Microsoft has an obsession with providing awesome deals for students. They also have a slight tendency to shoot themselves in the feet. This is a good amount of both, and thankfully (if you’re a student), it’s in your favor.
Microsoft created the DreamSpark program to give such awesome tools as Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 Professional Edition free to budding Computer Science and Information Technology students with a Windows Live ID. Now, here’s where the fun begins:
Sometime last year, Microsoft added Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition R2 licenses to the DreamSpark program. Even later, they added Windows Server 2008 x86 Standard Edition licenses. Coupled with Vijayshinva Karnure’s step-by-step guide to converting Windows Server 2008 into the ultimate desktop OS published in February of ‘08 on his MSDN blog, the non-technical masses now have themselves a fully functional, relatively-easy-to-configure OS that’s more powerful and more advanced than Windows Vista. Granted, “easy to configure” doesn’t mean “easier to configure than Windows Vista,” nor do you get to have the Windows Media Center, but there’s sadly always a price to pay for FREE. Given a choice between Windows Vista SP1 upgrade for ~65 dollars and Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition for free, which would you choose?
As for the steps provided, I’m not sure if the academic license of Windows Server 2008 allows for Hyper-V, so if you don’t care for Hyper-V support (as instructed in Vijayshinva’s post) or for running any virtual PCs, you can skip steps 1 and 10 on the guide.
The next question: Does Microsoft even support converting the server OS into a workstation/desktop OS? Yep, and not just because of Vijayshinva’s post, but that alone would be a justification for the following reason:
All opinions posted here are those of the author and are in no way intended to represent those of his employer. All posts are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
-Every MSDN, Technet, and other individual Microsoft employee blog.
Microsoft doesn’t endorse the opinions of its employees, but Microsoft does fully endorse any factual matters being discussed regarding its products, including step-by-step guides, support… anything of a non-opinionated nature which doesn’t involve compromising its products (like hex edits). Is this a technical loophole? Sure, but there’s a second, much better reason for Microsoft to support converting Windows Server 2008 into a desktop operating system: The “Desktop Experience” feature.
The Desktop Experience feature was added to Windows Server 2008 in part because of the absurdly high number of requests Microsoft received from small businesses running a server as someone’s desktop machine (plausible in smaller networks where extra server hardware would be cost-prohibitive). The process for turning Windows Server 2003 into a more desktop-worthy operating system was a bit of a pain, so the desktop experience feature was simply intended to make it a bit easier to implement this usage scenario. It’s fully supported by Microsoft.
Now here’s where the DreamSpark deal beats The Ultimate Steal: unlike The Ultimate Steal (which is limited to university students), high school students can also take advantage of DreamSpark. So, if you’re a student at just about any university or high school, go ahead and nab yourself a copy and save 65 dollars. This is probably the only thing available on DreamSpark which is highly relevant to people who aren’t developers.
(If Microsoft decides to take down the steps, which I highly doubt, you can catch the full instructions on converting Windows Server 2008 from a barebones server operating system to a desktop operating system after the break.)
from Vijayshinva Karnure’s MSDN blog:
1. Enable Hardware Virtualization
My workstation is a x64 machine with hardware virtualization capabilities. This means I can run Hyper-V on my machine. Even if your machine’s hardware supports virtualization it is most likely not going to be enabled by default. You have to enable it via your BIOS setup.
2. Install the latest Graphics and Audio drivers
Being a server OS Windows 2008 carries with it basic graphics and audio drivers. To utilize the full strength of your hardware ensure you install the latest drivers for both graphics and audio hardware. Only with the proper graphics drivers will you be able to enable the "Aero" experience on Windows 2008.
3. Desktop Experience Feature
The Desktop Experience Feature enables a bunch of stuff that is by default present on a desktop OS. Most importantly it includes Themes, Windows Media player and the Aero related features. You will have to enable it form the Server Manager. The "Turn Windows features on or off" / "Add remove windows components" has all been rolled into the Server Manager now.
Server Manager > Features > Desktop Experience
Installing the Desktop Experience feature does not enable them. You have to manually set them up.
4. Themes
To enable Themes you will basically have to enable the Themes Service. Again being a server OS it is not enabled by default.
Services.MSC > Themes
Set the start up type to Automatic
Enabling the Aero Theme.
For this go to Control Panel > Personalization >Theme and select Windows Aero
5. Search
Search is also disabled by default on Windows 2008. Searching is important for me as I use it a lot to find my emails. To enable search you will have to add the File Services Role via Server Manager.
Server Manager > Roles > File Services > Windows Search
Outlook relies on this search service.
6. Disable Shutdown Event Tracker
Since I am using it as a workstation I do not want to keep a track of all the Shutdowns. The Shutdown Event Tracker is the pop up that you get asking you for a shutdown reason. To disable it
Open mmc.msc
Add the Group Policy snap-in
Under Administrative Templates expand System
Set Display Shutdown Event Tracer to Disabled
7. Audio
For audio you need to enable the Windows Audio service. You do this by setting the startup type to Automatic.
Services.msc > Windows Audio
Ensure you have proper drivers for your audio hardware… for me the default driver was not enabling the headphones … it started working fine after I got the proper driver.
8. SuperFetch
As a workstation, enabling SupertFetch will give you that additional bit of responsiveness. The SuperFetch services is disabled by default and when you try to enable it you will most likely ge
t an error message "The operating system is not presently configured to run this application"You will have to make two registry changes to enable this service. I basically copied them over from my Vista machine.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
EnablePrefetcher DWORD 3
EnableSuperfetch DWORD 3
9. Get a codec pack.
For media hungry buffs download a codec pack. This will ensure you can play all media files.
10. Enable Hyper-V
With Hyper-V you can run virtual machines on your workstation. This is useful if you want to run your tests on older OS versions. Enabling Hyper-V is easy
Server Manager > Roles > Hyper-V
Remember you need a Hyper-V enabled Windows 2008 licence and also your hardware has to support virtualization.
Also If you are using an existing VHD it may ask you to re-Activate Windows as it detected hardware changes.
One good thing about Windows Server 2008 is that it no longer asks for the i386 folder like Windows 2003 while you enable features.
Follow Bryant on Twitter! 
Holly sh!! And it’s worldwide. o_o
Definitely, I have to stop playing with computers and start studying. =P
[...] edition also makes the process seem more philanthropic by attributing funds to the AIDS cause. But as Bryant points out, via the DreamSpark program, you can get the server alternative to Vista, Windows Server 2008 [...]
“Microsoft has an obsession with providing awesome deals for students”
This is cool, but don’t overdo it or you’ll get a headache.
How do I verify that I’m from my high school? It’s not on the list, and we’re not given an access code.
Karl…This is my first time on this website, since I have a mostly Linux and RTOS background. But you are highly obnoxious and seem to have plenty of free time to waste. Maybe instead you should focus on a career and hobbies that might be productive. Thanks.
Actually, I’ve been a member of staff for this community for ages. Then I left, but I still drop by very, very, very infrequently.
Bryant knows I’m just kidding around though. Don’t take it too seriously, because then it’s you who appear obnoxious.
[...] For those who don’t know, DreamSpark throws free software at students (after verifying their student-hood, of course). I previously wrote about using DreamSpark to get and use a free OS in place of Vista over here. [...]