Like many developers I spend a decent amount of time stopping and starting VMWare servers. Many of these are running Windows Server 2003. Win 2K3 has been designed as a server, and therefore has things like automatic tracking of reasons why the server was shutdown, which requires you to enter reasons into the dialog. As a server it also has pretty tight security around the Internet Explorer,making it even less usable than usual.

Fortunately (like always) the internet has the answers to these problems. The Microsoft Software Forum Network has a good series of articles titled “How to convert your Windows Server 2003… to a Workstation!“.  These talk about a whole heap of different options on what to do, the most useful for making W2k3 run as a development server are:

1. Disabling Internet Explorer Enhanced Security, and
2. Disabling the Shutdown Event Tracker.

Following the simple steps in these articles will help save time when working with a Development Win 2k3 server.

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