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Configure your server wizard, never build a server without it!

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I don't think I have ever used the "Configure your server wizard" in Windows 2000 or Server 2003. But, I just spent the day with our lovely support people at Microsoft trying to determine why a white screen mysteriously named "res://ws03res.dll/SecOOBE.hta" kept popping up when our developers logged into their Virtual PC images. Not only was this annoying, but this window was modal and could not be closed with task manager.

After trying to determine if an app on our image was the culprit, we decided to rebuild the image. As I rebuilt the image, I actually ran through the "Configure your server wizard" and this screen never pops up again.

I can't believe that I am going to condone using the "Configure your server wizard" when building a server. It's kinda like reading the instructions for a techno gadget, who ever does that?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Great post, explained really well and I could really understand. Thank you.

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2005
    So instead of fixing the problem you found a work around? Once you start down this path you end up with software with few or trivial install options and you really have no idea of the true state of your server. Having a Wizard (however bright they may be) do all your work simply increases support calls and decreases your ability to understand your enviornment. IMHO... That is what leads to having one server per service, being unable to fix problems for fear of breaking something the wizard did, etc. Wizards are responsible for more badly configured servers than admins (and that is saying a lot).

    Cheers

    slbell@gmail.com

  • Anonymous
    June 30, 2005
    Amen to that Steve! I have never before used it, but clicking the "finish" button seems to have magical powers, and did correct the issue we were having. Luckily I still have the bad image (one of the benefits of VPC) so I could theoredically hand it off to the support team to debug. I'll check into it.
    From a security perspective, I am not happy with using Wizards, I want to know what happens when I click IIS to turn it on in the Wizard. Does the wizard turn on Server Side Includes, WebDav or ASP.NET? All stuff I don't want on there.

  • Anonymous
    December 13, 2005
    I have similar problem with the server. It was installed on VMWare 5.0. After all program installation I ran sysprep. After moving this server to real one I've got the same error. What do you mean when you say "As I rebuilt the image, I actually ran through the wizard"? What have you done in details? Thank you.

  • Anonymous
    January 16, 2006
    I turned off Windows Firewall. Logged off and logged back in. Problem resolved.

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    Wow. Thanks for that one Todd. This problem was absurd, and that firewall definitely solved the problem

  • Anonymous
    March 16, 2006
    Yep, it als worked for me.

    Thanks a lot !

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2006
    How do I run the Configure your Server Wizard?