Faced with choices. I must evaluate!

As an IT professional this is a concept you know very well.

This is why most of us got in the business anyway.  Find cool technologies, play with them, learn how to integrate it and take advantage of it.  It’s like playing with toys! Really cool toys.  This is why a lot of us have complex networks at home…  It’s our labs, our sandboxes, and our playgrounds.

But what if you don't?

What if all you have is the laptop/desktop that your employer gives you?

What if you only have one machine?

Worst, what if you’re not allowed to test with your wife/girlfriend/significant other’s machine because you “Claused” it in an ulterior attempt at testing? Like I did before….

(Clausing a machine is defined by the act of rendering it unusable. A termed coined in honour of our good friend Rick Claus @RicksterCDN )

Well we do have options.

You can dual boot your machine or do like I did. I use a dual boot configuration that I can remove from my machine at any time. A configuration that did not require a re-sizing of my partitions. What I use is the VHD download found here

Once downloaded it’s just a matter of expanding it to your hard drive and add it to your boot menu. Done!

If you need the space, delete the VHD file, remove the boot entry, you’re done.

Here is a quick (5:44 minutes) video on how I got it accomplished.

the bottom line is, you need to evaluate things before you can deploy them.  That a given.  Whether you decide to install a full version on a spare machine or use the VHD option as described above is up to you.  Once you’re setup and ready to go come back to this blog site.  In the next weeks we will continue to cover Windows Server 2012 scenarios that are important to IT Pros.

Here are some of the scenarios we’ve already covered.

• From Server Core to GUI to… MinShell?
• Server Manager: Manage multiple servers just got easier.
• Get up and go! Windows To Go, that is….

I know… That last one is not about Windows Server 2012… but it’s still cool.

So the first step is to go and get the goods.  Download the evaluation version here. Learn at www.MicrosoftVirtualAcademy.com and keep coming back to the CANITPRO blog for more scenarios.

And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, let us know what scenarios are important to you. We’ll add them to our list and see about presenting content you can benefit from.

Leave us a comment, connect with us. That’s why were here.  We’re looking forward to it.

Cheers!