RDC 6.1 Client for Windows XP SP2

Microsoft released a RDC 6.1 client for Windows XP SP2. This will make it easier for many organizations to start using Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services, without upgrading to Windows Vista or deploying Windows XP SP3. More information can be found on the Terminal Services blog, the client can be downloaded here and there’s even a MUI which can be found here.

 

Windows Server 2008: Overview

I’m reviewing Windows Server 2008 as part of my job at Citrix. While my focus there is on Terminal Services (obviously), I’m building a complete farm to see all the different parts. Must be a bad habit I picked up during my previous job, where I basically reviewed all Microsoft server products. Anyway, I’m publishing my findings here. Today the first part, a short overview of Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft focusses the attention on four main topics: Web services, virtualization, security and a solid foundation for business workloads. I’ll dive deeper into each area in different blog posts, each specifically focussed on a separate server role. In this post I’ll just skim some of the topics to give a basic idea.

The most important thing about Windows Server 2008 is that less components are installed automatically and have to be added afterwards. This makes the platform more stable, less vulnerable and it increases performance. The best examples of this are the Server Core mode and the way IIS 7.0 is designed. But it’s also true for configuring the Active Directory Services. In Windows Server 2000 and 2003 you just had to start the DCPROMO wizard, in Windows Server 2008 you have to add the Active Directory Services role first.

The virtualization part can be divided in different areas. First, the hypervisor Microsoft developed, Hyper-V. This will be a tough competitor for VMware ESX Server and XenSource Enterprise Server, just because it’s a product of Microsoft. How it performs has too be seen, but in combination with the next version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager this might become a very good alternative to other products. I can’t test it right now, the only machine I have that can do Hyper-V is currently my lab server with XenSource Enterprise Server.

A second form of virtualization is application virtualization through Terminal Services. This has been a part since Windows Server 2000 (and in a special edition of Windows Server NT 4.0), but there are new features in this release. Single applications can be published and the delivery over the Internet has been added. Good demos can be found on TechNet Edge, there is also an interview with a program manager.

The web services have been redesigned with IIS split up in components. However, they have left out Sharepoint Services by default, which is a mistake from my point of view. I really like Sharepoint Services as a foundation for delivering web services both to internal and external users.

From the security part I really like Network Access Protection. I did a demo for my co-workers last summer about an implementation of NAP in combination with DHCP. Worked really nice and offers a great deal of possibilities for better securing your network. Also, the new features in Active Directory Services look promising. The addition of Read-Only Domain Controllers is a huge deal for businesses with branch offices. Definitely worth a look in one of the following posts.