R2 isn’t really R2 until it becomes R2

Windows 2003 R2… Heads Up.

Ok, whew…

Thanks to my favourite wizard, Avi for finding the following article, as recently we built dozens of servers based on a Gold image using R2 media and yet, we were unable to install some R2 Features…

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/912309

Learn something new everyday… I had no idea… 🙂

Basically, our Gold image was built (from what I can tell) using R2 media but only the first CD. Apparently, Windows 2003 SP1 doesn’t ‘become’ R2 until the second CD is run. In our case, up until today, when we wanted to install the advanced printer management functions that comes with R2 (sexier Enterprise Print Management), we hadn’t even noticed/discovered that our systems weren’t *totally* R2. Note, we didn’t NEED R2 and our systems are fully compliant with R2 but if you need R2 ‘functionality’, you’ll need to spin the R2 disc/media, put your valid R2 license code against it and voila, welcome to real R2.

The short version:

If you run Windows 2003 R2 setup on a server and only install using the first CD, you are going to be running Windows 2003 SP1. If you install the 2nd CD (and sometimes you aren’t prompted, say in assisted server builds like HP Smart Start, etc.), THEN you will be running Windows 2003 R2.

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