Disable UAC in Windows Server 2008

You can disable the UAC feature in Windows Server 2008 by following these steps:

• Start -> Run -> msconfig


• Click Tools and scroll down to "Disable UAC"


• Click the Launch button and reboot the server.

Deploy Windows Server 2003 using WDS

• Install WS 2008 and WDS


• Copy boot.wim from \sources folder from a Vista DVD


• Use WDS to add that boot.wim to the boot images


• Right-click this image, and select "Create capture boot image", call it Capture or something similar


• Add this capture image to the boot images


• Disable all boot images, except for the capture image


• Install Windows Server 2003 with service packs, updates, applications,... on a new server


• Extract the content of \support\tools\deploy.cab from the ws 2003 cd to c:\sysprep on the new server


• Run c:\sysprep\setupmgr.exe to create a sysprep answer file for future deployments


• Save the answerfile as sysprep.inf and copy it to the WDS server


• Run c:\sysprep\sysprep.exe /reseal /mini /reboot


• When the server reboots, press F12 twice to do a PXE boot and load the winPE for capturing


• Follow the steps until you get to the Image Capture Source screen, here you can select the volume, usually this would be C:\, you have the option to immediately upload the captured image to the WDS server, be sure to have created an image group first. Type the ip address of the WDS server, and then you have to type the credentials to connect (turn off the windows firewall)

• When finished, click close, the server will reboot and load the sysprep wizard, complete this wizard. In future deployments this will be done by sysprep.inf


• Copy the sysprep.inf that you saved earlier on the WDS server to \RemoteInstall\Images\<imagegroup>\<imagename>\$OEM$\$1\Sysprep\ (you have to create this structure)


• Create an unattended file for the WDS client and attach this to the WDS server:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
   <settings pass="windowsPE">
	  <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"
language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" processorArchitecture="x86">
	     <WindowsDeploymentServices>
	        <Login>
	           <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
	           <Credentials>
	                 <Username>**username**</Username>
	                 <Domain>**domain**</Domain>
	                 <Password>**password**</Password>
	              </Credentials>
	           </Login>
	        <ImageSelection>
	           <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI>
	           <InstallImage>
	              <ImageName>**imagename**</ImageName>
	              <ImageGroup>**imagegroup**</ImageGroup>
	              <Filename>**filename.wim**</Filename>
	           </InstallImage>
	              <InstallTo>
	              <DiskID>0</DiskID>
	              <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
	           </InstallTo>
	        </ImageSelection>
	     </WindowsDeploymentServices>
	        <DiskConfiguration>
	            <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI>
	            <Disk>
	                <CreatePartitions>
	                    <CreatePartition>
	                        <Order>1</Order>
	                        <Type>Primary</Type>
	                        <Extend>true</Extend>
	                    </CreatePartition>
	                </CreatePartitions>
	                <DiskID>0</DiskID>
	                <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
	                <ModifyPartitions>
	                    <ModifyPartition>
	                        <Active>true</Active>
	                        <Extend>False</Extend>
	                        <Format>NTFS</Format>
	                        <Label>SYSTEM</Label>
	                        <Letter>C</Letter>
	                        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
	                        <Order>1</Order>
	                    </ModifyPartition>
	                </ModifyPartitions>
	            </Disk>
   </DiskConfiguration>
	  </component>
   </settings>
</unattend>

• Create an auto-cast session for this image to be deployed on other machines

Inject VMWare NIC driver into Windows Server 2008 boot image

This guide only works on WS 2008 or Vista. The WAIK is supported on WS 2003 and XP too, but the driver injection will fail.
You can download the WAIK here.

Install the WAIK, open the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt. Also, have the WS 2008 boot.wim ready, and mount the VMWare Tools image by clicking "Install VMWare Tools", this will mount the drivers on the cd-rom drive.
If you are not doing these steps on a virtual machine, you can also just download these drivers (vmxnet).

1. copype x86 c:\windowspe
2. imagex /info "c:\path\to\x86\boot.wim"
In the WIM Information, look for the Boot Index, in this case the boot index is 2. We will use this in the next step.

3. imagex /mountrw "c:\path\to\x86\boot.wim" 2 c:\windowspe\mount
4. peimg /inf="c:\path\to\vmxnet\win2k\vmxnet.inf" c:\windowspe\mount\windows
5. peimg /inf="c:\path\to\vmxnet\win2k\vmware-nic.inf" c:\windowspe\mount\windows
You should see "PEIMG completed the operation successfully". If you would do this on a XP or 2003 machine, the message would be "PEIMG failed to complete the operation with status code 0x800703fb".
It's possible that this WILL work in future versions, but at the moment it doesn't

6. imagex /unmount c:\windowspe\mount /commit

The boot.wim image has now been injected with the VMWare NIC drivers.

There is an alternative to this, instead of doing the above driver injection procedure, you can add this to your .vmx file to have network support too: ethernet0.VirtualDev="e1000"

Install VMWare Tools on Server Core

In VMware Server Console, click "Install VMware Tools".
The setup GUI will not automaticly appear, so you have to run it manually. Actually by clicking on "install vmware tools" the cd-rom drive was mounted with tools, so you can now type "D:", and then run setup.exe.
This will run the setup GUI and you can install the tools like you would normally.

Install Active Directory Domain Services on Server Core

To install active directory on windows server 2008, server core edition, you must first create an answer file for the unattended installation, because server core does not offer the GUI wizard.
This sample answer file is to install a new domain in a new forest, with the installation of a DNS server.


[DCInstall]
InstallDNS = Yes
ConfirmGc = Yes
DNSOnNetwork = no
DomainLevel = 2
DomainNetBiosName= mydomain
ForestLevel = 2
NewDomain = Forest
NewDomainDNSName = mydomain
Password = mypassword
ReplicaOrNewDomain = Domain
SafeModeAdminPassword = mypassword


Save this file as "answerfile.txt" and then run the following command:

dcpromo /answer:answerfile.txt