March, 2010

We have just released the beta of the next version of the Linux integration services.  This release brings some much wanted and requested new functionality to our Linux support on Hyper-V.  Specifically it brings: Support for running Linux with...

We have not updated Virtual PC 2007 to add support for running Windows 7 as a guest operating system at this point in time.  However, this is possible to do – with two important caveats: You really need to have hardware virtualization support to...

For as long as I can remember – Virtual PC has allowed you to resize the virtual machine window and have the guest operating system change its screen resolution automatically. The way this is done is that once you finish resizing the virtual machine window...

The next challenge I faced during my big rebuild of my Hyper-V server was what to do with my Windows Home Server virtual machine. This is a single virtual machine that has a total of 6TB of storage attached to it – so backing it up to a remote location...

Continuing in my theme of running Windows Virtual PC everywhere – I think it is time to provide an update on my Virtual PC on Hyper-V post from just over 2 years ago. So here is the updated Windows XP Mode on Windows Virtual PC on Windows 7 on Hyper-V...

A couple of people have contacted me and reported performance issues with Windows XP Mode on systems without hardware virtualization support.  One thing that I did not mention in my post last week was that you will need to upgrade the integration...

With our recent update to Windows Virtual PC that allows it to run on systems without hardware virtualization support – I have been flooded by a stream of people asking what hardware it will run on / if it will run on their system. The short answer is...

The update to Windows Virtual PC to support running on systems without hardware virtualization is now available for download. You can grab it here: For 32-bit host operating systems: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=837f12aa...

We have just announced that in Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 we will be adding a new feature to Microsoft called “ Dynamic Memory ”.  The goal of this feature is to allow for better utilization of memory by dynamically adding and removing...

Today we have made a slew of announcements around work we have been doing for desktop virtualization. Once of which is that Windows Virtual PC will be updated to be able to run on systems without hardware virtualization support. The update is not currently...

A while ago I noticed that when I started virtual machines on Hyper-V on my laptop – they were taking just over a minute to start.  Looking at the Hyper-V management console showed that for most of this time the virtual machine was sitting at “Starting...

Some people have noticed that when they attach a CD or ISO image to a Windows Virtual PC virtual machine, it does not autorun.  But others have reported that autorun is working correctly for them.  So what is happening here? The key to understanding...

The first thing that I needed to do as part of my big rebuild was to move non-critical virtual machines to a remote file server. The easiest way to do this would have been to export the virtual machines to a local location and then move them up to a network...

Two weeks ago I discussed some bad experiences I had with Hyper-V + backup . Since then I have spent a bunch of time setting up Hyper-V + backup on a couple of systems – and none were as problematic as my first attempt. I have also setup my home Hyper...

A while ago I talked about how I use Hyper-V in my house , and more recently I talked about trying to backup my Hyper-V server . This discussion of backup was actually in preparation for a significant rebuild of my home Hyper-V server, that I undertook...

To be honest, I am surprised that I have not blogged about this before, but today I would like to talk about how virtual machine files are placed on the hard disk. Virtual Machine files The first thing to know is what files are used to create a...

Tony Soper has just posted about the availability of the TechNet Wiki beta. You can go and check it out here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/ There is already a bunch of Hyper-V content up there. I have already had people ask me why...

We have released a bunch of updated documentation in the last week. The first thing to look at is the Live Migration Network Configuration Guide. The really neat part of this is that it talks through all the supported / unsupported network configuration...