Well after some hiatus from blogging I’m back to update you with stuff I learn for the System Center family of products and especially “Configuration Manager”.
I’ve been waiting since July 2011 the RC Version of Configuration Manager 2012 or better known as “System Center 2012 Configuration Manager”, notice the re-branding of the product, it’s not any more “System Center Configuration Manager 2012” it is “System Center 2012 Configuration Manager”, the same goes to the other products of the “System Center” family, now they are all named as “System Center 2012 Product Name”, it will take me some time to get used to it but that’s not a serious issue 
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While I was an MVP (until June 30 2011) I knew that there would be an RC preview of “SC 2012 Configuration Manager” given to MVP and TAP Customers around August 2011 for evaluation and feedback collection, unfortunately I wasn’t re-awarded and haven’t had the chance to get the RC Preview for early evaluation.
And now the time has come for the Release Candidate (RC) version of Configuration Manager along with other products of the System Center Family, yesterday (27/10/11) the RC Version of Configuration Manager released for public evaluation, you may download either one or a selection of them here:
Download Microsoft System Center 2012 Pre-Release Products
You will then have the option to download all or some of the products as one bundle, these products are:
1) System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC
2) System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RC (Formerly named as Forefront Endpoint Protection, as you can see Endpoint Protection has joined the System Center family now!)
3) System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta
4) System Center Orchestrator 2012 RC
5) System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 RC
6) System Center App Controller 2012 Beta
7) System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta
Four RCs and three Betas, that’s very welcome don’t you think?
Another interesting part is that Endpoint Protection is downloaded with Configuration Manager, this denotes the tight integration of it with the latter.
You will have to register or sign-in with your live account to download them.
After that you may find resources about the installation, usage of the products here:
Microsoft System Center 2012 Evaluation Resources
Let’s burn the cables people, start downloading and don’t forget to submit your feedback at Microsoft’s Connect Site that way you help the product groups build great software for all of us!
Configuration Manager Stories and more :-) 