I am running Windows 7 (build 7100) and I manage quite a few Windows 2003 servers, one of which is running Exchange 2003.  I am not a fan of having to RDP to a domain controller just to manage some user settings and I was patiently waiting for Microsoft to release something…

Don’t bother trying to install the Windows 2003 Admin Tool Pack in Windows 7.  It will not work.

Microsoft has released the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7.  Download and install this little jewel.  Once installed, hop into your “Control Panel”.  Click on “Programs” and then “Turn Windows features on or off”.  You will see a new section called “Remote Server Administration Tools”.  Mark which tools you need and then click Ok.  No reboot needed.

That was half the problem…  Now onto the Exchange tools.  Microsoft seems to not have much information about the Exchange tools for 2003.  I can’t blame them.  I would like to be running Exchange 2007 right now but it is not in the cards for another year.  By that time, probably jump right into Exchange 2010.  In the meantime, I found a download over at Will Dove’s website.  What he has done is take the official ESM for Vista build from Microsoft and removed the check for Vista in the install process.  This works like a charm.  I have not run into any issues using this on my system.

Next up for my admin tool build project, Citrix Tools and OCS.

Updates:

• 20090817 – Updated the link to the Remote Server Administration Tools

A common bug I have run into is a security message saying that the application does not have permission to the data folder. The only way to properly identify this message is to read through the installation log file.

I have increased my chances of getting the service pack to properly install by resetting the file permissions where I keep my data. See the screenshot. The key is to replace permissions on the child objects. This is found on the properties of the data directory (or the location of your SQL system databases), sharing tab, advanced button.