The free program is a limited version of the commercial software from the same developer. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2, the Microsoft Management Console and PowerShell. The interface of the application makes it less time consuming to configure password policies for specific user groups in Windows Server 2008. It basically centers around creating, configuring and managing password policies.

The following parameters can be defined for each password policy:

A Password Settings object (PSO) has attributes for all the settings that can be defined in the Default Domain Policy (except Kerberos settings). These settings include attributes for the following password settings:

• Enforce password history
• Maximum password age
• Minimum password age
• Minimum password length
• Passwords must meet complexity requirements
• Store passwords using reversible encryption
• Account lockout duration
• Account lockout threshold
• Reset account lockout after

User groups can be added to newly created policies. It has to be noted that user groups cannot be empty as empty user groups cannot be added to password policies. The program displays an overview of all password policies on the computer system. The order can be changed which is important if users are members of multiple user groups.

Specops Password Policy Basic can be downloaded from the developer’s homepage.

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Home Web Server makes it possible to run websites on the local computer system. The web server supports a wide variety of options including php, cgi and isapi support next to SSL connections and private member directories. Not everything is preinstalled on the other hand. It is for example necessary to download PHP compiler from the official PHP website to add PHP support.

Basic HTML websites are on the other hand available by default. The root of the web server can be accessed locally by opening http://127.0.0.1/ in the web browser if the connection is established from the local computer. Users from the local network or remote networks need to use the local or Internet IP to connect to the web server.

Many aspects of the web server can be configured in the options including connection limits and timeouts, domain and root aliases, connection logging, supported mime types or redirects.

Home Web Server provides extensive options that should suite the needs of most users who want to install a web server on their computer. Alternatives are Quick PHP Web Server, XAMPP web server or the Portable Web Server.

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A total of 11 different Windows Server 2003 editions have been released by Microsoft from Windows Home Server over Windows Small Business Server to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise or Windows Storage Server 2003.

Microsoft released many Windows 2003 software additions including multiple feature packs, service packs and tools many of which are recommended to install to increase system stability, performance, security and functionality.

Two Windows Server 2003 Service Packs have been released, one Windows Rights Management Services Service Pack and one Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack. All of those Windows 2003 downloads are available from the Microsoft website.

In addition to Service Pack downloads for the Windows 2003 software a total of 16 feature packs have been released throughout the years including important additions such as the Group Policy Management Console, Windows Services For UNIX or Identity Integration Feature Pack.

Additionally 19 Windows Server 2003 Tools have been released for download adding new features like the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack, Log Parser 2.2 Tool or Remote Desktop Web Connection.

The Microsoft websites contains lots of Windows 2003 software and should be the starting point for everyone who is setting up a new Windows 2003 Server environment.

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Server Core is a bare bones installation of Windows Server 2008 without Windows Explorer which means that configuration is done through a command line interface or by remotely connecting to the Windows 2008 Server.

Server Cores can be configured for several basic rules like DNS Server, DHPC Server or Hyper-V virtual server. The Windows 2008 Server Core Configurator aids the system administrator in configuring certain tasks like activating the system, adding or removing drivers, setting user and group permissions or configuring networking features.

The Core Configurator comes as a cab file which has to be unpacked before the configurator can be run. To expand the cab archive run the following command:

expand CoreConfigurator.cab -f:*

The Windows 2008 Server Core Configurator can be run by executing Setup-Core.wsf afterwards.

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Not everyone can just walk in though and grab the copies, you need to register to be able to attend an event and even then kits will only be given out as long as supplies last. Events will also take place in other countries. A quick check revealed one event in Germany where attendees have to pay a fee to be able to attend the event. They still get the software kit with the newest versions of the applications though.

You have to give a company name and job title during registration. It is unclear if Microsoft will reject applications if they do not meet certain criteria. The first event is on February 27th in Los Angeles, the last on May 22nd in Reston.

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Five different versions of Windows Server 2008 can be downloaded in various languages those are the Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, Windows Web Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems which are all designed for special purposes.

All releases are available in English, French, German, and Japanese. The Datacenter and Web Edition is also available in Spanish, while the Standard and Enterprise editions are available in the five languages previously mentioned plus Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional) and Korean.

The download size is always in a range between 1 and 5 Gigabytes, here are the direct download links:

Windows Server® 2008 RC0 Standard (x86 and x64)
Windows Server® 2008 RC0 Enterprise (x86 and x64)
Windows Server® 2008 RC0 Datacenter (x86 and x64)
Windows® Web Server 2008 RC0 (x86 and x64)
Windows Server® 2008 RC0 for Itanium-based Systems

Grab your Windows Server 2008 Product Key at Microsoft Technet.

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