Today was a big day if you happen to enjoy Release Candidate builds from Microsoft. Not only did we see the RC release of both Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 (and Hyper-V Server), but it also coincided with the release of RC editions of the Visual Studio 11 developer platform (including Team Foundation Server, Test Manager and Test Agent packs).
Naturally, releasing such a wide range of products simultaneously means there’s a whole lot of ground to cover. I naturally like to whet my appetite across client OS, server and developer tools in equal measure – but this is going to be some effort this time around!
I’ve been looking ahead at the changes expected in the Visual Studio 11 RC already – and there figures to be a lot of discussion around the changes to the VS user interface, especially when compared to the beta. I’m also going to focus on the changes in .NET 4.5 and what we can expect in the RTM versions.
It looks like you can suppress the ALL CAPS menus in Visual Studio 11 RC with a registry key – props to MVP and scrum fiend Richard Banks for the tip.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\General\SuppressUppercaseConversion
REG_DWORD value: 1
Lastly.. Windows 8 RC. In my experience, the RC is very close to the RTM edition, so we’ll be expecting this release to be something you could run on bare metal. Same goes for Windows Server 2012.
I sincerely wish I had the money to outlay for a new server-spec machine, as I’d be extremely keen to give the new Hyper-V Server 2012 a run on bare metal. I’ve been hearing very, very good things about the upcoming release and how Hyper-V has overcome some of the annoying limitations of the previous version.
Anyhow – here are links to the downloads. If you enjoy Microsoft RC products, start your downloading!
/Rob
Links
Windows 8 RC 1
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/home
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download?ocid=W_MSC_W8P_DevCenter_IE_EN-US
Windows Server 2012 Datacenter RC 1
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx?ocid=&wt.mc_id=TEC_108_1_33
Visual Studio 11 RC 1/
Team Foundation Server 2012 RC 1
