Automatic System Recovery (ASR) is a system recovery utility included in Windows Server 2003. By using this utility, you can rebuild a failed server without having to reinstall the operating system. ASR works like this: When you run the Backup utility and select ASR, it creates a snapshot of the server and its configuration, which includes the operating system, its components, and their configurations, as well as dynamic volume settings for partitioning and fault tolerance. If the server fails, you can restore it to the same machine or another machine with the exact same system configuration as the original machine.

Because of the way the snapshot is applied, you need not reinstall the operating system or reconfigure components prior to running the utility. You simply boot the server to the Windows Server 2003 installation CD-ROM and choose to do a system recovery.

Service Pack 3 for Windows 2000 introduced the concept of Automatic Updates. Automatic Updates helps you keep the operating system up-to-date with the latest patches, hot fixes, and service packs by periodically checking to see whether compatible updates for the system are available and then downloading those updates for installation. Microsoft includes this feature in Windows Server 2003 as well, which provides an easy way to ensure servers are up-to-date with system patches and the latest security updates.

As in Windows XP, the Windows Server 2003 Automatic Updates utility gives you complete control over how the update process works. You can configure the service to do the following:

Automatic Updates also has a rollback feature that allows you to remove updates and restore a server to the state it was in before an update was applied.

System verification and protection utilities have been evolving since Windows 2000. Windows 2000 includes System File Protection and Driver Verifier utilities. System File Protection protects system files to ensure they are not accidentally overwritten. Driver Verifier allows you to check new device drivers and other system-level programs to ensure compatibility. If you have a problem with a kernel-level program, Driver Verifier helps you find it.

Windows XP adds System Restore, Application Verifier, and Driver Rollback. System Restore allows you to make point-in-time checkpoints of the operating system configuration and use these checkpoints to recover the Windows operating system to a previous point in time. Application Verifier allows you to check applications to ensure compatibility. If you run a program using Application Verifier and it fails, Application Verifier tells you what caused it to fail, and, even better, it has the capability to add information to the program to allow it to run normally. Driver Rollback is a simpler, friendlier version of Driver Verifier. Driver Rollback allows you to remove device drivers that have been applied by rolling the system back to use a previous version of a driver. In fact, all previous versions of drivers are saved so they can be used for rollback as necessary. Also, if you are unsure of a driver and want to test it, you can install it, let a server run with it for a while, and if it doesn't work out, you can use the Driver Rollback feature to restore the previous driver.

Except for System Restore, all of these features are included in Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 continues to support System File Protection. It adopts the simpler, easier-to-use version of Driver Verifier—Driver Rollback. It includes Application Verifier. And it uses Volume Shadow Copy in place of System Restore.