How I configure my Windows 2008 R2 demo setup

Given that I often demonstrate Adobe’s server products (LiveCycle ES and others) I typically have a server centric environment on a VMWare image stored locally on my laptop. I have (finally) upgraded my demonstration environment from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 R2. Since I often get asked how and why I set up my demo environment the way I do, I’ve captured some notes and share them

I won’t cover the actual OS installation, so i’ll assuming the OS & drivers are installed and you’ve run Windows update. First, in order to make the OS look slightly more familiar, I install the Desktop Experience feature using Server Manager, or with the following command line:

• ServerManagerCmd -i Desktop-Experience

• Click Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization
• Click Personalization and select the Aero Theme

Stop the annoying Windows server shutdown event tracker. Each time you reboot you have to log a reason why… useful in production, but ANNOYING in development & demo.

• To open Group Policy, click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
• Local Computer Policy-> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates-> System-> Display Shutdown Event Tracker
• On the Setting tab, click Disabled.
• Click Apply, and then click OK.

Relax the password security on this demo install. This way you can have any type of password you like.. just don’t do this on a production machine with any sensitive data!

• Group Policy Object [computer name] Policy
• Computer Configuration-> Windows Settings-> Security Settings-> Account Policies-> Password Policy
• Disable the setting “Password must meet complexity”
• Run “gpupdate” command to refresh the group policy

If you want to automatically log into an account;

• In the Start menu click Run and enter control userpasswords2.
• After clicking OK the User Accounts window will show up.
• Click the account you want to login automatically and uncheck Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer checkbox.
• Click Apply, it will ask for the password of the user you selected.
• Enter the password of the selected user twice and click OK.
• From now on every time you start Windows it will automatically login!

To apply Enhanced Security Configuration to specific users by using a computer running Windows Server 2008

• Log on to the computer with a user account that is a member of the local Administrators group.
• Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.
• If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
• Under Security Summary, click Configure IE ESC.
• Under Administrators, click On (Recommended) or Off, depending on your desired configuration.
• Under Users, click On (Recommended) or Off, depending on your desired configuration.
• Click OK.
• Restart Internet Explorer to apply Enhanced Security Configuration.

Other post installation tasks include

• Enable Windows Audio (optional – disabled by default)
• Install Winzip
• Install Firefox
• Install Flash
• show file extensions
• turn UAC off

Sources

http://www.expta.com/2009/02/how-to-enable-aero-glass-on-windows.html <- Aero on Win2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd883248%28WS.10%29.aspx <- Enhanced Security
+ others I cannot remember

Have your own tip? Please share!