DirectAccess (which is properly spelled as one word and not two, such as Direct Access – even though Microsoft gets it wrong in their website meta tags – though possibly intentional) is one of the most touted new features in Windows 7. Sadly, it’s not really a Windows 7 feature alone. You must deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 in order to take advantage of the DirectAccess feature.
Microsoft has, however, provided a lab demo configuration document here:
You can use this document as a starting point to explore DirectAccess configuration processes even if you don’t have a Server 2008 R2 machine at this time. Now, for some really good news. If you just want to play with WIndows Server 2008 R2, get the evaluation VHD that works in Hyper-V here:
Hopefully this information will help you get started with configuring DirectAccess. Remember, you must configure DirectAccess on the Server 2008 R2 server as well as the Windows 7 clients.
