I just deployed a downloaded pre-installed VHD with Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview with the intention of using it for WDS in the lab – and deploy the rest of the WSSC 2012 R2 Preview lab. I tried to log in and … what is the password?
It’s not:
- <Blank>
- Password
- Password00
- P@ssword
- P@ssword1
- Or any other variation
I checked the extracted folder and all I found was that by extracting the EXE I’d agreed to donate body parts to MSFT executives, etc. Web searches were fruitless. I reached out to the Twitterverse and was told by Ed Baker (who spent a morning searching) that the password is actually:
R2Preview!
The password includes the exclamation mark. Make sure you change it afterwards 
Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2012 R2
and Ed Baker (@edbaker1965) was told by MCT Artur Boryczko – very strange that it wasnt included anywhere!
Its mentioned on the system requirements page, under “installing versions distributed as a VHD”: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn303418.aspx. I found it this morning after some digging…
Thanks so much, I tired so many M$ default passwords 🙂
Many thanks for posting that and thanks to Ed for discovering that 🙂 Well done ED 🙂
“R2Preview!” Does not work on Windows Server 2012 R2 VHD. I downloaded it from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/dn205286.aspx. has changed the password?
Probably … the clues are in the dates of the posts and the password of the -preview- release.
the default pasword :
Password123
with the capital letter p
Thanks AFinn and Ed – R2Preview! works like a charm.
Thank you Aidan, the password R2Preview! worked for me.