i am still currently using windows 98, and i decided to install the 180-day trial version of windows 2003 enterprise edition. anyways, it's pretty nice, although many features you saw in xp pro and other os's aren't in it.. but it's a server os, so i expected that.. i tried installing war3, and it doesn't work when i try and run it.. for the games, it's all about "not detecting direct x" and so i downloaded the latest ones, and it doesn't work still.. which brings me to my ultimate question:

"Does Windows 2003 Server support the same software and games as the standard Windows operating systems? (XP, 2000, 98, etc.)"

i did some research, and it says win2k3 simply disables directdraw/3d/x/sound by default, so i simply had to enable them and the games loaded fine.. but i'm just wondering if anyone could put any input in regards to windows 2003 server here, cause i'm not entirely sure if i did what i should have done (went to dxdiag) or if there are more things that should be enabled

I think Windows 2003 supports pretty much everything that the other OS's do, but most of it is disabled by default. Skywing should be able to advise you.

Just out of curiousity.... Why would you run a server OS as a desktop platform? If you have access to 2003, why don't you have access to XP?

[quote author=DVX link=board=2;threadid=5191;start=0#msg43317 date=1076350030]
i did some research, and it says win2k3 simply disables directdraw/3d/x/sound by default, so i simply had to enable them and the games loaded fine.. but i'm just wondering if anyone could put any input in regards to windows 2003 server here, cause i'm not entirely sure if i did what i should have done (went to dxdiag) or if there are more things that should be enabled
[/quote]'

What did you do to enable it?

Myndfyre, he said trial version.

Run -> dxdiag -> enable

however, i'm still having trouble with enabling sound.

[quote author=Fr0z3N link=board=2;threadid=5191;start=0#msg43347 date=1076356996]
Myndfyre, he said trial version.
[/quote]

ooooohh, ty, I missed that.

[quote author=Myndfyre link=board=2;threadid=5191;start=0#msg43340 date=1076356023]
Just out of curiousity.... Why would you run a server OS as a desktop platform? If you have access to 2003, why don't you have access to XP?
[/quote]

I use Windows 2003 Server to have access to the server components for educational and professional purposes.

it also has significantly more networking features than windows xp, more secuirity, stability

Thanks DVX, worked fine I think. Also I agree it is much more stable, I think I'm at about 1 month and some uptime.

[quote author=Myndfyre link=board=2;threadid=5191;start=0#msg43340 date=1076356023]
Just out of curiousity.... Why would you run a server OS as a desktop platform? If you have access to 2003, why don't you have access to XP?
[/quote]
I use Terminal Server.

[quote author=Myndfyre link=board=2;threadid=5191;start=0#msg43340 date=1076356023]
Just out of curiousity.... Why would you run a server OS as a desktop platform? If you have access to 2003, why don't you have access to XP?
[/quote]

It's supposedly faster because of new kernel features. 2003 is newer than XP, I think 2003 is NT 5.2 while XP is NT 5.1.

i've noticed an increase in performance as far as moving through 2003 than xp. it also executes programs faster.

skywing, what are some of the major features disabled by default on 2003 just out of curiosity?

Stuff you don't need on a dedicated server machine, like sound/DirectX. Also, the various optional services are now off by default, like IIS or Messenger.

I went to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/partners/isvs/readinessfaq.mspx

and from what i see the IE settings are just set at the highest settings by default.
or does that have nothing to do with IE?

Yes, it disables scripting and things like that in IE by default.

[quote author=Adron link=board=2;threadid=5191;start=0#msg43527 date=1076435814]
It's supposedly faster because of new kernel features. 2003 is newer than XP, I think 2003 is NT 5.2 while XP is NT 5.1.
[/quote]

that's correct, windows 2003 is newer, and is nt 5.2, xp, is 5.1