January, 2009

You might be interested to know that this is a combination that works just fine. Here is a screenshot of Windows 7 on Virtual PC 2007 on Windows 7: Though there are a couple of things you should know: Use Virtual PC 2007 SP1. Earlier versions...

Here is something neat about the Windows 7 beta release.  Professional versions of Windows 7 (Business, Enterprise and Ultimate) as well as all versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 already come with integration components installed. But - it gets better...

If you have installed the Windows 7 beta and want to use it to manage Hyper-V you will need to install the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 beta. These can be downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID...

People occasionally contact me and ask me how to fix a virtual hard disk that they have which is reporting corruption. The short answer is: "Run data recovery tools inside the virtual machine." For the long answer we need to look at how the virtual...

If you have tried to mix Hyper-V and high end 3D graphics (in the parent partition - of course) you have probably noticed that the performance is bad.  Unfortunately - for the time being - the answer to this problem is that Hyper-V has not been designed...

In the past I have talked about how to create a "no hypervisor" boot option using BCDedit.  One of the first questions I got was whether this would allow you to use sleep / hibernate - and the answer was "no". Well, with Windows...

The Windows Server 2008 R2 beta is here ! (keep an eye here for details on how to get it)  This is a significant release for Hyper-V and this beta contains a number of new features and capabilities. First and foremost – Live Migration is here...

Hyper-V has always allowed you to configure virtual network adapters where the MAC address was generated dynamically.  These dynamic MAC address are selected from a random pool of MAC addresses.  With Windows Server 2008 R2 we have added a new...

People have been asking for a while for a way to add a virtual machine configuration file (.XML) directly to an instance of Hyper-V without first needing to export and import it.  Well, Robert Vierthaler beat me to the punch and blogged about this...

If you have an existing installation of Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 that you want to update to Windows Server 2008 R2 beta, this is possible, but you need to be aware of some of the limitations. The first thing you need to be aware of is that we only...

I recently was setting up a Home Server on top of Hyper-V (Note: this is not a supported configuration, so if you wish to do the same - be it on your head) and had to decide between using physical disks directly attached to the virtual machine, or using...

There is a new whitepaper that details how live migration in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V Server R2 works: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fdd083c6-3fc7-470b-8569-7e6a19fb0fdf&DisplayLang=en Cheers, Ben

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 beta (that is the standalone version of Hyper-V) is now available for download from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E464E255-CDD5-44B2-84E6-3233EAE3F356&displaylang=en With the R2 release...

I have posted about this in the past - but Tore Lervik released a new version of the Hyper-V Monitor Gadget for Windows Sidebar last month.  This is a tool that I have installed on all my desktop computers and am hopelessly addicted to.  Recent...

If you are running Hyper-V or Virtual Server in a clustered configuration - you need to be careful about just shutting down a cluster node.  If you need to shutdown one of the cluster nodes you need to first open the cluster manager and select to...

Just got an email from one of our technical writers - letting me know that our step-by-step for Live Migration on Windows Server 2008 R2.  You can get the details here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446679.aspx Cheers, Ben

With Hyper-V we have always recommended that the parent partition not be connected to external networks - as a security best practice.  However, this was relatively difficult to setup (especially for core installations).  With Windows Server...

Yikes! It has been a while since I played these games. I have already covered the first and second installments of the Quest for Glory series - so now - onto number 3! Quest for Glory III continues on with the story from before. You have saved Shapier...

It is possible under Hyper-V to get into a state where you have a virtual machine that is still running correctly - but does not show up in the virtual machine list under the Hyper-V management console.  The two most likely causes for this are: The...

One piece of feedback we received for Hyper-V is that people wanted an easier way to look at the settings for a number of virtual machines, without needing to keep on closing and reopening the virtual machine settings UI.  To help with this we have...

It has been too long since I posted about gaming under Virtual PC - so today I would like to talk about " Trials of Battle ". This game was made by Stardock in 1996 - and is one of the few "first person shooting" games that exists...

After posting about this last week - Tore has been working hard and has now release version 4.1 of his Hyper-V Monitor Gadget.  Key changes include: Added new server manager for easier management Added a Large size (undocked) theme with larger font...