Some days ago, when I was thumbing through the RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools) help file I found a somewhat disturbing sentence:

You can install the Administration Tools pack on computers running the Windows Vista with SP1 operating system, and use the Administration Tools pack to manage specific technologies on computers running either Windows Server 2008, or, in some cases, Windows Server 2003.

So in “some cases” we can use RSAT also for Windows Server 2003? Well, how many Windows Server 2008 machines do you already have in your organization? We’ve only a few test servers. So, of course RSAT will mostly be used to manage Windows Server 2003 for quite some time. Unfortunately, the help file doesn’t get more specific about the RSAT tools that do support Windows Server 2003.

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The articles I wrote here on 4sysops about the Adminpak-Vista issue were accessed about 150,000 times. Obviously, Microsoft has managed to frustrate quite a few admins this way. It took them more than a year to finally solve this problem. And the solution is the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT).

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Update: The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Vista SP1 replace the Adminpak.

A new Adminpak version is available now. Officially, it doesn’t support Vista, but I installed it today and, at least, some of the tools I tried worked properly. You probably know by now that the Adminpak tool will be replaced by RSAT, which most likely will come out soon after Service Pack 1 for Vista is released.

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Another year of blogging on 4sysops passed by. It was a good year. The number of page views doubled and so did the number of subscribers. So I say thank you to my loyal readers, especially to those who didn’t agree with me often. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might be interested to know which articles have been read most often.

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Update: RSAT is ready for download.

The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) Beta is now available for participants of the Windows Beta program. This tool set will replace the famous Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack aka Adminpak. It allows you to remotely manage a Windows server without logging on via RDP.

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Update: RSAT is ready for download.

There are quite a few names for this famous tool collection. Some write Adminpak, Admin Pack or Adminpack. The official name is Administrations Tools Pack, but Microsoft often speaks about the Windows Server 2003 management tools. Now, you have to learn a new name: RSAT or Remote Server Administration Tools. This is how the management tools are called under Windows Server 2008.

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Update: The Adminpak for Windows Server 2003 SP2 has been released.

Microsoft released another compatibility update for Vista. Aside from computability issues, it should also fix problems with the Adminpak (Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Tools Pack). However, it seems that one still needs this workaround to install the Adminpak under Vista.

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Update: The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Vista SP1 replace the Adminpak.

A while ago, I liked to an article that explains how to install the Adminpak on Windows Vista. Meanwhile I found out that there is a much easier way.

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Update: The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Vista SP1 replace the Adminpak.

The official name for the so-called Adminpak is Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Tools Pack. For earlier versions, the name of the setup file was admipak.msi, hence the name Adminpak. You will also often find Adminpack. It is a collection of free administration tools which allow you to remotely manage a Windows Server. Basically, they are the same management tools that are installed on a Windows server, the Adminpak just installs them on a workstation.

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