While many businesses are not planning on upgrading to Microsoft Windows Vista right away, there are certain circumstances where a smaller business may be "forced" to move more quickly than they might normally choose.
In our case, our business, TLA Technologies, Inc. needs to make sure that we’re ahead of our customer’s needs. So I upgraded my desktop computer to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition a few weeks ago.
I decided a little while ago to update Small Business Server 2003 (SBS) to include all Vista compatiblity updates.
These can be found here.
Basically, you have to install three (possibly four) updates.
The first one makes joining a SBS domain and logging into an SBS domain work seamlessley. Without this update, you are unable to use the ConnectComputer page, and if you connect the client computer "manually" to the domain (which works fine), you’ll get an error upon logging in regarding a program the runs during login not being compatible with Vista. After applying the update, the login is smooth. Also, this update is supposed to allow the Remote "Connect to my computer at work" option to work properly for Vista systems (however, currently I’m having a problem with this still not working). This update takes only a few minutes to install, and does not appear to require a reboot.
The second update fixes Exchange Outlook Web Access so that it works on Vista. Without this, you’ll just get a "red X" in the text editing window of OWA when you try to compose or reply to a message. There are other benefits as well. This update will require a reboot at the end of the process.
If you’re running SBS Premium Edition and have ISA Server 2004 installed, then you’ll want to install the third update which applies Service Pack 2 to ISA Server 2004. This update requires about 5 minutes to run and it did not prompt for a reboot, but I did anyway.
Finally, if you have the ISA firewall client installed on your desktops, you’ll need the desktop client update found here.
Total time to update the server is under 30 minutes, including time for reboots.
Good luck, and happy updating!