October, 2009

Go and get it: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx Cheers, Ben

Most users of Windows Virtual PC do not need to use floppy disks with their virtual machines, as general usage of floppy disks has become rarer and rarer. Those who do need to use floppy disks – may think that they can no longer do this – as there is...

I often chat to people about how I use Hyper-V in my house – so I figured that I should write it down for all to read. At the moment I have a single server in my house. It is a single processor quad-core system (Q6600 processor) with 8GB of memory...

The SysInternals team just announced the availability of a new tool: Disk2vhd . This is a tool that you run on a running Windows computer to create virtual hard disks copies of the physical disks that are attached.  Under the covers this tool works...

We have just released a new hotfix for Windows Server 2008 R2 that address the issue that users were getting a bluescreen of death on Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computers with the following text: 0x00000101 ( parameter1 , 0000000000000000...

People have asked me how you go about setting up a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) with Hyper-V.  This is much easier than it sounds.  The first thing to understand is that when you shut down the physical computer, the virtual machines will...

The RTM builds of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode are now available for people with an MSDN / TechNet subscription.  On MSDN you can sign in and: Go to Subscriber Downloads Select Applications Scroll to the bottom of the list and select Windows...

One of the cool features of Windows Virtual PC is how applications that are installed into Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 virtual machines automatically appear in the start menu on the host operating system – and can be launched directly without...

We have just announced that we have signed off on the RTM release of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode.  It should be available on the Microsoft Download Center on October 22nd. Cheers, Ben

For as long as I have been working on Virtual PC – people have been asking me: “Do I need to install Antivirus software inside the virtual machine?” And the answer has always been: “Yes! You need to treat each virtual machine just like it were a separate...

Last week I posted a description about the servers (physical and virtual) that I have configured in my house . Today I would like to spend a moment to talk about how I manage this environment. All of my management is done from my Windows 7 computer...

Like many Hyper-V users, I have created ISO images of most of my CDs / DVDs (and in the case of my MSDN software – have downloaded in ISO format to begin with).  I then have these images stored on a file server. It is possible to connect a CD ISO...

We have recently published a very handy video / guide / set of scripts to help with anyone who needs to deploy either a standard or customized version of Windows XP mode to a large number of virtual machines. The first thing to look at is the deployment...

Here is a problem that I hear about at least 2 or 3 times a month: Someone is trying to do a network installation of an operating system using either Hyper-V or Virtual PC, they setup the virtual machine appropriately, but when they try to press “F12...

A while ago I blogged about how to allow non-administrators to control Hyper-V .  You do this by editing the Hyper-V authorization store.  What I failed to mention at that time was that this method does not work if you are using SCVMM to manage...

The beta release of System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 is now available for download.  You can read more here: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/dataprotectionmanager/en/us/2010beta-overview.aspx And download it from here: http://go.microsoft...

We have just released a prebuilt Windows 7 evaluation virtual hard disk for use with Hyper-V that you can download from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=606ae07e-b7db-405b-974b-dd61fc41add4 Windows validation is required...

A virtualization MVP recently bought this to my attention: In Windows Server 2008 R2 there was a minor change to the format of differencing virtual hard disks.  As a result you will need to apply an update to Windows Server 2008 if you want to move...