How many Processor cores are supported by Windows 2003 Standard Edition

Posted on September 16th, 2008

Windows 2003 Standard Edition vs Enterprise Edition

In the past there were some limitations emposed on Windows 2003 Standard Edition which in some situations would mean that you would need to spend a bit more money and buy the Enterprise version instead. One of these limitations was memory and specifically related to the PAE environment (as detailed here).

However, I was asked the question about processors. Will Windows 2003 Standard Edition support 2 Quad core processors (8 cores in total)?

After much digging I have found the following resources to say that Standard Edition will support this:

• Microsoft Forum: post
• Microsoft document: Software for Multicore and Hyperthreaded Processors

Summary

Yes, Windows 2003 Standard Edition will support upto 4 physical processors, whether the processors in the system are single-core, hyperthreaded, or multicore.

Tags: core, edition, enterprise, how many, multicore, processor, quad, standard, supported, Windows 2003
Filed under Windows 2003 | No Comments »

Event ID 11327 – MsiInstaller. Invalid Drive: h:\

Posted on September 11th, 2008

When trying to install a Windows Installer (msiexec) .msi package, the following error may appear:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11327
Description:
Product: ‘Whatever this product name is’ — Error 1327.Invalid Drive: h:\

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: error, event id 1327, eventid 11327, invalid drive, msiexec, msiinstaller, shellfolders, usershellfolders, Windows 2003
Filed under Windows 2003 | No Comments »

Troubleshooting the Windows logon process

Posted on August 19th, 2008

To troubleshoot the logon process, debug logging can be enabled. This is useful in a Citrix environment as the logon could be slow and the debug log file will show where the pauses occur during the logon.

Microsoft Technet article can be found here: Q221833

Use Registry Editor to add or to modify the following registry entry:

Subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Entry: UserEnvDebugLevel
Type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 10002 (Hexadecimal)

UserEnvDebugLevel can have the following values:

NONE 0×00000000
NORMAL 0×00000001
VERBOSE 0×00000002
LOGFILE 0×00010000
DEBUGGER 0×00020000

The default value is NORMAL|LOGFILE (0×00010001).

Note To disable logging, select NONE (0×00000000).

You can combine these values. For example, you can combine VERBOSE 0×00000002 and LOGFILE 0×00010000 to get 0×00010002. Therefore, if UserEnvDebugLevel is given a value of 0×00010002, LOGFILE and VERBOSE are both turned on. Combining these values is the same as using an OR statement.

0×00010000 OR 0×00000002 = 0×00010002

Note If you set UserEnvDebugLevel to 0×00030002, the most verbose details are logged in the Userenv.log file.

The log file is written to the %Systemroot%\Debug\UserMode\Userenv.log file. If the Userenv.log file is larger than 300 KB, the file is renamed Userenv.bak, and a new Userenv.log file is created. This action occurs when a user logs on locally or by using Terminal Services, and the Winlogon process starts. However, because the size check only occurs when a user logs on, the Userenv.log file may grow beyond the 300 KB limit.

The 300 KB limit cannot be modified.

Summary

RegKey: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\UserEnvDebugLevel

For full debug logging set to: 30002

Log file: c:\windows\debug\UserMode\userenv.log

Tags: debug, environment, logon, user, UserEnvDebugLevel, Windows 2003
Filed under Windows 2003 | 2 Comments »

Comparison of 32-bit and 64-bit memory architecture for 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

Posted on August 11th, 2008

Comparison of 32-bit and 64-bit memory architecture for 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

In the following table, the increased maximum resources of computers that are based on 64-bit versions of Windows and the 64-bit Intel processor are compared with existing 32-bit resource maximums.

Full article posted here: Q294418

Tags: 32 bit, 64 bit, compare, comparison, limit, memory, page file, system cache, virtual memory, Windows 2003, x64
Filed under Windows 2003 | No Comments »

Hide the language bar

Posted on August 9th, 2008

VB script to hide the language bar from the Windows 2003 taskbar. Call from logon script.

WshShell.RegWrite “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar\ShowStatus”, “2″, “REG_DWORD”
WshShell.RegWrite “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar\ExtraIconsOnMinimized”, “0″, “REG_DWORD”
WshShell.RegWrite “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\CTF\Disable Thread Input Manager”, “1″, “REG_DWORD”
WshShell.RegWrite “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MSUTB\ShowDeskBand”, “1″, “REG_DWORD”

Tags: language bar, script, Scripts/Reg, Scripts/Reg, vbs, Windows 2003
Filed under Scripts/Reg, Windows 2003 | 1 Comment »