Here is a problem that I was asked about a while ago: When I try to start a DOS application that switches to fullscreen in Windows XP Mode – it fails with an error that states “The video device failed to initialize for fullscreen mode.  Choose ‘Close...

Here is a dangerous script! Given a virtual machine name and a snapshot name, it will delete the specified snapshot *and* any snapshots underneath it in the snapshot tree that Hyper-V manager displays: # Function for handling WMI jobs / return...

Here is a script that will allow you to delete a single snapshot from a Hyper-V virtual machine: # Function for handling WMI jobs / return values Function ProcessResult($result, $successString, $failureString) { #Return success...

Now that we know how to take a snapshot, and how to list snapshots – let’s start applying snapshots: # Function for handling WMI jobs / return values Function ProcessResult($result, $successString, $failureString) { ...

After the relatively trick “taking a snapshot” script – today’s snapshot script is quite easy. Listing the snapshots that a virtual machine has: # Prompt for the Hyper-V Server to use $HyperVServer = Read-Host "Specify...

This week I am going to be sharing a bunch of scripts that show you how to interact with virtual machine snapshots in Hyper-V. And I am going to start off with the hardest one – taking a snapshot: # Function for handling WMI jobs / return...

If you are like me, and obsessively ensure that all your virtual machines are kept up-to-date with the latest patches at all times, you may have wondered why your Windows XP mode virtual machine seems to be stuck with Internet Explorer 6. No matter how...

This has been on my “to do” list for a while now – but I have finally got around to checking out the 5nine Manager for Hyper-V ( http://5nine.com/5nine-manager-for-hyper-v.aspx ). If you are unaware of this product – it is a management solution that is...

By default, Hyper-V will not let software inside of a virtual machine attempt to generate network traffic with a MAC address other than the address that Hyper-V has assigned to the virtual machine (known has MAC address spoofing ).  The reason why...

Before I get started today – I want to make one thing very clear: the content of this post is not officially supported by Microsoft.  Feel free to try it out – but if you hit problems do not go contacting Microsoft Product support – as this is unsupported...

If you are using Windows XP mode on an LCD display – you may notice that the font looks a little jagged.  The reason for this is simple.  ClearType is not enabled. While Windows Vista and Windows 7 both enable ClearType by default – Windows...

I am running late on getting this post up – but a promise is a promise: We talked a lot about what is happening in Windows 8 at BUILD – and we also covered a lot of material about Hyper-V.  Luckily, all the sessions were recorded and can now be viewed...

When we are working on Hyper-V there are a lot of things that we work on that you may not be aware of. One thing that we pay a lot of attention to is the text that is displayed in our user interfaces. Obviously, we want this text to be as easy to read...

Just over a week ago – we posted some details on how to run the Windows 8 Developer Preview in a virtual machine (read all about it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/16/running-windows-8-developer-preview-in-a-virtual-environment.aspx ...

Now that the BUILD conference is over, there is a lot of information that is available about “Windows Server 8”. We are still in early stages (I should highlight that the build of Windows Server that was provided last week is a “developer preview” build...

Shannon Fritz has just made a nice post that describes how to setup the Windows Developer Preview build to boot off of a VHD on a system that is already running Windows 7: http://blog.concurrency.com/infrastructure/dual-boot-windows-8-from-vhd-using-windows...

Go here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/ To download the Windows Developer Preview.  This is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers. MSDN subscribers can also download a preview of Windows Server from http://msdn.microsoft.com...

In just under half an hour – the keynote for the //build/ conference will be streaming at http://www.buildwindows.com/ .  Check it out to learn more about what is coming in Windows 8. Cheers, Ben

It is possible to move virtual machines around between different physical computers running Hyper-V without needing to run activation inside Windows.  The trick is that you need to make sure that the virtual hardware does not change when you move...

Yesterday the System Center Virtual Machine Manager team announced that SCVMM 2012 has hit “Release Candidate”.  You can read all about it here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2011/09/08/now-available-the-release-candidate-for-system-center...

We have just made a post in the Building Windows 8 blog that talks about how Windows 8 will include Hyper-V in the desktop versions of Windows. Go here to read all about it: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/07/bringing-hyper-v-to-windows-8.aspx...

Mark Russinovich has posted an updated version of the “Coreinfo” tool in the Sysinternals suite.  You can read more about it (and download it from) here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc835722 The latest version adds a very useful...

Tomorrow morning I will be speaking with Keith Combs and Matt Hester on “ Talk TechNet ”.  Feel free to come on by, listen in and ask questions.  You can register for this event here: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID...

Over on the “Building Windows 8” blog we have just published a post that talks about how we are improving the user experience around using ISO and VHD files in the next release of Windows. This is great for any virtualization people –...

“Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” is one of the great classic educational games.  It has been re-released and re-mastered many times – but it was originally released in 1985. In this game – you take on the role of a detective who is hunting...