Installing Zune on Windows Server 2008 R2 x64

If you’re like me, and your main machine runs Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, and you’ve just got the new Windows Phone 7, you are next looking at installing Zune on your machine and start sync-ing podcasts and other stuff.

So, you’ve downloaded the Zune client from HERE and you run it, but it complains about the OS. Basically, the installer blocks Windows Server 2008 (probably other server OS too, have not tested that scenario).

Anyway, to move on past this hick-up, run it from a command prompt, with elevated privileges (run as Administrator). Run the following commands:

ZuneSetupPkg.exe /x

this will extract the files from the package. Specify where the files are to be extracted.

Go to the folder where you’ve extracted the files (within the same cmd session), go to \x64\PACKAGES and run the installer directly. The installer is zune-x64.exe

Now follow the prompts, and you’re done.

Oh, and if your locale is Canada rather than US, for some reason you loose the ability to browse the podcasts library in Zune. Not a big deal, as you can just provide the URL to the podcasts you need to sync, but it is easier to just browse visually.

Enjoy!