Here are some tips that might be helpful when you are setting up Windows Server 2008 RC0 on AMD64/EM64T machine or in VMWare.
1. You can install the OS without putting any license information. I tried to help it with license that MSDN gives. It did not work. The OS will run for some time [1 month ?] without any license key entered during installation.
If you plan on running the OS longer, request for a license separately here. You will receive a license key right away with a few clicks. You will also get an email with a link to the license page, which is useful in case you misplace the license code.
2. If you are installing in VMWare, unless you install VMWare Tools, your network mappings or VMWare Shared Folders will not work correctly. net use and explorer will report bad password everytime you attempt connecting.
3. If you are like me you would want to disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration [which is nice and good, but an annoyance when you are testing and you want to check something quickly on the web] by going to Control Panel->Programs And Features->Turn Windows features on or off->Configure IE ESC or Start->All Programs->Administrative Tools->Server Manager->Configure IE ESC.
4. If you type shutdown -r -t 0 intending to restart the machine – it will not work. You have to type shutdown /r /t 0 instead.
5. Disable password expiry on your administrator account.
