Installing the Windows Server 2022 OS

In this section, I’ll walk you through two different types of installations: a full install of Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Desktop Experience), and installing the Server Core version of the same software.

For these labs, I am using the full release of Windows Server 2022 Datacenter, but you can use Windows Server 2022 Standard.

Installing with the Desktop Experience

In Exercise 3.1, you’ll install Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Desktop Experience). This installation will have a graphical user interface (GUI), which means that an administrator will be able to control the applications on the desktop and the operating system functions with a mouse.

Windows Installation

As of this writing, I used a full release of Windows Server 2022 Datacenter that I downloaded from my MSDN account. Microsoft is constantly releasing new versions of Windows Server 2022. For this reason, there may be some screens that have changed somewhat since this book was published. But the installation should be very close to what I will do here.

EXERCISE 3.1

Installing Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Desktop Experience)

Insert the Windows Server 2022 installation media and restart the machine. You may be asked to press any key to start the installation.
At the first screen, Windows Server 2022 (see Figure 3.1) will ask you to configure your language, time and currency, and keyboard. Make your selections and click Next.

FIGURE 3.1 Windows Server 2022 Setup

3. At the next screen (see Figure 3.2), click the Install Now button.

FIGURE 3.2 Install Now screen

4. Depending on what version of Windows Server 2022 you have (MSDN, TechNet, and so on), you may be asked to enter a product key. If this screen appears, enter your product key and click Next. If this screen does not appear, just go to step 5.

5. The Select The Operating System That You Want To Install screen then appears. Choose Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Desktop Experience) (see Figure 3.3) and click Next.

FIGURE 3.3 Windows Server Edition

6. The license terms screen appears. After reading the Windows Server 2022 license agreement, check the I Accept The License Terms check box and click Next.

7. On the Which Type Of Installation Do You Want? screen (see Figure 3.4), choose Custom: Install Windows Only (Advanced).

FIGURE 3.4 Choosing Custom: Install Windows Only

8. The next screen will ask you where you want to install Windows. If your hard disk is already formatted as NTFS, click the drive and then click Next. If the hard disk is not yet set up or formatted, click the New link and create a partition. After creating the partition, choose the Primary partition and click the Format link. Once the format is done, make sure you choose the new partition and click Next.

9. The Installing Windows screen will appear next. This is where the files from your media will be installed onto the system (see Figure 3.5). The machine will reboot during this installation.

10. After the machine has finished rebooting, a screen requesting the administrator password will appear (see Figure 3.6). Type in your password. (P@ssword is used in this exercise. Do not use this password in a live environment.) Your password must meet the password complexity requirements (three of the following four are needed for complexity: one capitalized, one lowercase, one number, and/or one special character). Click Finish.

FIGURE 3.6 Customize Settings screen

Next, log into the system. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, and type the administrator password. The machine will set up the properties of the administrator account.
Notice that the Server Manager dashboard automatically appears (see Figure 3.7). You may receive a message about using the Windows Admin Center. Just close that message. We will use the Windows Admin Center later in this book. Your Windows Server 2022 installation is now complete.

FIGURE 3.7 Windows Server Manager Dashboard

13. Close Server Manager.

After you have logged into the Windows Server 2022 Datacenter system, you will notice some features right away. The first is that there is a Start button in the lower- left corner of the screen. We will be using the Start Menu a lot throughout this book.

Administrators can also access the Start button by clicking the Windows Key on a standard keyboard.

So now that we have installed the Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Desktop version), we are going to install Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Server Core.