Product Description

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter (64-bit) 5 user DVD , 2CPU English Version

Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8",^[4] is the sixth release of Windows Server. It is the server version of Windows 8 and succeeds Windows Server 2008 R2. Two pre-release versions, a developer preview and a beta version, were released during development. The software was generally available to customers starting on September 4, 2012.^[5]

Unlike its predecessor, Windows Server 2012 has no support for Itanium-based computers,^[6] and has four editions. Various features were added or improved over Windows Server 2008 R2 (with many placing an emphasis on cloud computing), such as an updated version of Hyper-V, an IP address management role, a new version of Windows Task Manager, and ReFS, a new file system. Windows Server 2012 received generally good reviews in spite of having included the same controversial Metro-based user interface seen in Windows 8.

The successor to Windows Server 2012, called Windows Server 2012 R2, was released along with Windows 8.1 in October 2013. A service pack, formally designated Windows Server 2012 R2 Update, was released in April 2014.^[7][8]

History

Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8",^[4] is the sixth release of Windows Server family of operating systems developed concurrently with Windows 8.^[9][10] It was not until April 17, 2012 that the company announced that the final product name would be "Windows Server 2012".^[4]

Microsoft introduced Windows Server 2012 and its developer preview in the BUILD 2011 conference on September 9, 2011.^[11]However, unlike Windows 8, the developer preview of Windows Server 2012 was only made available to MSDN subscribers.^[12] It included a graphical user interface (GUI) based on Metro design language and a new Server Manager, a graphical application used for server management.^[13] On February 16, 2012, Microsoft released an update for developer preview build that extended its expiry date from April 8, 2012 to January 15, 2013.^[14]

Before Windows Server 2012 was finalized, two test builds were made public. A public beta version of Windows Server 2012 was released along with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview on February 29, 2012.^[9] The release candidate of Windows Server 2012 was released on May 31, 2012, along with the Windows 8 Release Preview.^[10]

The product was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012 and became generally available on September 4, 2012.^[5] However, not all editions of Windows Server 2012 were released at the same time. Windows Server 2012 Essentials was released to manufacturing on October 9, 2012^[15] and was made generally available on November 1, 2012.^[16] As of September 23, 2012, all students subscribed to DreamSpark program can download Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter free of charge.^[17]

System requirements