My system was getting a bit slow lately which started to rub me the wrong way. I upgraded my system a few months ago (Asus P5N32-Sli with E6600 Core2Duo, 2x2048MB DDR2 memory and a GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB) so there isn’t a single reason for my system to be sluggish except for the fact that there is just way to much software on it.
Since my Windows XP installation (32-bits) doesn’t support my 4GB ram fully and the fact that I always deploy my software on Windows 2003 machines (IIS6), I decided to just migrate to Windows 2003 for my reinstall.
So, after installing Windows 2003, I moved to my software checklist for my must have tools.
- Daemon-Tools
- Let’s me mount my MSDN images to install most of my software. Just make sure you pay attention during install so you don't install an annoying toolbar.
- EditPlus2
- WinRAR
- VLC
- No messing around with codes, this video player has it all. I always have video playing on my HDTV while working, and this is my weapon of choice when playing video files. I only use Windows Media Player for .wmv files, which performs just a bit better in Windows Media Player.
- Windows Live Messenger
- My way of staying in touch with friends and colleagues
- Office 2003
- My favorite installment of the MS Office series. I probably won’t upgrade to 2007 the next few years if it were up to me.
- Visual Studio 2005
- I still do most of the work in my Visual Studio 2005, even though I want to move on to Visual Studio 2008 for my 2.0 (web)applications, on my last install I kept having crashes in Visual Studio 2008 so I decided to keep old ’05 just in case.
- Visual Studio 2008
- I love TLINQ (LINQ to SQL) and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), even though I don’t create my enterprise applications on 3.5 yet, playing around gets me ready for the future.
- Visual Studio 2005 SP1
- An essential for creating large solutions with Visual Studio 2005. Had a lot of problems before this SP. It still isn’t perfect performance and stability wise, but it’s the best out there, so I’ll have to make due.
- SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
- Essential for local creation and testing before moving to production
While installing the above list (which I have done lots and lots of times before on Windows XP), I ran into some weird problems that I did not expect or have experienced before on Windows XP.
When I tried to install Windows Live Messenger (http://get.live.com/messenger/overview), the setup told me Windows Live Messenger was not supported on the Windows Server platforms! This would be a big problem since I really can’t go without it nowadays to keep up with my contacts.
I have found that Windows Live Messenger 8.0 does support Windows Server 2003, so I just went on and got that version here. This worked without a hitch so if you experience similar problems, this might help you.
The second problem was with the Visual Studio 2005 SP1 update. It’s a monster, not only in size, but it takes at least 30 minutes on even the toughest machines. It’s also infamous for its somewhat crappy pre-install checks (disk space requirements are off, which can cause you to have to reinstall Visual Studio 2005 or even your entire OS). The error was along the lines of “Error 1718. File was rejected by digital signature policy”. After following the link that was given, I downloaded and installed KB925336, which seems to have something to do with the MSI package taking up more virtual memory then is allowed. This kind off makes sense since it is almost 500MB in size. Be sure to reboot after a failed install, the install won’t work if you don’t reboot.
Now that those problems are taken care of, I’m ready to set up the rest like my mail, etc.
Once everything is up and running the way I want it, I’ll continue with redesigning nickkusters.com since a lot of people have complained that the site is not useable for people with lower resolution monitors (I love my 22” Samsung 225bw with 1680x1050 resolution), the fact that people cannot respond to articles directly and that the feedback form doesn’t have allow multi-line responses.
Update:
It turns out nVidia doesn't offer a driver for their GeForce 8 series on Windows Server 2003 32-bits version, just for the x64 version. I tried a different driver, but this caused Windows to freeze up.
I'm a bit unsure of what to do, I made a system backup before reinstalling, so I might go back for a few days and maybe give the x64 version a shot. The video card I bought is just to expencive not to use (can't even get decent video playback with the Microsoft driver).
Update 2:
Due to some problems with my wireless card (Linksys WUSB54G) that just won't work properly on Vista (even with the Linksys Vista drivers), I decided to create a Windows Server 2003 Machine. After installing and running Windows Update, I tried to install MSN messenger again. Then I remembered this article (after my install failing) and decided to download 8.0 and update from there to circumvent the no-msn-on-server policy, only to learn microsoft took down the old download :( But there is good news, I found a different version on technet. Enjoy :)
