Desktop Experience

To fully get the Windows 8 experience to Windows Server 2012, Microsoft added the possibility to install this as a feature. This will install additional desktop applications and add several GUI improvements.

Installing this feature will have the following effects:

• Applications added to the Start screen: Windows Store / Default Programs / Windows Media Player / Character Map / Disk Cleanup / Snipping Tool / Sound Recorder / Math Input Panel.
• At startup, the Start screen will automatically appear instead of the classic desktop.
• Charms bar (bar on the right side of the screen) will beside the buttons ‘Search’, ‘Start’ and ‘Settings’ also have ‘Share’ and ‘Devices’.
• The Settings option of the Charms bar will also have the ‘Change PC Settings’ option which is a Windows 8 version of the Control Panel.
• The context menu of the classic desktop will have the ‘Personalize’ option added.
• Applications: Windows Mail, Windows Photo Viewer
• Services: ActiveX Installer, Offline Files, Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), System Events Broker, Time Broker, WebClient, Still Image Acquisition Events, Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant
• Miscelanous: Various screensavers, Ability to burn .iso’s from Windows Explorer, Sync Center in Control Panel, Adobe Flash Player

 

1. Start the Server Manager and click the Add roles and features link in the Welcome Tile. If you already closed the Welcome Tile, make it visible again via the View menu or in the left panel navigate to Local Server, then in the right panel scroll all the way down to ROLES AND FEATURES, click the TASKS dropdown and choose Add Roles and Features.

2. Skip the information page by clicking Next.

3. Select Role-based or feature-based installation as installation type and click Next.

4. We want to install the Desktop Experience feature on the local server which is also selected by default so choose Next.

5. The Desktop Experience feature is not a Server Role, so skip the Server Roles page by clicking Next.

6. At the Select Features page, expand User Interfaces and Infrastructure and check the Desktop Experience checkbox. Probably it will now ask you whether you also want to install the features required by Desktop Experience. Click the Add Features button to proceed. Now, click the Next button to proceed.

7. At the confirmation page, optionally check the Restart the destination server automatically if required checkbox as the Desktop Experience feature will need a restart to complete. You can also manually restart the server after the wizard completed.

8. Wait while the features are being installed. You can also close the ‘Add Roles and Features Wizard’ window if you want; it will continue in the background.

9. After the installation has completed, your system will automatically restart if you checked the checkbox at step 7. Otherwise you can close the wizard and restart the server manually. In case you don’t know yet what possibilities there are to restart Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012, read the essentials page.

10. Wait while your computer finishes the installation and restarts.

11. After logging in, the Start screen will appear with the new applications installed.

12. If you now click the Desktop tile, right click somewhere at a blank spot and choose Personalize, the Windows 8 Theme can be selected. Everything will however still remain gray because the color schema is by default determined by the overall color of the desktop background, which by default is the gray Windows Server 2012 background. This behavior can be changed by clicking the Color option in the Personalization screen.

13. Install a custom theme via the Get more themes online link in the Personalization screen.

 

Continue to configure Windows Server 2012 to automatically boot to the Classic Desktop…

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