I'm on day #2 of my first home office W2K3 Server. I've standardized on W2K Server now for years and always felt that I was losing out on optimal hardware functions. I've lived without CDR, for instance. Rightly or wrongly, it seemed problematic to try to get the CDR, scanning support, and other hardware services my wife enjoys with Windows XP.
It seems all that has now changed with my sweet Dell Precision WorkStation 360. It came with Windows XP which I used to make sure everything was working properly, then installed MSDN Windows 2003 Standard Server edition on top of the C:\Windows XP contents. No dual OS boot or anything, just a straight-up install without formatting the drive.
The point is that the Roxio CD Creator 5--which prompted me with “there are known compatibility issues with this software“ when I installed it from the Dell CD--works like a charm. Recording to CD like its 1999! And while W2K3 installed the standard VGA Monitor drivers, which were fine, I went to the display panel->driver tab and updated the driver from the original XP c:\drivers directory with NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X. This even though Dell's and NVIDIA's support material did not list W2K3 support. Dual monitor support enabled, baby! First time I've ever been able to enjoy that, and I am definitely looking forward to having VS.NET spread across two 17” monitors.
So this post serves as a recommendation for the Dell Precision WorkStation 360 and extolling its compatibility with W2K3 Server. Maybe I should not have ignored the popup warning and the docs, but hey, on a new server install in a development environment you can take some liberties and blow it away if need be and re-install. But tonight I am a happy camper.