Finally! The wait ends here. A Preview version of Windows Server 2012 R2 is released today.

Microsoft states this about the server release:

At the heart of the Microsoft Cloud OS vision, Windows Server 2012 R2 brings Microsoft’s experience delivering global-scale cloud services into your infrastructure. Windows Server 2012 R2 offers exciting new features and enhancements across virtualization, storage, networking, virtual desktop infrastructure, access and information protection, and more.

The OS coded Build 9431 which was compiled on June 15, 2013 12:14 GMT and comes in following flavors including on Windows Azure.

• Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Preview ISO
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Preview VHD (Server Core)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Preview VHD (Server with a GUI)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Preview on Windows Azure

The ISO (available at the link below) comes in several languages Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish and the VHD comes in English only. Though the languages seems limited at this time, but Microsoft would support more than 100 different languages in the final products.

Now Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview supports two types of activation:

Datacenter Product Key: JGXYY-7NMTC-MHKY3-QCC9B-VQRG7

Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA) Key for Datacenter Server: XVNRV-9HTX4-TH2JD-HVJQD-QRQWG

You can grab your copy from the direct download links given below:

Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Preview (x64) – DVD (English)

Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Preview (x64) – DVD (English)

For more variants and “Blue” updates for SQL Server, Windows Azure, System Center and Windows Intune, visit TechNet Evaluation Center.

As always, the software is a preview of what the final version will offer but is not intended to replace your current OS on any production machine. The evaluation will expire on January 15, 2014.

Moreover, Windows 8.1 Preview is still due and will be available to the public followed by BUILD 2013 on June 26. So stay tuned, we will keep posting updates and new details about Windows 8.1 as they are made public.