Just Gone Bonkers -- installed W2K3 Server ON A NETBOOK

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I had an irritating problem with W7 x86 pro on an ACER 1GB A520 Netbook -- whenever I type the cursor sometimes randomly jumps ANYWHERE on the screen making inputting things like a Word document impossible as I overwrite parts of the text and the document just comes out like garbage.

I know its something to do with the screen / chip set drivers but I couldn't find any solution to this problem WHICH IS A SHOW STOPPER.

I've had a similar problem to this on another computer in the past and I can assure you it's REALLY ANNOYING too.

Anyway I installed W2K3 SERVER on it -- I modified the W2K3 server to operate as a Workstation OS and it goes PERFECTLY -- not denigrating W7 but W2K3 was designed as a SUPERFAST OS.

How to convert your Windows Server 2003... to a Workstation!

Office works perfectly without garbling the input any more and I've got Games on it as well as well as Photoshop CS5. (not the rest of the CS5 suite -- just Photoshop).

Maybe I'm bonkers but I'm actually satisfied with the performance too -- the Netbook has the newer AMD processor so it's more than sufficient for a SINGLE user.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Darician]

Well, Server 2003 is based off XP, which can also be made to perform just as quickly with some tweaks. In my view, the performance boost of a server OS is a placebo but on the other hand, it provides extra functionality not found in the client OS, which is certainly very good. Kudos.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I didn't bother with trying XP as I already had W2K3 server with all the apps and customisation done as a Virtual Machine so I just did a standard V2P (Virtual to Physical) conversion, installed a couple of video drivers and it worked fine.

Here's a pic of the P2V machine that converted prefectly.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Darician]

Very nice I must say. Server 2003 is a great OS to use, a good performer and as I said before, very functional.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I've added a pic to my previous post -- you can see the apps I've got on it and made it look "very W7 like" with the Jaguar picture lifted from the Brazilian W7 regiional wallpapers and the "Royal Noir" theme from XP.

cheers
jimbo

 

[Benjamin Hall]

Personally, I would've just returned the netbook. But I must say, what you did there was pretty brilliant indeed! Curious, how do you do a V2P conversion?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
two methods

Vmware utility to do V2P

- or easier Acronis Universal Restore where you can restore to different hardware - if you do this FIRST backup the VM with acronis - you can't use the VHD directly in this case. The Universal restore is the easiest method. If it can't find drivers during the restore it will prompt you for them or use standard W7 ones that exist in the "base" installation".

Also remove / uninstall vmware tools BEFORE taking the acronis backup otherwise it will still exist on your new HOST OS and you can't then uninstall it -- I found this out the HARD way -- Moral always take enough backups before doing ANYTHING with computers.

BTW I couldn't return the Netbook as the video driver was only a problem with W7 Pro which I installed -- it came pre installed with W7 Starter which worked but was so full of Vendor trial and crapware I junked it.

By doing that I voided the warranty in any case.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Benjamin Hall]

Ahh, thank you. I'll check that out sometime.

And yeah, I voided my warranty the day I got mine.. because they sent it with no OS or drivers or anything. It was just a blank hard drive, so I installed a copy of Vista Black I had as a temporary fix as I was in a bit of a pickle with needing the laptop for school.