[Microsoft Surface] Jay4255:
Pictures can be found in my album. I will work on this post more later, just wanted to get something up before I went to bed.

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I purchased a 128G Surface Pro and Touch Cover a few days ago. I backed up the recovery partition, and made a clone with Acronis so I can always put it back to how it was the day I pulled it out of the box. I did the firmware update, then wiped out Windows 8 and replaced it with Server 2012. This is my experience with it...

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It took a few tries to get the Surface to boot off a USB stick, but after formatting it to FAT32 and copying the Server 2012 files from the ISO, the install started right up. The install was fairly quick! I didn't time it, but it didn't seem like it took more than 20 minutes (could have just been that "new toy" excitement).

If you have a ".edu" address, you can get Server 2012 and other products (depending on your school) for free from Microsoft by creating an account at DreamSpark

Since Server 2012 is based on Windows 8, this provides me with a lot more functionality, while not losing much in terms of the features from Windows 8. I installed Windows Deployment Services (WDS) so that I can install different versions of Windows over the network without burning ISOs or carrying CD binders. This does eat up some space, but I think it is well worth it.

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I then installed Hyper-V so that I can create virtual machines to test the deployments. I created a basic machine with no hard drive and set it to boot off the network.

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Sure enough, it booted from WDS. I have a bootable version of Acronis so that I can clone a customer's computer before I wipe it out. This Acronis image lets me save to a network share, which I created on a external USB drive plugged into the Surface. For the Windows Setup option, I just picked the 32-Bit boot.wim from the Windows 7 DVD (I know the screenshots show Win 8, I went back and changed it). You can use a boot.wim from any Windows disk, I just like the 7 start animation better.

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A boot.wim from a 32-Bit disk will show list both 32-Bit and 64-Bit options, whereas the boot.wim from a 64-Bit would only show 64-Bit options. You can see both listed under the "Architecture" column.

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I then created a share on the Surface for common programs that I usually install after a computer is reloaded. I only selected the top and bottom two because the middle three are empty placeholders at the moment.

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So with all of the images I added to WDS, and the Hyper-V virtual machines, I still have 75gigs of free space!

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I didn't look to see how much free space I had before I started, but according to this website, out of the box it has 83gigs free. For all the features Server 2012 provides over Windows 8 and what I have loaded on it... I am perfectly happy with only using 8 more gigs.

There were a couple issues that I ran into... Anyone who works on servers or uses a computer that is connected to one knows that you have to do the three fingered salute (Ctrl + Alt + Delete) to login. Well, what if I don't always have my Type Cover handy? You can click on the "Ease of Access" button and bring up the tiny Windows On-Screen Keyboard (not the large Surface keyboard that takes half the screen), or you can disable that "security feature" (read: annoyance) in Group Policies.

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Another thing I noticed is that when I pressed the power button, nothing happened. Well, I wanted it to sleep or at least turn off the screen. So looking at the Power Properties, the only options are "Do Nothing" and "Shutdown". Well, thankfully Group Policies saved me again...

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The only issues I have remaining is that the orientation sensor isn't working, which isn't a big deal for me, but I am still going to try and fix it. Same thing with the light sensor that automatically controls the brightness.

Some notes...

I really liked the quick boot time, and wanted to try and avoid installing Active Directory. I did all the above while keeping the server on a workgroup and not making it a Domain controller. It still goes from off to Lock Screen in under a minute.

I set the Hyper-V and WDS services to Manual and just turn them on when I need them. This reduces processor and ram usage.

I still wanted to be able to use this as a tablet for class, so I installed the "Desktop Experience" feature and created an account for me so I'm not always running on Administrator. This provides extra security by prompting for the Administrator password if someone attempts to change settings or install a program. This also lets me install applications from the Store (running Store under Admin gives a error message).

You'll see Internet Information Services (IIS) installed in the screenshots. I have not done anything with this yet, but I might make another post about what I'm doing with it later ^__^