Today, we're going to take a default installation of Windows Server 2019
Standard and make it look and feel like Windows 10. Most similar to Windows 10
Build 1809, the server version is much more security-oriented and less
graphical than Windows 10, so many of the changes that I make in this video are
geared toward loosening some of those restrictions, and making it prettier. Now
you won't be able to make it exactly like Windows 10 - for example, you won't
have access to the Microsoft Store - but you will be able to install and run most
applications including games and Windows 10 drivers. So why would anyone want to
use a powerful Windows Server version that might cost an order of magnitude
more than the desktop version? There could be a variety of reasons...
including setting up a testbed environment...
using a free academic license from Microsoft's former Imagine program...
or, due to the vagarities of licensing, it just may be more cost effective to use what you have,
instead of buying more licenses.
If you want to use Windows Server as your day-to-day operating system, you'll first
want to make sure that you select the Desktop Experience during installation.
The core install has a minimal user interface, so you don't want that if you
want the look and feel of Windows 10.
Once you've installed the OS, we can start tweaking the UI.
Let's begin with the password.
The first thing that you'll notice is the login screen, which requires a control-alt-delete before you
can enter your password. Another thing that you may notice is that password
complexity is enforced. Here, I'm entering a password that has uppercase and
lowercase letters, as well as numbers. If we go back in time a bit to the
installation of Windows Server, you were asked to enter a password for the
Administrator account. If you enter a simple password with lowercase letters
only, it'll complain, and then you need to enter a complex password. Only then will it let you continue.
OK, back to the present.
To remove the Ctrl-Alt-Del requirement, I'll use the Server Manager's Tools menu to do this,
but keep in mind that with Windows, there's a hundred ways to skin a cat:
you can use the Start menu, PowerShell, the command prompt, and so on, to make changes to the settings.
In my case, I'll just choose Local Security Policy...
and then expand Local Policies...
click Security Options...
scroll down one page...
and double-click on "Interactive login: do not require CTRL-ALT-DEL. The
default setting here is a double negative, where *not* requiring
control-alt-delete is disabled. So you'll want to choose Enabled to remove the restriction.
To disable the complex password requirement, you'll need to
expand Account Policies, click Password Policy, double-click the entry, and then
we'll Disable the complexity requirement.
While we're here, let's change the Maximum Password Age. By default, it's set to 42 days,
which means you'll be required to change your password in 42 days.
We'll set that to zero and click OK to exit the dialog.
Now let's test our changes. I'm going to go to the Start menu to launch the Control Panel,
where I'll open my Administrator account,
and change the password. Let me enter my old complex password...
and then enter a short password consisting of lowercase letters only.
And you can see that it does indeed let me change it.
Now when I go back to the login screen, I can simply press a single key instead of
control-alt-delete and enter my simple password. But before I login though, let's
look at another annoyance.
If you look at the login screen in Windows 10, you'll
see three icons in the lower right hand side of the screen. What's missing in
Server 2019 is the ability to shutdown or restart the computer. What this means
is that in order to shut it down, you'll need a login first, and then go through
the motions of shutting down Windows. Let's enable that icon on the login screen.
So after you login, from the Tools menu in Server Manager, choose Local Security Policy again...
and navigate to Local Policies and Security Options, as seen here.
Scroll down several pages and look for an option called "Shutdown: allow
system to be shut down without having to log on."
Open it up...
enable it...
and click OK.
Now, when you go back to the login screen to enter your password,
you'll see the power icon that will allow you to shutdown or restart your
machine before you even log on.
When you attempt to to shutdown or restart Windows,
Server 2019 will always ask you for the reason, and that's to
write that entry to a log. Remember, Windows Server is designed to
run 24/7, so shutdowns aren't supposed to happen frequently.
To remove the tracking, you'll want to go to the Start menu and simply type "gpedit.msc,"
and click the returned result. This launches the Group Policy Editor...
and let me enlarge the window a little bit...
and in the navigation tree under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Template...
then click on System.
Scroll down a bit, where you'll see an entry for "Display shutdown event tracker."
As you can see, it's not configured by default, so you'll want to open it up...
click Disabled...
and hit OK.
Now when you go to shut down, it'll obey your click immediately, just like in Windows 10.
One thing that's readily apparent in Server 2019 is the absence of audio.
After all, it's a server - you're not supposed to be listening to music or
watching movies on a server machine. To enable audio, simply right-click on the
red speaker icon, and just click Sounds. It'll complain that it can't play any
sounds because the Windows Audio Service is disabled, so it'll ask you if you want
to start the service - after which you hit Yes.
Notice that the speaker icon no longer has a red X on it,
and when you attempt to play any sounds...
you'll be able to hear them.
This next setting makes a fairly noticeable difference in the appearance
of Windows. So far you may have noticed that all the windows and dialog boxes
have looked kind of flat.
There's no drop shadows...
there's no animation when you minimize and restore...
dragging and dropping doesn't show the content of the window...
and the Start menu just pops into existence, instead of smoothly sliding into view.
To make everything look nicer, let's go to the Start menu and launch the Control Panel.
Let's click System and Security...
System...
and finally the Advanced System Settings,
where we'll hit the Settings button under Performance. You'll want to click
the option for adjusting for Best Appearance, and in the list below you'll
see all of the user interface elements that are affected by that option.
While we're here, let's tab over to Advanced, where there's another setting for
performance. The server version of Windows is optimized for services, so go
ahead and click Programs, which will optimize for applications which have
actual user interfaces. Click OK, and you'll immediately notice a drop shadow
appear under each window. And if you play around with Windows a bit, you'll notice
all the other UI enhancements.
Here's a quick and easy setting that affects audio and
video quality. From the Server Manager, pull down the Manage menu and
select Add Roles and Features. In the wizard that pops up,
go ahead and click Next several times until you reach the
Features screen. After you scroll down the list, mark the checkbox next to Media Foundation,
where it'll display a short blurb about what it does, and hit Next, and then Install.
This will take a few minutes, so
I'll throw some pizza rolls in the toaster oven and take a quick break...
After it completes, you'll now have Media Foundation.
By default, Windows Server locks down Internet Explorer pretty tightly. In fact, when
you start IE and visit a fairly simple website like google.com,
you'll see several dialog boxes relating to security.
Eventually, it will load the page.
So if you want to loosen those restrictions, you'll need to go back to Server Manager...
I'll go ahead and close this dialog...
and then navigate to Local Server on the left navigation
bar. On this screen, you'll see a property called IE Enhanced Security
Configuration, which is set to ON by default. Simply click that setting and
set both options to OFF in the following dialog.
Now, after you launch Internet Explorer again and type in google.com, the website will load
immediately without nagging you. Of course, you can bypass all this if you
simply install a third-party browser, since the IE security settings wouldn't apply to it.
This is a really simple one: when you log in to Windows Server 2019
the Server Manager launches immediately upon load. Let's turn that off by going
to the Manage menu and selecting "Show Manager Properties," then check the box
for "Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon." The next time you
log in or restart the machine, the Server Manager will no longer start automatically.
So this video will get you started with the most annoying
restrictions and the most visible changes in the user interface for
Windows Server 2019. Keep in mind that we're decreasing the built-in security
of Windows Server, but if you plan to use it on a day-to-day basis, that is the
trade-off you need to ask yourself to make. There are probably hundreds of
other tweaks to make it look and behave more like Windows 10, so I may make a
Part 2 to this video if there's enough interest.
Leave your suggestions in the comments below.
I hope you enjoyed - Thanks for watching!