Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs

WFLP is a product offering that comes with Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) licensees. This is a very overlooked benefit, but it is a GREAT answer for those "what do we do with all those old machines" question. WFLP is made to run on less than optimal hardware and can even be used to make an old PC turn into a simple thin client.

More information on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fundamentals_for_Legacy_PCs

Or at Microsoft.com here: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/fundamentals.mspx

Software Assurance has a LOT of benefits, this is only one of them.

That failed, because my pesky Windows 2008 server wanted authentication. I am guessing that WFLP will connect fine to a 2000/2003 based Terminal server but does not have the new RDP client built in, so I will do the full install.

Product Key, and then Date/Time Settings, and then…

Slightly different GUI for disk allocation

Interesting to note - unlike most XP installs, it will not let you proceed with a blank admin password.

Doubly interesting, it even didn't like my first attempt:

Another different looking screen:

One last dialog asking if you want to do domain or workgroup. I typically choose workgroup and do domain later, but I took a chance on it.

Following this screen, there is a review your settings, and then you can proceed installing.

After a reboot, I got a lovely BSOD. I was running this in ESX at first, but I think there was an issue with the SCSI driver as the first boot would BSOD there. I reinstalled on Hyper-V because it supports IDE drives (more commonly seen for a desktop OS) and it worked flawlessly.

Seems some background tasks occur under this, a lot of text went by as it registered classes, devices, etc. There was no user interaction required during this step.

Once completed, another reboot occurs, and we are up and running WFLP. waiting for more things to install:

Looks like the domain stuff did not work. Looks like it's the lack of NIC. Notice here, the RAMdisk controller.

So, I installed the Hyper-V integration disk and crossed my fingers.

Now, I am able to join the domain:

Of course, a limited OS is not without its downfalls:

After spending some time using WFLP to do Windows Updates and browse the web, I realized - this is not too bad. But then again, I have 512MB of RAM and it is reporting a Xeon 3220 processor (that's what the Hyper-V server has) so I decided it was time to downscale the VM to see how it ran.

So I shut it down after patching and made the above screen look more grim:

Odd, I was hoping selecting this would put a different processor in here. Kind of wishing I had ESX's processor options now.

Another thing to note. Regular Windows Update cannot get you SP3 - you need to download this version:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=B0AACB27-707D-4ED1-8BD9-25A821096281&displaylang=en

Final notes on WFLP.. Where is this a good fit? Where would you use this?

• Organizations that go through a hardware migration that might also be able to use a few old PC's for kiosks or terminal consoles (not using Windows 2008 Remote Desktop Services.
  
• Anyone needing simple email/IE only type access without any additional heavy applications.
  
• Fully patched, this install is only using 2GB of the 8GB I allocated it. That means it might be feasible to also have these thin clients booting off a USB device as well, even further reducing the footprint (and moving parts) on an aging desktop machine