Our organization is, for now, 100% Exchange 2003 with latest service Pack. My workstation has, for the last several years, been an install of Server 2003 R2 Standard SP2, 32-bit. I am considering upgrading (new computer being provided to me) by installing a fresh copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 w/SP1 and use that as my workstation operating system. (dont ask, I just like to run what I support). The problem i'm having is, I cannot find any information on whether or not I can install the Exchange 2010 admin tools on this new 2008 R2 workstation and then use those tools to manage our Exchange 2003 environment safely. I know I can't install the Exchange 2003 tools on Windows 2008, Vista, 7, or anything 64-bit, hence the reason i'm asking about the 2007 and/or 2010 Exchange tools running on 2008 R2. Thoughts ? Brian / ChevyNovaLN

As far as I know, you cannot manage (at least not fully and probably not at all) an Exchange 2003 organization with the E2K7 or E2K10 management tools. Other ideas (if this is just for Exchange management): - Install 32 bit version of Windows 7 - Install 32 bit OS in a virtual machine running on your W2K8 R2 desktop (Hyper-V maybe - mostly work with VMware for virtualization so not sure there. - Remote Desktop.

The 2007 and 2010 management tools are not compatible with Exchange 2003. I use a separate admin/util box which sits next to my primary workstation. I then RDP into the admin box when I need to work with any AD/Exchange tools. Having the split also helps lessen the load on my primary computer when I'm running large batch files or other resource intensive tasks.

I sort of figured these would be the answers I would get, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I'll probably end up just using RDP to one of our exchange 2003 servers if I need to do Exchange work for mailboxes, etc.. It doesn't happen much anymore for me, but its of course always nice to have the tools loaded locally for convenience sake. I do also, from time to time, run a VM using Sun Virtualbox due to it having the 'seamless' mode that works pretty well as long as you dont use multiple monitors. I guess if i'm running 2008 i could just as easily add the Hyper-V role. Thanks guys, Brian / ChevyNovaLN

Right, never hurts to ask or double-check.