Installing Windows Server 2016

The installation process for Microsoft operating systems in general has improved dramatically over the past 15 years. I assume that a lot of you as IT professionals are also the de facto "neighborhood computer guy", being constantly asked by friends and family to fix or rebuild their computers. If you're anything like me, this means you are still regularly rebuilding operating systems such as Windows XP. Looking at the bright blue setup screens and finding a keyboard where the F8 key actually works are imperative to this process. To spend two hours simply installing the base operating system and bringing it up to the highest service pack level is pretty normal. Compared to that timeline, installation of a modern operating system such as Windows Server 2016 is almost unbelievably fast and simple.

It is very likely that the majority of readers have completed this process numerous times already, and if that is the case feel free to skip ahead a...