MS Windows Server 2008 R2 – Desktop Icons

Have you noticed that you cannot add the desktop icons (Computer, Network, etc.) to your Windows Server 2008 R2 desktop? Am I the only one who is annoyed by this? If not, here’s how to get them back.

First, you’ll have to go into Server Manager and access the Features section. In Features, you will select to add a feature and then select the Desktop Experience feature. Once added, you will have to reboot the server. That’s right! A reboot is required to add icons to your desktop.

Now this is really insane. Think about it. You can add your own icons for shortcuts on the desktop, but to get Computer and Network, you have to add the entire Desktop Experience feature. What a ridiculous decision Microsoft made here.

Now that I’ve expressed my suffering, we shall move on.

Once you’ve rebooted the server, simply right-click on the Desktop and select Personalize. From here, you can add the desktop icons you desire as usual.

OK. I’m over it now, but it’s still ridiculous.

 

Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/Perf_tun_srv-R2.mspx

File: http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/E/7/7E7662CF-CBEA-470B-A97E-CE7CE0D98DC2/Perf-tun-srv-R2.docx

This guide describes important tuning parameters and settings that you can adjust to improve the performance of the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. This guide describes each setting and its potential effect to help you make an informed decision about its relevance to your system, workload, and performance goals.

This paper is for information technology (IT) professionals and system administrators who need to tune the performance of a server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.

This information applies to the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.

What’s New:

•	Throughout the paper – Updated the references to the Remote Desktop Session Host (previously called Terminal Server); various minor edits.
•	“Choosing a Network Adapter” – Fixed a typo in the RSS registry entries.
•	“Performance Tuning for File Servers” – Added MaxMpxCt parameter information; updated the default maximum payload for the SMB redirector to 64 KB per request; added MaxCmds parameter information.
•	“Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Session Host” – Added information about the settings used when you choose a connection speed.
•	“Resources” – Provided additional resources.

Included in this white paper:

•	Choosing and Tuning Server Hardware
•	Performance Tuning for the Networking Subsystem
•	Performance Tuning for the Storage Subsystem
•	Performance Tuning for Web Servers
•	Performance Tuning for File Servers
•	Performance Tuning for Active Directory Servers
•	Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Session Host (formerly Terminal Server)
•	Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Gateway
•	Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers
•	Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (NetBench)
•	Performance Tuning for Network Workload (NTttcp)
•	Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Services Knowledge Worker Workload
•	Performance Tuning for SAP Sales and Distribution Two-Tier Workload

See Also
Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008

Microsoft TechNet Posters

http://blogs.technet.com/b/schadinio/archive/2010/08/18/microsoft-technet-posters.aspx

Maybe many of you have already seen and love the great Posters from Technet:

• Windows Server 2008 R2: Hyper-V Component Architecture http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5567b22a-8c47-4840-a88d-23146fd93151
• Windows Server 2008 Component Posters. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=64a5cc28-f8a1-4b30-a4a2-455c65bda8d7&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Transport Server Role Architecture Diagrams:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6EB8C09A-6EA4-442A-9FAA-DE33265CEB84&displaylang=en
• This poster highlights the architecture and feature set of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=FDCDF6E5-DE47-4B58-8086-282101BCDDE9&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Transport Server Role Architecture Diagrams:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=612f811d-2953-4c08-945e-833c17150083&displaylang=en&tm
• Sharepoint 2010 Technical Diagrams:http://blogs.technet.com/b/schadinio/archive/2010/08/18/sharepoint-2010-technical-diagrams.aspx

Additional Posters:

• IT Manager: Platform Solution Blueprint – Virtualization
• IT Manager: Platform Solution Blueprint – Security
• IT Manager: Platform Solution Blueprint – Microsoft Web Platform
• IT Manager: Platform Solution Blueprint – Business Intelligence & Search