Installing Windows Server 2012

So I received an evaluation DVD of Windows Server 2012 at the Microsoft Boot Camp event and finally got some time to try it out.
Windows Server 2012 has several enhancements to Hyper-V, failover clustering in addition to integration with Microsoft cloud services Windows Azure.

I created a new virtual machine in Hyper-V 2008 R2 and booted the iso image

Initially I got the following error, which turned out to be a corrupt image:

A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.

Note: If the installation media for Windows is in the DVD drive or on a USB drive, you can safely remove it for this step.

I got another good copy and proceeded

As you can see there is no Enterprise edition anymore. Windows Server 2012 comes in 2 editions both of which have the same features: Standard allows you to run 2 VMs and Data Center can run unlimited number of VMs.

I choose to perform a new clean installation, select the disk drive and continue 

The installation goes on as usual, reboots a couple of times then prompts for the Administrator password

While you type the new Administrator password, you get an eye button that shows the password if you click hold it

Now the setup is complete and the login screen appears

After you login, the Server Manager pops up. The user interface is similar to the Windows 8 Desktop

This default installation is using around 12GB of disk space and 600MB of memory

Similarly to Windows 8, the Start Menu has been replaced with the Start Screen. If you hover the cursor over the lower-left corner for a while you will see Start Screen launcher, click it and you get the Metro-style tiled Start Screen, and of course you could have just pressed the Win key

Right click on any empty space, a bottom bar will appear with an icon "All apps", if you click it more applications tiles will appear

Right click any tile and the bottom bar will appear with more choices

Click on Desktop to return back to the desktop.

2 other hot spots at the top and bottom right corners, hovering over them shows the Charms Bar

Click on Settings, you will get another menu with other options such as shutdown and restart