What are the actual OSes that are considered a "Windows Server" by IsServer of NSIS LogicLib WinVer?
Wikipedia lists the following as belonging to the Microsoft Server family:
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server Essentials
But not:
Windows Home Server
Windows MultiPoint Server
Does IsServer share the same opinion?
The IsServer documentation also includes NT as a "server", contrary to the Wikipedia article.
IsServer is true if OSVERSIONINFOEX.wProductType from GetVersionEx is not VER_NT_WORKSTATION.
NT4 and 2000 had both client and server versions of the OS.
This page claims you can detect home server by checking for the VER_SUITE_WH_SERVER bit but since the test for 2003 (GetSystemMetrics(SM_SERVERR2) == 0) is clearly wrong I don't know how much you could trust this information. (Checking for 2003 correctly means checking that the version is 5.2, not VER_NT_WORKSTATION (XP64) and only if you need to tell 2003R2 apart from 2003 would SM_SERVERR2 come into the picture)
Related
Azure service configuration allows to alter osFamily. Currently there're two options. Value 1 (the default) selects Windows Server 2008 and value 2 selected Windows Server 2008 R2.
I'm currently with the default (2008).
What changes should I expect if I just change to R2? Will it be faster? Will anything likely break?
You should see this as if you were upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7, as described in this question: What's the difference between Windows Server 2008, 2008 SP2 and 2008 R2?.
If you're building web applications the largest impact will probably come from IIS. Windows Server 2008 uses IIS 7.0, Windows Server 2008 R2 uses 7.5. Read about the differences here: What's New in the Web Server (IIS) Role (IIS 7)
There's also a whitepaper that describes the new and changed functionalities and features: Changes in Functionality in Windows Server 2008 R2.
To answer your question if anything will break I would say no (although something could always go wrong). I've deployed many applications to Windows Azure and this never caused issues for me. When I upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7 it felt like I was using a more mature, stable and better performing system, and I would dare to believe the same applies to the server releases. And advantage is that you'll have new features available, like the Win32 support to mount VHD files (I think this relates to your VHD question).
I am about to install SharePoint Foundation for development purposes on my Windows 7 x64.
I will be using Visual Studio 2010.
Beside other things, MS site says:
If you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista for your development environment, you should have access to a test environment that has the same operating system installed as your production environment.
I am not sure what does it exactly mean by "you should have access to test environment"?
Will I be able to compile, run debug and test web parts and other stuff?
Are there any significant limitations for Win 7 and SP Foundation for development?
Since SharePoint production OS should be win2008+ by saying "the same operating system" they mean win2008+, neither win7 or Vista should be used as testing servers. This passage means that there should be another server that will be win 2008 and will host SharePoint and this server should be the one you should test your solutions on.
p.s. yes. there are some low level differences between sharepoint hosted on win7 and win 2088. but you will be able to do all the stuff you want on win 7 too.
Migrated an apps to Windows Azure - previous platform was windows server 2008 R2. When I try to configure os it gives me two options with Windows Server 2008 SP2 being default. Are there any known issues of selecting Windows Server 2008 R2? Any performance implications. I was assuming that since R2 was released later and had some enhancements related to virtualization etc it should be better.
Yes, I'd go for Windows Server 2008 R2, which is based on the Windows 7 kernel rather than the Vista kernel used by Windows Server 2008 SP2.
I'd expect that Microsoft make the 2008 SP2 option available for Azure customers that have not yet tested their applications under the newer platform.
Possible or not?
I know Sharepoint 2010 Server won't even run on a client side of Vista/Windows 7 64-bit, forget about Windows XP 32-bit.
But if I can install and use Visual Studio 2010 on Windows XP just fine, shouldn't Sharepoint development tools also work on Windows XP 32-bit?
The thing is I have a very old laptop (from 2005) that doesn't even support 64-bit architecture so I am stuck with WinXP 32bit.
If there is any way at all of (Remote?) Sharepoint development on Windows XP 32-bit with VS2010 please let me know.
Most of what the developer tools offer you make two assumptions:
You are running on a 64-bit architecture
SharePoint is installed side-by-side with Visual Studio
Running on a 32-bit XP machine breaks these assumptions. Many of the built-in Visual Studio productivity aids, such as the deploy and retract commands, will fail. I couldn't even create a project using the SharePoint 2010 project template under similar conditions.
You might make some headway by using regular class library or web application projects, copying SharePoint .dll's from a server's GAC (for use as references) and by manually creating your .ddl and .wsp files using MakeCab (as I did with 2007, with a little help from PowerShell); however, it sounds excruciating compared to running on Vista SP2 X64 or Windows 7 X64 with SharePoint installed.
As per the above answer, VS 2010 SharePoint projects require a local installation of SharePoint. You can use external tools for doing your development, such as WSPBuilder, but I do not recommend this approach. You are best sticking to the MS tools.
Your options are:
Upgrade to Windows 7 x64 or Server 2008 R2
Run VMWare Server (free) which should enable you to run a 64-bit VM on a 32-bit host (I think? Not sure about this assumption actually), and create a VM with Win7 x64 or Win 2008 R2 for SP development.
You can use Win7 64bit as your dev environment
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx
I have checked the following during turning on Windows features:
IIS,IIS Compatibility and under WWW I have checked .NET extensibility.I do not see an ASP.NET option to check.Will these be enough to have IIS running or am I missing something.
I do not see the IIS page when I type localhost in my browser.Please help.
Your version of Vista does not support ASP on IIS. You'll have to either install asp or upgrade your version of Vista to:
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
Windows Vista Professional Edition
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
If you're trying to set up a web server you can take a look at Microsoft's Dreamspark site.
If you're a student and have the capability of proving it you can download a copy of Windows 2003 Server and use it for educational purposes.