Breathe new life into your laptop: Windows Server 2008 R2 as workstation

Forget about Windows 7 and Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2 is the new bad boy for your laptop.

It runs blazing fast ,uses less hardware resources and more robust. It also equips with lots of server features such as Hyper-V, IIS 7.5, PowerShell 2.0, etc.

Best of all, it is x64 bits OS (Don’t worry, your old faithful x86 apps will still run as normal).

To run Windows Server 2008 R2 as workstation on your laptop, some customizations are needed:

1. Install graphics and sounds drivers after installation.
2. Enable Wireless networking
   • Click on Server Manager besides your windows start button.
   • Inside Server Manager window, click on ‘Features’ at left panel .
   • After that click on ‘Add Features’ at right panel .
   • Inside Add Features Wizard window, checked ‘Wireless LAN Service’ if it is not installed.
3. Enable Windows Audio, Windows Media Player and Windows Photo Viewer.
   • Inside Add Features window (same as above), checked ‘Desktop Experience’ if it is not installed.
   • After that, at Administrative Tools menu, click on ‘Services’ .
   • Inside Services window, start ‘’Windows Audio’ service if it is not started.
4. Disable Internet Explorer enhanced security
   • Inside Server Manager windows (refer above step 2), click ‘Configure IE ESC’ at Security Information right panel
   • Click ‘Off’ radio button
5. Enable hibernation
   • Open a command window by typing ‘cmd’ in Run menu.
   • Inside command window, type ‘powercfg.exe –h  on’   
   • Click on power icon at lower right of your desktop (A.K.A systray) . Click on More power options.
   • Inside Power Options window, click on ‘Choose what closing the lid does’
   • Choose ‘Hibernate’ from drop down for ‘When I close the lid’
6. Disable Shutdown Event Tracker
   • At Run menu, type ‘gpedit.msc’.
   • Inside Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System
   • Click on ‘Display Shutdown Event Tracker’ at right panel 
   • Inside Display Shutdown Event Tracker window, click ‘disable’ radio button
7. Enable image thumbnails preview in windows explorer
   • At Run menu, type ‘SystemPropertiesPerformance’.
   • Inside Performance Options window, checked ‘Show thumbnails instead of icons’
   • Open windows explorer, then at menu bar choose Tools>Folder Options
   • Inside Folder Options window, unchecked ‘Always show icons, never thumbnails’

 

Now, stop drooling and start take action to give your old laptop a second life!