Windows 2008 for dummies

For those who haven't really taken the time to look at Windows 2008, read this article to get a brush up on your 2008 knowledge.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/25/windows_server_2008_reviewed/

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Comments

Mishra

One things I'm not liking about 2008 that this article doesn't cover is the preinstalled services.

2008 includes many unneeded preinstalled items like Microsoft iSCSI initiator. Items like these shouldn't be preinstalled because to me they make the operating system more unstable. If a hacker was able to gain access to your system he could simple turn on one of these services and take advantage of a bug that he knew in that particular service. If the service wasn't installed in the first place this wouldn't happen.

I haven't done much with 2008 so thats about all I can add to the review.

RussS

Mishra wrote:

One things I'm not liking about 2008 that this article doesn't cover is the preinstalled services.

2008 includes many unneeded preinstalled items like Microsoft iSCSI initiator. Items like these shouldn't be preinstalled because to me they make the operating system more unstable. If a hacker was able to gain access to your system he could simple turn on one of these services and take advantage of a bug that he knew in that particular service. If the service wasn't installed in the first place this wouldn't happen.

I haven't done much with 2008 so thats about all I can add to the review.

If a hacker got into your system he could do pretty much what he wanted - those services running or not

Seriously though - if it is anything like Vista I will be staying with 2003 for many years to come

dynamik

He worded it kind of funny, but I think he meant to say that running unnecessary services increases the likelihood of your system being vulnerable to an exploit.

I wouldn't worry too much about it though. You'd typically just configure one server then export/import the settings to the others. 2003 didn't need to run absolutely every service either. Google system hardening. Here's MS's guide: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/windowsserver2003/w2003hg/sgch00.mspx