Want to test out Windows Server 2012 R2 (and perhaps win an Xbox One in the process), but not sure where to start? Follow our simple install guide to get going.

Most of this year's Windows updates came out as part of the Windows 8.1 release wave, including the R2 updates of Windows Server 2012. But one had a slightly delayed release and finally made its official appearance over the weekend: the latest release of Windows Server for Embedded Systems.

Contemplating a rollout of Windows 8.1 across your enterprise? The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013 now supports Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

Last week's big Microsoft news was the release of Windows 8.1, but it wasn't just the desktop that saw a refresh. Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 also saw official release.

Forget leisurely three-year product cycles; the release of Windows Server 2012 R2 next month comes barely a year after the original version. Microsoft is heavily pushing the idea that all its products will be on much faster upgrade cycles, but how are IT pros supposed to manage that process?

It's no surprise that Windows Server 2012 R2 will be coming out on 18 October, essentially the same date as Windows 8.1, since the two products have been on a parallel development cycle. But while I can imagine plenty of individual Windows users moving to Windows 8.1 on the day of release, that's less likely to apply to the server versions.

One of the key topics during our World Of Servers extravaganza has been data centre management: the tools, techniques and tactics you need to build and manage one cost-effectively. Here are 10 useful lessons, large and small, we picked up along the way.

Windows Server 2012 R2 was announced after Windows 8.1, but has become available in preview before its desktop namesake.

Over the past six months, our World Of Servers project has taken me from Canberra to London to Las Vegas to New Orleans in search of insights into how to best manage and deploy servers in the modern world. Here are the big-picture lessons I learned.

Cloud technology decisions are rarely as straightforward as 'all private' or 'all public'. A hybrid cloud approach gives you the benefits of both approaches, and Windows Server 2012 offers a host of tools to make shifting into the hybrid cloud easier and more productive.

Last week, Lifehacker attended Microsoft's TechEd event in New Orleans with three IT Pro bloggers in tow. Here's what they learned during their four day experience...

A crucial part of our World Of Servers coverage of TechEd North America 2013 was the contributions from our contest-winning IT pro bloggers Tommy Carron, Adam Webster and David Klemke. What did they learn during the week? What does the future hold for Windows Server 2012? Will New Orleans ever be safe again? Read on and find out!

I came to TechEd North America expecting to walk away with a few noteworthy points, maybe even a couple of cool strategies I could possibly on-sell, but what I left with was much, much more than that.

Only four days in and TechEd 2013 North America was already over. Each day had been crammed full of technical sessions and other conference activities. The opening keynote, demonstrations, labs, vendor promotions and of course the Surface queue. Not to mention the abundance of American cuisine to keep us energised as Microsoft's evangelists sought to inspire.

I've got soul and I'm super bad! My time in New Orleans is coming to an end and with that are some mixed emotions. The experience I've had over the last week has been incredible and it's sure to be one that I'll remember for a long time.

Grappling with a virtualised network architecture that's difficult to manage? The Hyper-V Extensible Switch running on Windows Server 2012 can simplify your management workload, letting you add capabilities to your virtualised network to meet your exact needs.

Last week our 2013 World Of Servers series reached its climax with a trip to New Orleans for Microsoft's TechEd North America 2013 conference. Here are the five big lessons I took away from that event (plus a round-up of what our competition-winning bloggers thought about it).

Missed one of the many videos from our coverage from TechEd 2013 North America this week? We've rounded them all up here in a single handy post. Enjoy!

90 per cent of a data scientist's job involves finding data from a wide variety of sources and then collating the masses of information into digestible tables. Microsoft's Data Explorer is an add-in for Excel that does essentially the same job in a few mouse clicks. We were given a demonstration of how it works at TechEd 2013...