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Install Windows Small Business Server 2008 as a Standalone Server or Domain Member
28 June, 2010 (06:29) | Technical
Heres the dilemma: Ive just purchased a new HP Smartbuy server with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 pre-installed. The servers ultimate destination will be as part of an already complex network and theres really no need to run the Exchange 2007 or Domain Controller portions of the server, so whats one to do? The ideal situation would be to have the SBS 2008 server act like a domain member, which is not exactly what SBS 2008 was intended to do, but theoretically its possible. So theres a couple of options: Option 1 say fuggedaboutit, erase and install Windows Server 2008 on the new server. Option 2 save a bunch of time and play Jedi Mind Tricks on the SBS 2008 install and make it act like a normal server instead of this big behemoth of software that Ill never use. Sure, Ive heard that you can manually uninstall everything after youre set up, but are you truly ahead of the game if you do that? Might as well go for option 1, then! Well, I like a challenge and didnt see any procedure for this documented on the web, so I decided to opt for the second (more nutso) option. Why not? I have all the requisite licenses for both SBS 2008 as well as for Windows Server 2008, so I should be golden from a compliance standpoint, right? So heres how I did it: When installing SBS 2008 you are forced to go through a setup procedure where you define items like domain name, computer name, timezone, etc. Youre at a crossroads here. If you cancel this process, the computer shuts down and ultimately you have to re-initiate this process again. If you go through the motions, you then have a server that promotes itself to a domain controller and installs a ton of software that you may or may not need. At this point I decided to hit control-alt-escape and brought up the task manager. From there, I opened up the registry editor (regedit) and edited the default shell registry entry (this is the same registry entry some nasty viruses use to take over a computer) to be c:\windows\explorer.exe as it is in most other normal Windows Machines. The exact registry entry was: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon With the registry entry originally being: C:\Program Files\Windows Small Business Server\Bin\WSSGShell.exe After that and a log off/log on, the server acted like a normal Windows 2008 server with a few extra components installed. DHCP Server, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and Network Policy and Access Services roles were subsequently uninstalled and I set the computer to acquire its own IP address.

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I was able to add the server to my domain and set it up as the intended test server I needed. The server says that Exchange 2007 is installed but no services are installed at this point and Im sure its un-installable if required. Voila! I probably saved myself a couple of hours. ShareThis
Tags: Microsoft, SBS 2008, Small Business Server, Windows 2008, Windows Server

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Comments
Comment from Stephen Wagner Time July 10, 2010 at 6:46 pm Read the article. Id say thats awesome for the Jedi manual, but at the same time Im not to sure this would be something you would want to do in a production environment. I think this causes numerous issues on multiple fronts. First, Id like to know what Microsofts POV would be on the licensing (Im sure there is something in the EULA that stipulates it NOT being used this way). Secondly, I would NEVER EVER EVER try doing something like this in a production environment, who knows what could come down the road. So anyways, thats my opinion we sell is SBS. Comment from raj Time July 10, 2010 at 10:17 pm @Stephen agreed, not for production environments, unless youre nuts. I saw the article and had to post since one of the main products

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