Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows (RT) 8.1 update available now!

Today on Microsoft Build Developer Conference keynote multiple great announcements are done. This for both Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows (RT) 8.1, Windows Embedded 8.1 and Windows Phone 8. Also new Nokia devices (630 and 635) are announced for next month. Great to see that the start menu will return in Windows 8 (with app support), Windows Phone will have voice control (Cortana) and Windows on 9" or smaller Phone and Tablet screens will be free from now on! Can it even better? Way to go Microsoft!

The start menu will return in a later update

This is a smart move from Microsoft to let Windows Phone grow, instead of Android and iOS which still rules the market. There's also extended Mobile Device Management (MDM) coming with Enterprise Mobility Suite. Windows Azure and Intune will be even more important that way. Also great that Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows (RT) 8.1 update is available for MSDN subscriptions now! The update will be generally available in 6 days on April 8th for everyone else on Windows Update. Let's have a look at MSDN right away ;)

Choose between update or whole package

There you go! It's possible to download the update only (360MB for x86 and 770MB for x64) or just download the whole package, which is OS and update in one. Within the update package 6 MSU files can be found and a readme.txt. In the txt file you can find the recommended installation order for the MSU files. No unified installer this time.

Let's install Windows 8.1 update right away ;)

Source:
Day 1 Keynote <- A must see!
Windows Phone Blog <- Windows Phone 8.1
Windows Experience Blog <- Windows 8.1 Update

Windows 8 Consumer Preview available for download

On 29-2-2012 the second build of Windows 8 (server and client) is showed to the world. After the Windows Developer Preview earlier last year, there's now a Consumer Preview available for download. Windows 8 (server and client) is build on Metro, the User Interface we know from Windows Phone 7 devices. That way it's usable on servers, desktops, laptops and tablets, with touch interface!

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO can be download HERE
The Windows Server "8" Beta ISO can be download HERE

How to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview from an ISO image

The easiest way to convert an ISO file to a DVD in Windows 7 is to use Windows Disc Image Burner. On a PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista, a third-party program is required to convert an ISO file into installable media—and DVD burning software often includes this capability. One option is the USB/DVD download tool provided by the Microsoft Store. You can also download Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup, which includes tools that allow you to create a DVD or USB flash drive from an ISO file (Windows Vista or Windows 7 required).

More blogposts available for Windows 8 also:

Guide to install Windows 8 on a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)

Guide to remove Windows 8 on a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)

Windows Server Developer Preview installed (Windows Server 8)

On 14-9-2011 the first build of Windows Server Developer Preview is showed to the world. The Windows Server Developer Preview is a pre-beta version of Windows Server 8 for developers. Windows Server 8 is also build on Metro, the User Interface we know from Windows Phone 7. That way it's usable on servers and remote manageble on tablets, with touch interface!

In this blog I show you the installation & look and feel. I've created an virtual machine with 1 CPU, 2GB RAM and 20GB Disk. That's enough for having a smooth running virtual machine. The ISO can be mounted with a virtual CD/DVD-drive for installing Windows Server 8. I've used Oracle VirtualBox to install Windows Server 8 and capture screenshots.

The installation is approximately done in 10 a 15 minutes. During installation the following screens are seen:

Choose between Full Installation, Server Core or Features on Demand

The differences between these versions are:

Server Core: Windows Core, Windows PowerShell, DotNet Framework 4

Features on Demand: Same as Server Core + Server Manager, MS Management Consoles, A subset of Control Panel applets

Full Installation: Same as Features on Demand + All Control Panel Applets, Windows Help, Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer

This is the default screen after installing..

Same as Windows 8 actually

When logon, Server Manager is started automatically (as usual)

The new Server Manager in Metro style, cool!

More about that in a next blogpost

Metro dashboard with tiles and menu options, nice!

Windows PowerShell will not be missed..

If needed, Windows PowerShell Getting Started Guide: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa973757(v=vs.85).aspx

New Task Manager in Windows Server 8

Have a look at this blogpost for more about that: http://henkhoogendoorn.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-task-manager-functionality-in.html

The Ribbon interface is available here also..

Known functionality as Control Panel, Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are still available. New installations adds new tiles on the Metro UI also. Next time I have a look at more functionality in Server Manager. Stay tuned for more!

Watch the introduction from Windows Server 8 on Build 2011: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/SAC-973F

Download Windows Server 8 from the MSDN website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/nl-nl/windowsserver/
(Unlike Windows 8 only available for early adopters interested in testing the Operating System)

Guide to remove Windows 8 on a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)

Last week I posted a setup for installing Windows 8 on a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk). Have a look for that here: Guide to install Windows 8 on a VHD. Now I received some questions how to make the Windows 8 setup undone, so Windows 7 will be the default Operating System again. In this blog I will give some solutions for this!

