Windows Server 2012

Last night I was attending a webinar on Windows Server 2012, conducted by the trainer Ed Liberman, and it happened to be very informative. The the presentation was mostly through screenshots and virtualized, the information gain was high.

The webinar started with the primary installation of the server OS on a virtual machine. This is just the normal installation, same as any other Windows OS (and if you’ve worked with Windows 8 client side, this installation is no big deal). And the main advantage starts from here – it was the case in older Server operating systems that either we can install the core server or the graphical interface, but it was not possible to change to the next interface by just removing on interface. But Microsoft has now made it possible to remove the GUI after you configure the server, and then you can work smoothly with the core installation. It is not easy to configure the core server with all those commands on the prompt, and hence this change by Microsoft is going to get some applause.

The UI is the Metro look by Microsoft, and there are some changes in the Server Manager Windows. The window shows any errors in any of the features of the server, and this becomes a problem while having a clean installation. When you perform a custom install of the operation system on a new machines, be ready to have some error messages from the server manager window. But that’s all good as now we can monitor and manage them from the same window.

The UI seems tricky to some people, and they are not happy with the Metro look, demanding Microsoft to give an option for changing back to normal look. But that option is not going to be available in the near future, as Microsoft has implemented the Metro look to all its new technologies, and it won’t be happy to have any modifications to them now. Yes, there will be unofficial tweaks for getting the normal look, but you’ll have to wait for it. While for me, I am good with the Metro look, as they’ve continued with the search-box and shortcuts. The interface is decent, its just that you need time to have some familiarity with it.

As the time was a constraint, the webinar was not able to cover the advanced features, but I am learning them from my course at the Microsoft Virtual Academy. At the MVA, I am able to discover more deeply through their official videos and white papers, and the self assessments are fun. Hope to get among the top ten students by completing some more tracks in my free time.Keep checking for more updates on Windows Server 2012 as I’m soon going to implement it on my machine and have some hands-on with the system.

Adios, for now.