How to turn off screen savers during EBS installations

steveb — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:54:00 GMT

At the time of this writing, Essential Business Server 2008 has a default screen saver time out of 10 minutes and locks the server. This can be highly annoying during setup when you are watching the progress from across the room as each server runs its respective installation routine. To get around this bring up a command prompt by using SHIFT-F10 and type in "explorer" to bring up Windows Explorer. From Windows Explorer, expand (click on the + sign next to each name) the folders on the lower left of the left pane of the window, expand the Control Panel, select Appearance and Personalization, Personalization, and then Screen Saver. I highly recommend you turn this back on after you are done with the installation and configuration though so the server will lock when unattended!

If you prefer to stay in the command console, for a great list of command line syntax to open control panel items in both Vista and Server 2008, check out the HowToGeek site page too for a great list.

If your monitor decides to shut down on you as our Messaging Server just did after you set your screen saver, check your power settings (same as above, except expand Control Panel, Harware and Sound, and then select Power to be taken to the Power Options window), click on "Change plan settings" and set the "Turn off display" to a time you are comfortable with.

Microsoft Centro Beta has been officially announced!

steveb — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 17:58:00 GMT

What is Centro? Well stop on by Kevin Beares' Blog to find out at http://blogs.technet.com/kevin_beares/archive/2006/10/24/so-what-is-centro-you-ask.aspx and while you are there sign up for the beta if you have the servers for it.

Being very close and involved with Microsoft's Small Business Server offering over the years in both my own customer deployments and through my getting to know those on the teams in Redmond who have worked the magic behind the wizards, I am looking at Centro as a natural progression into a multi-server environment for small businesses. In my opinion, those of us who have been fans of SBS will in the not so distant future be deploying a mix of SBS and Centro based on the business needs of our clients (well, at least those of us who are fans and small business consultants). ;-) There's plenty of room for all though, whether you are an IT Professional or if you manage the SBS based network at your place of employment, this will be a great solution and a great compliment to the SBS family.

Thanks to Kevin for posting the beta information!

Steve

The other steveb - Steve Banks' Blog on SBS, EBS, and other Small Business Technology Topics : Centro

How to turn off screen savers during EBS installations

Microsoft Centro Beta has been officially announced!