Insert Windows 2003 SP2 disk

Situation: You're providing remote support and installing a new role in an old environment (Windows 2003) ... well, this is over the Internet, and you may have that SP2 ISO locally, getting someone to install it or transfer it or download it may be a bit longer than you need.

If you have the ISO, you can try to mount/share through your rdp client, or you can (for Windows 2003) wait for the app to ask for the files you need and upload them one at a time.

Hey, but the ISO has the thing as a single .exe! There's no folder structure!

It's true. But you can use, for instance, 7-Zip to extract  the .exe to a folder locally, then continue with the install remotely, where it will ask for the files it needs, then you can upload just those files in an accessible location. Sure, it's probably better to download and extract on the remote server. But if you only need a couple of MB of files and you've already got the SP2 locally, why not take a look at this as an option?

vmware server make isos from Microsoft Volume License exe

Some things I learned:

• the default logon and password of VMware infrastructure web access is the one you use to log on to your workstation/server
• An iso you want to map to a CD in vmware server must at least be in the Virtual Machines location.
• Microsoft .exe files from Open License should be extracted before made into an iso.
• nlite is the easiest way to make a bootable iso from disk 1.
• use your favorite iso maker to make an iso of disk 2 (ashampoo is a free option)
• Internet Exporer (or Firefox) is necessary at least initially for the Remote Console
• ctrl-alt-insert sends ctrl-alt-delete
• Windows 2003 Server forgets the AMD PCNET adapter after upgrading to SP2. Copy the windows.iso file from the VMware directory to the Virtual Machines directory and mount it via CD to install VMware tools