My friend was having lots of troubles installing Windows 2003 Server on his server. Anyway, I decided to help him out. I grabbed the nearest Windows 2000 CD I could find... Windows 2000 Pro. (Not sure what service packs it had.) So, I downloaded SP4 and integrated it in. Then, using the latest version of the brilliant nLite I managed to rip out the non-essential crap until it was on a 99.1MB bootable ISO. The next step, of course, was to test out the installation on VMware.

Installation took in total about 25 minutes until I got onto desktop. Then I proceeded to install my "modified" version of Apache, PHP and MySQL. After testing the server with phpinfo() and my MySQL-based guest book, I was satisfied everything was working.

Next, I'm going to include Apache, PHP and MySQL installation in the install, making it a zero-setup unattended installation. And maybe ZPanel and PHPMyAdmin too.

For a complete newbie wanting to setup a basic web server, this CD could prove to be awesome, don't you think? (I know... I know... there's always GNU/Linux lol)

Jamey,

If you get the Apache, PHP, and MySQL running I'd like to know. I've been meaning to do the same thing for some time now but just haven't had the time to pursue it.

I would be interested in how you do it.

I would be greatful if you can e-mail me with the info. once you get it working.

i think this would be a pretty good helping guide for both of you well maybe more for tguy than jamey.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/

Yes it sounds good to me. Hve you done any documents for this ?

hail hail

@tguy

Cool, with the suggestion lvlolvlo gave me, I think I'll have it finished soon. Yeah, I'll e-mail you when I've got something interesting enough to use.

@lvlolvlo

Thanks a lot! Well, I definitely was looking for an easier (and quicker) method of integrating a lot of web technologies into it. XAMPP looks perfect.

@brian873

Yeah I was thinking about that. I might write a short manual which explains the difference between my "server" version of Windows 2000 and the normal version.

cool i will keep my eye out for it !

hail hail

What are the components you removed?

I'm surprised that your 99.1 MB bare win2k works without errors. 'Coz sooner or later within a week of removing too many things using nLite, people start having problems.

@prathapml

I removed everything except the following:

Drivers

• Display Adapters
  
• ISDN
  
• Modems
  
• SCSI
  
• Sound Controllers
  
• Wireless Ethernet (WLAN)
  

Operating System Options

• Disk Cleanup
  

Services

• DHCP Client
  
• DNS Client
  

Experimental

• Command-Line Tools
  

In network connections, every protocol/service is removed and I simply added TCP/IP and let it get a dynamic local IP via DHCP. Then I can get on the WWW with Firefox and Apache/PHP work fine.

Since I won't be installing/using any other applications apart from the XAMPP ones (which are all in a ZIP anyway) I don't think I will run into any troubles, really. I just can't wait until I have a CD which installs a working web server with all the trimmings without any user intervention.