A little note about features in Windows Server 2012 AD CS. Only three major improvements are available:

• All Windows Server 2012 SKUs supports all AD CS features.

From version to version, Microsoft introduces new features in AD CS, however not all are available in all SKUs. For example, in Windows Server 2008 an Online Responder service was added, but was available on Enterprise and Datacenter SKUs. The same thing as with Cross-forest certificate enrollment in Windows Server 2008 R2. Only Enterprise and Datacenter SKUs supported these features. From now, Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition will support *all* features in AD CS. This means that the following roles are available to any who has Windows Server 2012:

1. Certification Authority;
2. Enrollment Web Pages;
3. Online Responder (OCSP);
4. Network Device Enrollment Service (NDES);
5. Certificate Enrollment Service (aka CEP, which allows certificate enrollment for non-domain computers);
6. Certificate Enrollment Policy service (aka CEP, which is used in conjunction with CES and acts as a CES locator).

sounds very good.

• Server Core (or Minimal Server Interface) supports all AD CS components.

Prior to Windows Server 2012, Server Core installation (Windows Server 2008 and R2) supported only Certification Authority component. From now, you can deploy any AD CS component on Windows Server 2012 Server Core.

• Scripted installation

Since Windows Server 2008 it is possible to script AD CS component deployment, however it require a lot of manual stuff: one and two (this includes CA role and web enrollment pages). Also, in Windows Server 2008 R2 it is possible to script Certificate Enrollment Service and Certificate Enrollment Policy service installations. In Windows Server 2012 *all* components supports scripted installation via Windows PowerShell. Here is a list of ADCS deployment cmdlets: AD CS Deployment cmdlets Overview.

Also there is a number of minor improvements which are described in the following article: What's New in AD CS?