> Anybody know what's' up with Vista not being compatible with the following
> two MS Programs:
> Active Directory Users and Computers for Windows 2003 Server
> Virtual PC 2004
Hi,
The Virtual PC issue is (hopefully) easily solved: you just need to download
and install Virtual PC 2007:
Virtual PC 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...c/default.mspx
Besides Vista compatibility, VPC 2007 has some nice new features:
- supports Intel and AMD virtualisation instructions (ie, Pacifica and VT)
- better co-existance with laptop CPUs
- better overall performance
- multitude of small bug fixes
.... and you can open your Virtual PC 2004 vhd's directly in VPC 2007 (you'll
want to update the Additions, but it's not essential to get started). And,
it's free.
Regarding ADUC. There is a KnowledgeBase which describes the limitations of
the Windows 2003 Server Tools on Vista, and gives a few ways to mitigate the
worst side-effects:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930056
From informal discussions with Microsoft PMs, I gather the plan it to
eventually release a fully Vista-compatible set of Admin Tools at some
stage; but it's a relatively low priority. Apparently the majority view is
that AD administration is best achieved by opening an RDP session to the
server and running the ADUC snap-in directly; rather than by running the
snap-in from a remote workstation. Personally I consider this conclusion
misguided; but apparently it's what the program managers found, in their
surveys of corporate sys-admins. Even though I don't agree with Microsoft's
approach on this score, I must admit I just Remote Desktop to the DC, and
have never found any problem with that. I use Virtual PC and ADUC every day
of the week (including Saturdays and Sundays :-) and it hasn't stopped me
from happily running Vista for over 12 months now.
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au