Installing Microsoft Exchange 2010

First of all, take note of the system requirements.

• PC―An x64 architecture-based computer with Intel processor that supports Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T) or AMD processor that supports the AMD64 platform; Intel Itanium family IA64 processors are not supported.
• Operating system―Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard and Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard and Enterprise Edition.

Basically you need a Windows Server 2008 x64 edition on an x64 Intel or AMD machine. Make sure you have more than 25GB of free hard disk space even if you are installing for trial purposes.

Before you install Exchange 2010, you will need to do the following else you will be wasting a lot of time with Exchange readiness checks.

1. Net.TCP Port Sharing service to Automatic

2. Install Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2

3. Install IIS 7 and turn on the following

• .Net Extensibility
• Basic Authentication
• Windows Authentication
• Digest Authentication
• Dynamic Content Compression
• IIS Management Console
• .IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
• IIS 6 Management Console

4. Install .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 and turn on WCF Activation, HTTP Activation.

5. Install 2007 Office System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack

6. Install Management Framework Core package (Windows PowerShell 2.0 and WinRM 2.0)

7. Install Active Directory and DNS service