Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 was officially announced today and will be available for everyone interested in the bits, through the Community Technology Preview program.

September CTP or RC0 ?

In the true spirit of supplying Windows Server 2008 beta testers and beta customers with new builds roughly every two months Microsoft released a build a few weeks ago. A lot of torrent trackers refer to this build as the September Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Server 2008. The buildnumber of this version is 6001.16648 and was signed off on August 27th, 2007.

This "September Community Technology Preview (CTP)" of Windows Server 2008 does not contain Windows Server Virtualization (WsV). The September Community Technology Preview (CTP) is not an official TechNet or MSDN build.

What's in it ?

Windows Server Virtualization

One of the most surprising things that is part of this new build is Viridian, or Windows Server Virtualization (WsV) as we call it nowadays.

Windows Server Virtualization was announced to be put aside in the release schedule for Windows Server 2008. This release schedule got bumped only weeks ago, so perhaps the advent of Windows Server Virtualization (WsV) in this rather crucial build might indicate another release scenario after all. A scenario with more features than bargained a while ago and therefor another scenario we saw with the release of Windows Vista…

Allthough Windows Server Virtualization isn't really feature packed (a couple of features got slashed, with some returning a little later) it still offers functionality beyond the latets Virtual Server and Virtual PC products, like multi-processor guests, large memory allocation and 64-bit guest Operating Systems.

Internet Information Services 7

If you're not lucky enough to get access to a Post-Beta 3 build of Windows Server 2008 yet, you've missed out on a lot of Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0. On a Full Server Installation you benefit from version 3.0 of the .Net Framework combined with the modular strength of IIS. On Server Core installation you can actually install parts of Internet Information Services (IIS) as Server Roles using ocsetup.exe.

Product Key usage

If you have a working product key for Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 or Windows Server 2008 June Community Technology Preview (CTP)  you can use the same product key for the September Community Technology Preview (CTP) and Release Candidate 0.

Alternatively you can specify you don't want to enter a productkey. If you don't enter a product key you can choose the version you want to install (actually: this install screen got changed with the September CTP build first). Versions available in the standard download are:

• Standard
• Standard (Server Core)
• Enterprise
• Enterprise (Server Core)
• Datacenter
• Datacenter (Server Core)

There is a Windows Server 2008 RC0 Web Server available as a seperate download from the download section as well.

Download locations

Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 (RC0) is available from the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Website. ActiveWin also made a list of available resources, including a couple of guides, directly linking to the Microsoft Download Center. Steven Bink and his crew also have an array of links. (Did you expect anything less?)

Further reading

First Microsoft hypervisor build due with next Windows Server 2008 test build
New Windows Server 2008, Vista SP1 test builds to hit next week?
Microsoft releases Viridian hypervisor along with Windows Server 2008 RC0
RC0 is here…
It's getting better all the time
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Released to TAP Customers, wider availability soon?
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Released to TAP Customers
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Released!
Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 Ready for Customer Review
Installing "Viridian" CTP on Windows Server 2008 RC0
How to Install Windows Server Virtualization?
Live Migration vs. Quick Migration
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Download Locations
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Release Candidate – download now
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Downloads