<P> Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the sixth release of Windows Server family of operating systems developed concurrently with Windows 8 . It was not until April 17, 2012 that the company announced that the final product name would be "Windows Server 2012". </P> <P> Microsoft introduced Windows Server 2012 and its developer preview in the BUILD 2011 conference on September 9, 2011 . However, unlike Windows 8, the developer preview of Windows Server 2012 was only made available to MSDN subscribers . It included a graphical user interface (GUI) based on Metro design language and a new Server Manager, a graphical application used for server management . On February 16, 2012, Microsoft released an update for developer preview build that extended its expiry date from April 8, 2012 to January 15, 2013 . </P> <P> Before Windows Server 2012 was finalized, two test builds were made public . A public beta version of Windows Server 2012 was released along with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview on February 29, 2012 . The release candidate of Windows Server 2012 was released on May 31, 2012, along with the Windows 8 Release Preview . </P> <P> The product was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012 and became generally available on September 4, 2012 . However, not all editions of Windows Server 2012 were released at the same time . Windows Server 2012 Essentials was released to manufacturing on October 9, 2012 and was made generally available on November 1, 2012 . As of September 23, 2012, all students subscribed to DreamSpark program can download Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter free of charge . </P>

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