First it's possible to make Windows 7 the default Operating System again, without removing the Windows 8 installation. This is the easiest one to configure. Just boot from hard disk then, and while on the "Choose an Operating System" screen select "Change defaults or choose other options".

Then select "Choose the default operating system" to select Windows 7 as default OS again. It's also possible to change the default timer (from 30 seconds to 5 seconds) for faster boot there.

That way another boot menu will be used (from Windows 7 OS) which is must faster for booting Windows 7 AND Windows 8. I prefer this one because it's faster, not for the better menu.

Now another solution for totally remove Window8 from the boot menu. There are a few possibilities to make this possible:

• Use BCDEDIT and remove the Windows 8 boot entry
• Rebuild the boot menu from the Windows 7 DVD repair option
• Use BCDBOOT to repair boot files or create a new BCD store

It's of cource possible to remove the VHD file from hard disk. Then the boot menu will not be changed, and when selected "Windows 8" an error will follow:

Nothing to worry about, but not the better solution. It can be still part of a solution when using BCDEDIT, Windows 7 repair option or BCDBOOT. I will explain them all now.

With BCDEDIT many options comes available to add, delete, edit, and append entries in the boot configuration data (BCD) store. The BCD store contains boot configuration parameters and controls how the operating system is booted.

When not sure about BCDEDIT command first create a backup with: BCDEDIT /Export C:\BCDCOPY. Then delete the Windows 8 entry with the BCDEDIT /Delete command. For doing that the Identifier is needed. This can be found with the BCDEDIT command (without parameters):

The command for deleting Windows 8 here (in my case) is BCDEDIT /Delete {3b0c2878-9f48-11df-8e48-a2ba939022f2} /Cleanup. Let's have a try! I've deleted the Windows 8 entry and Windows 7 is booting immediately after reboot. Exactly what I want. No need to display the 30 seconds timer anymore, because there's only a single OS left.

When running BCDEDIT again my Windows 8 entry is gone, and Windows 7 will be the only OS left to boot. When I want to go back to Windows 8 again I choose: BCDEDIT /Import C:\BCDCOPY to have it all functional again.

The second solution is the Windows 7 repair option. Just start from a Windows DVD and choose "Repair your computer". Then select your OS (Windows 7) and choose "Startup Repair". The boot manager will then be repaired, and Windows 7 will be the default OS again. That way no rollback to Windows 8 is possible, because a clean boot manager is created.

 

If you click on “Startup Repair” then Windows will scan your system for common errors and will hopefully figure out that your boot manager is broken. A simple solution and maybe the most effective?

At last there is the BCDBOOT command. With BCDBOOT it's possible to copy critical boot files to the system partition and to create a new system BCD store.

 

I'm not that familiar with BCDBOOT, but for more information about this there is a TechNet post available: BCDboot Command-Line Options. It seems the most effective for creating a new BCD store or to add boot options to an existing BCD store.

For example, to create a BCD store on the default system partition with the optional locale parameter set to US English, you would use the following command: BCDBOOT C:\Windows /l en-us

Hope you have enough tools by now to remove Windows 8 from the boot menu and re-use Windows 7 as the only OS installed (if needed).

New Task Manager functionality in Windows 8

Windows 8 is a real hype this week on twitter all over the world. It's a totally different OS then Windows 7 and other Windows releases. The biggest difference is the Metro User Interface which introduces Tiles and new interfaces. One of the many differences (it's almost all new) in Windows 8 is the Task Manager. Not immediately the most striking application, but many times used when looking at performance issues.

Let's have a look at the Task Manager screens now. I show you all screens available in it:

Default Processes information (CPU, Memory, Disk, Network), Nice!

Nice graphic charts to see on the Performance screen.. (CPU, Memory and Disk are default in it with detailed information)

The App History tab shows all applications with total resource usage
(not much information for me here..)

Not much to see on the Startup screen at the moment..

This shows all resources in use per User session, very cool!

Details looks like Processes on the old Task Manager.. quite default

Services at last show all running and stopped.. well services 

As you can see this is a big step forward compared with the old Task Manager. Much more to see here, and nice detailed information!
Windows 8 totally rocks with the Metro User Interface and new look and feel. More blogposts about Windows 8 will follow later..

Guide to install Windows 8 on a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)

Yesterday I posted a blog about installing Windows 8 on a virtual machine. Easy to do, but not exactly what I want. This because i think it's better to create a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) and use the full resources of your device. Today my second install of Windows 8 takes place, this time on a VHD. The following steps are needed to get it done.

1) Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool and install it on your Windows device. Download
2) Start the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool and follow the steps. Select the Windows 8 ISO and use a empty USB device (4GB min.)

Select the Windows 8 ISO file on the hard disk

Use an empty USB device for installing Windows 8

Select the empty USB device and start/begin copying

Copy job is done and the USB device is ready to use now!

3) Open Disk Management and create a VHD file with Action > Create VHD. I've selected a dynamically expanding 20GB Virtual Hard Disk.

It's also possible to use DISKPART for that, but I'm just a GUI user. The steps needed for this will be then:

• DISKPART
• CREATE VDISK FILE="D:\VHD\Win8.vhd" TYPE=Expandable MAXIMUM=20000
• SELECT VDISK FILE="D:\VHD\Win8.vhd"
• ATTACH VDISK
• CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY (optional)
• EXIT

Just create a VHD file on your hard disk with enough free space

4) Now it's time to start from the bootable USB device. Choose USB when booting in the BIOS boot order menu. Windows 8 installation is starting then from the USB device!
5) Choose for a Custom installation, dont select an existing partition but just press SHIFT-F10 for a command window. Now choose the following commands:

• DISKPART
• SELECT VDISK FILE="D:\VHD\Win8.vhd" (Use List Disk in Diskpart to see what's drive the VHD is on. It's different then usual, so see comments for that one)
• ATTACH VDISK
• EXIT

6) Select the Windows installation screen again and press Refresh. That way the new created VHD partition becomes available.
7) Just install Windows 8 on the selected VHD partition, and let the magic happen! It will takes some time..

During installation a few reboots are needed. After that Windows 8 will be started. Select your network connection (wired/wireless) and start working immediately. There are default Apps for Twitter and Facebook available, so there's enough to do and see ;)

After the next restart a boot menu becomes available. When choose Options here, there's the choice between Windows 7 (existing OS) and Windows Developer Preview (a.k.a. Windows 8).

Both Operating Systems can be used by now, no need to use a virtual machine (or something like that) anymore. Just experience the full OS on full screen with all hardware resources available! Mine is running on 1680x1050 and wireless connection. That way Windows 8 will let you experience the true functionality.

Update: This guide can also be used for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Just remember to write down the product key needed.

Update 1-3-2012: When the 0x000000f error is showed on first boot, and no OS can be started at all, just try the following:

• Boot from USB to be able to select your Windows (7) OS
• Remove Windows 8 from boot order with BCDEDIT
• Disable BitLocker (!)
• Try again…

Thanks to @micmyh for support on this!

Update 1-6-2012: This guide can also be used for Windows 8 Release Preview. Just remember to write down the product key needed.

Windows Developer Preview or Windows 8 for developers available

On 14-9-2011 the first build of Windows Developer Preview is showed to the world. The Windows Developer Preview is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers. Windows 8 is build on Metro, the User Interface we know from Windows Phone 7. That way it's usable on desktops, laptops and tablets, with touch interface!

In this blog I show you the installation & look and feel. Support for ConfigMgr 2007/2012 functionality follows later. First download the ISO from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/
I've created an virtual machine with 1 CPU, 2GB RAM and 20GB Disk. That's enough for having a smooth running virtual machine. The ISO can be mounted with a virtual CD/DVD-drive for installing Windows 8.

When the error message "This 64-bit application couldn't load because your PC doesn't have a 64-bit processor" is shown, enable "Virtualization" or "Hardware Virtualization" in your BIOS to get it working.

When using Virtual PC download the 32-bit version of Windows 8. Virtual PC can only handle 32 bit guest systems. I've download the 64-bit version and used Oracle VirtualBox to install Windows 8 and capture screenshots.

The installation is approximately done in 10 a 15 minutes. During installation the following screens are seen:

Looks the same as Windows 7 installation..

Finalizing your settings/ Preparing your PC

Windows 8 is already up and running, yeah!

Windows desktop is still available as TILE

When installing an program/tool a popup opens

This is the default screen when restarting..

A start menu in Metro UI is also available

Tiles can be managed by a ribbon with menu options

Nice to see in Windows 8 is the choice to switch between the Metro User Interface (UI) and the classic Windows (7) desktop. Known functionality as Control Panel, Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are still available. New installations adds new tiles on the Metro UI. 

All tiles can be fully managed by an ribbon, which comes available when right-clicking a tile. When starting a tile/application, go back to the leftdown corner to access the start menu. That way going back to the Metro UI is possible. The application remains available that way.

Next time I have a look at more functionality and ConfigMgr support. Stay tuned for more!