The installation will copy, expand features, and install updates. This takes 20–40 minutes, with 1–2 automatic reboots.
If you need to experience or test Windows Server 2008 R2, obtain a legal 180-day evaluation from Microsoft or use a licensed copy offline in a segregated, network-isolated virtual machine. For production, modern equivalents like Windows Server 2019, 2022, or the upcoming 2025 release offer far better security and performance. Windows Server 2008 R2 — Preactivated en-US (July