Using Windows Server 2008 as a Desktop OS - Installing Windows Live Writer

I'm using Windows Server 2008 as my primary desktop OS, for which I'll be blogging on over the coming weeks as I encounter non-obvious problems. I'll also cover my installation experiences which might help out others who wish to do the same.

The recent problem I had is that I saw the Windows Live suite of applications come out of Beta and I wanted to try them out. OK, up to the Microsoft Downloads site for the Windows Live category and download Windows Live Writer to use it on my Blogger account.

I download WLinstaller.exe, run it and I'm immediately presented with the following unhelpful error:

Hmmm, no Windows Live Writer for my Terminal Servers then.

Undeterred, I download and install Windows Live Writer on a spare Windows XP machine, open up regedit and navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstaller and go browsing for Windows Live Writer. Within a couple of minutes I find the entry and also find that it has cached the MSI to:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\MsiSources\Install_{9176251A-4CC1-4DDB-B343-B487195EB397}.msi

So I copy this file to my Windows Server 2008 laptop, expecting to have to modify it with Orca. What the heck, I'll try running it first. And it installs without problem. And I'm using it just fine, as this blog article is written using it.

I'll try the same trick with the other Windows Live programs and write up my findings accordingly.

Modifying SBS 2003 SP1's bkprunner.exe for Improved Backup Performance

I'll quickly jot this down before I forget.
I've recently been having a shrinking backup window on one of my client's SBS 2003 boxes. It backs up to tape and I didn't want to create a backup script and lose the nice reporting features that SBS provides. So I hacked the bkprunner.exe process instead :-)
On my own SBS 2003 box I was getting terrible server performance during my daily backup to USB drives. I found the undocumented /FU switch that was included with the SP1 version of ntbackup and some registry modifications that the Exchange team of Microsoft IT performed to improve their backup performance.

Open Explorer and go to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Small Business Server\Backup"
Make a copy of bkprunner.exe

Download and extract XVI32.
Run XVI32.exe
Open bkprunner.exe in XVI32

The address range $10F0-$11B7 is used for backups to .bkf files
The address range $11B8-$1277 is used for backups to tape

To turn off verify when backing up to a .bkf
Go to address $113A
In the hex pane (the middle one), type in the following hex values:
6E 00 6F 00 20
This enters in the text "no " in Unicode format.

To turn off buffered writes (as explained in MSKB 839272 and also here) when backing up to a .bkf - recommended
Go to address $115E
In the hex pane (the middle one), type in the following hex values:
46 00 55 00 20 00 20 00 20 00 20
This enters in the text "FU " in Unicode format.

To turn off verify when backing up to tape
Go to address $1202
In the hex pane (the middle one), type in the following hex values:
6E 00 6F 00 20
This enters in the text "no " in Unicode format.

Registry modifications for performance
Run regedit
Open HKEY_USERS
Load Hive
Open SBS Backup User's NTUSER.DAT registry hive; call the key name BACKUP
Browse to HKEY_USERS\BACKUP\Software\Microsoft\Ntbackup\Backup Engine.
Edit the value of the entry Logical Disk Buffer Size from 32 to 64.
Edit the value of the entry Max Buffer Size from 512 to 1024.
Edit the value of the entry Max Num Tape Buffers from 9 to 16.
If the above keys don't exist, create them as String values.
Click on HKEY_USERS\BACKUP
Unload hive

MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition Install Problem

I decided to have a look at Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Workgroup Edition to see if it would help me in my management of several clients with multiple Windows servers.
I went to install it in a Windows Server 2003 virtual machine on my SBS2003 server. I installed a new instance of SQL Server 2000 and then upgraded it to SP4. The MOM2005 installer then failed the SQL prerequisite check - no SQL instances found! I then tried installing it on my SBS2003 box. It found only one SQL instance - my WSUS installation, but didn't think it was SP3 or later.
I then proceeded to find MSKB 902803, which gave me a modified msiexec install, but appeared to be targeted to MOM2005 and not the Workgroup Edition. I then managed to find a conversation in an Ars Technica forum. The process in summary is:

Load the registry editor and browse to:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer\CurrentVersion

Change the CSDVersion key from 8.00.2039 to 8.00.761

Instances can be found at:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\\MSSQLServer\CurrentVersion 

Run MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition setup

Change the value back when you are done.

This was the technique I used to successfully install MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition.