audio/Graphics but just disabled? JC
Yes it does, but you may still be disappointed: Although all the internals come from the same base source, a large number of internal tuning parameters are pre-set to different values, which don't favour the interactive user. The most obvious one is the standard thread timeslice, which is a lot longer on server than on workstation. This result in interactive operations feeling less 'responsive' than on workstation. Another obvious one is the working set tuning algorithm, which on server is much more conservative than on workstation. This results in server being very good at 'static' services, but it can take seconds to start a new process and settle down to a steady state. A lot of Microsoft utilities can also not be installed on server (Media Center, anyone?), and this is also the case for a lot of third party utilities which will often require a (costly) server license on server, while being free or cheap for workstation usage. If you want to use server, I'd advise to set up multiple boot configurations (for example by booting off a vhd for server, all your disks will still be available), or to run server in a VM. Graphics performance will still be crap in server, but that's not what you use server for, eh?
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Yes it does, but you may still be disappointed: Although all the internals come from the same base source, a large number of internal tuning parameters are pre-set to different values, which don't favour the interactive user. The most obvious one is the standard thread timeslice, which is a lot longer on server than on workstation. This result in interactive operations feeling less 'responsive' than on workstation. Another obvious one is the working set tuning algorithm, which on server is much more conservative than on workstation. This results in server being very good at 'static' services, but it can take seconds to start a new process and settle down to a steady state. A lot of Microsoft utilities can also not be installed on server (Media Center, anyone?), and this is also the case for a lot of third party utilities which will often require a (costly) server license on server, while being free or cheap for workstation usage. If you want to use server, I'd advise to set up multiple boot configurations (for example by booting off a vhd for server, all your disks will still be available), or to run server in a VM. Graphics performance will still be crap in server, but that's not what you use server for, eh?
Michel Godfroid wrote:
a large number of internal tuning parameters are pre-set to different values
Interesting! Are these accessible somewhere? Marc
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Hi Has anyone experimented with using Windows 2008 R2 as a Desktop OS? Just wondering as I need to build myself a development Machine, but also want the ability to run my games and "relaxation items" when I want to.. Does Windows 2008 R2 Come with all the standard windows stuff such as DirectX/Audio/Graphics but just disabled? JC
I used Windows Server 2008 as a desktop OS on my second machine (actually it's still on there). Most of the standard stuff is indeed there but disabled, and what isn't you can generally get off the CD or get elsewhere (with some exceptions in the MS media utils dept). I did find that it was quite a bit of work to change all those settings though (everything from audio/video/UI to background services to tuning and CPU), and with Win7 vs 2008 R2, and you can pretty much forget about free antivirus on a server machine. Most things you can do on R2 you can do on 7, plus 7 is actually quite stable (unlike Vista in my experience), so unless you have specific things in mind that are truly server specific, you're IMO better off starting with Win7 and adapting it as needed.
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Hi Has anyone experimented with using Windows 2008 R2 as a Desktop OS? Just wondering as I need to build myself a development Machine, but also want the ability to run my games and "relaxation items" when I want to.. Does Windows 2008 R2 Come with all the standard windows stuff such as DirectX/Audio/Graphics but just disabled? JC
Install the Windows 7 on the box and then setup VM using VistualBox for Windows Server 2008 R2. Start playing games and when you feel like developing something start the VM. :)
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Michel Godfroid wrote:
a large number of internal tuning parameters are pre-set to different values
Interesting! Are these accessible somewhere? Marc
Did some research, and it seems Microsoft has actually removed a lot of the differences between server and workstation versions for server 2008 x64 and server 2008 R2. Many differences were there to accommodate for the 'contrived' memory management on 32 bit systems (stuff like how registry hives were mapped in the paged pool to support multiple logged-on users). Since 2008R2 runs only in 64 bit mode, a lot of the difference has disappeared. The primary build for windows nowadays is actually the 64-bit MinWin kernel, which is identical on 7 and 2008R2. The big difference which is still there is the cpu quantum per thread (short variable on 7, long fixed on R2), but you can change this setting quite easily. ACPI sleep states are also not supported on server, so running it on a laptop is a pain. Of course, configuring server to look and act like 7 involves enabling and tweaking a load of settings. The one thing you NEVER, ever want to do is enabling the Hyper-V role on a desktop system on which you intend to do some gaming and graphics (and since Aero and WPF are graphics intensive, this nowadays means virtually everything). The problem is explained here[^], and it does not seem like it will go away soon (gaming is not really a priority for the server team). Read horror stories here[^].
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I used Windows Server 2008 as a desktop OS on my second machine (actually it's still on there). Most of the standard stuff is indeed there but disabled, and what isn't you can generally get off the CD or get elsewhere (with some exceptions in the MS media utils dept). I did find that it was quite a bit of work to change all those settings though (everything from audio/video/UI to background services to tuning and CPU), and with Win7 vs 2008 R2, and you can pretty much forget about free antivirus on a server machine. Most things you can do on R2 you can do on 7, plus 7 is actually quite stable (unlike Vista in my experience), so unless you have specific things in mind that are truly server specific, you're IMO better off starting with Win7 and adapting it as needed.
That was my only negative experience using 2008 R2 as a desktop machine, my previous dev machine.