Differences between nliting xp & 2003 server

[Madhits45]

Has anyone nlited 2003 server? I am considering doing this for a performance gain with my new system.

I'm like to know the following:

Can you get it as small as XP? what size?

How different is it from windows xp?

What sort of perfromance difference is there really 20% 30% or more?

Can the same things I have written to work on XP work on server 2003? batch files? reg keys? (within reason I understand I'll have to do some tweaking to them) etc

Thanks for your responses

[Lamer]

From the research I've been doing on it, this is what I can tell you right now:

Yes you can get it as small, the one I made is nearly 200MB and it has worked in a virtual PC so far.

The real difference is that XP is NT 5.1, and Server 2003 is NT 5.2. My assumption is that 5.1 is built for compatability, as it is the home version, 5.2 is probably leaner and that's where any performance difference comes from.

I'll get more when I'm done testing it and install it as my main OS.

[Madhits45]

ok thanks. Post back here when you finish. I have just gotten server 2003 and i plan to test it myself. Hopefully drivers, reg tweaks, other apps and scripts i wrote will work in 2003.

[boooggy]

basically everything will work on 2k3. of course there is few differences .

look here http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=29869.

and also u can use nlite to make it smaller....

[Viscon]

i myself tested nlited 2k3 and it installed and worked very well.

this software had no probs (as i remember):

adobe cs2 (photoshop, illustrator, indesign)

ms office 2003 pro

raxco perfect disk server

macromedia 8 (dreamweaver, flash, fireworks)

plus many games i can't recall now.

just don't forget to check a link provided by boooggy.

[sleepsleep]

nlited win2k3 (web edition) with SP1 and winxp before

i noticed that win2k3 commit charge after boot up is around 80mb to 90mb.

while winxp commit charge after boot up is 50mb to 60mb.

happy nlit"ing"

[Madhits45]

what do you mean commit charge? Do you mean ram usage?

OK i'm looking at this guide How to convert your Windows Server 2003...

to a Workstation!.

This looks like it takes place after you nlite or this guide is unaware of nlite. That does not make sense. When you nlite this version arnt some of these options removed to save space & so they wont come up in your install in the first place. Either with a tweak or nlite. like the section on Manage Your Server or CAL section. Can't nlite remove that so it wont show during setup. Or is nlite not capable of removing these sections to make windows server a workstation before install.

Where is the posting with all the reg tweaks that do all of this for you during setup?

Where are the custom scripts people have written to make 2003 almost exactly like xp.

I think i might be expecting to much here. Has no one jumped into customizing or reg tweaking 2003 yet?

Edited September 10, 2006 by Madhits45

[Lamer]

There's one tool called TweakNT that is used to somehow change the NT core so it gets recognized as XP Pro instead of Server 2003. This guy that goes by DexterInside had mentioned it (the dude who made the 2003 eXPerience edition did too, but he said NOT to use it on his version), but "Dexter" even included TweakNT as part of his last distribution (he's been making Windows builds of Server 2003 SP2 betas (with R2)).

You can get these editions of his at Demonoid.com (search for 'dexter'), and he has a site that isn't up to date at uberplay.org.

[Madhits45]

There's one tool called TweakNT that is used to somehow change the NT core so it gets recognized as XP Pro instead of Server 2003. This guy that goes by DexterInside had mentioned it (the dude who made the 2003 eXPerience edition did too, but he said NOT to use it on his version), but "Dexter" even included TweakNT as part of his last distribution (he's been making Windows builds of Server 2003 SP2 betas (with R2)).

You can get these editions of his at Demonoid.com (search for 'dexter'), and he has a site that isn't up to date at uberplay.org.

That site requires a invitation code... Darn it. I will use my other resources to find this if i can. Can you invite me to that site? If so PM and ill give you my email address or whatever is needed. This tweaknt prog seems interesting. This might be exactly what I need. If i can make 2003 like xp in almost everyway and its faster then this will be better then xp.

If anyone knows of a thread for 2003 reg tweaks id like to know about it. Also anyone use 2003 with nlite and had good results or tips for me that would be good to.

Thanks lamer

[Lamer]

Here are a couple invitation codes I was allowed to generate:

ctm49vgo

ld5euemz8

I PMed one to you, Madhits45, just in case these others got scarfed up. The latest version is September.

And I should warn you, that the ones DexterInside makes are a bit quirky and seem to have some driver issues. The latest one isn't as bad, but it still didn't recognize a couple things in a virtual PC. I'm in the process of trying some DriverPacks with it.

Concerning the guide that was linked above, the "eXPerience Edition" of Server2003 already does many tweaks through registry alterations and some special tools. If the other Windows versions above don't work for you, I'd suggest trying out the this one. You can read the whole description of it at thepiratebay.org where the torrent is. (search for "windows 2003 experience")

I got it, installed it in a virtual PC, downloaded the updates (manually, for nLite), and then I altered the built in tweaks before re-nLite'ing it again and removing even more stuff. It seems to work, but I'm testing the other version right now before I decide which to use.

Here's my altered regtweak file so you can see what it does or use it:

regtweaks.reg