Continuing my experiment from last week I thought I would continue posting about turning my laptop into a Hyper-V enabled workstation.  After the weekend and a couple days at work now, I'm sitting here wondering why Microsoft doesn't sell a product called Windows Workstation 2008.  I know most of us with MSDN subscriptions will just make our own from server, but what an amazing tool this would be for developers not so fortunate.

Back to Hyper-V.  What an amazing way to virtualize my desktop.  I've read all the press on hardware virtualization and even Beta tested the server product without Hyper-V, but I had never really grasped it until I started using it.  I had setup VMs before in both Virtual PC and VMWare and had them booting with the server using different methods, but it's just never been so easy.  In fact the first time I rebooted I was amazed that it all happened automatically.  With the added ease of use of the Hyper-V manager and being able to manage other servers just as easy... okay I sound like a commercial, I'll stop.

When I posted last week, I hadn't yet used Hyper-V, so I'll just continue putting down the different things I've done to create my Windows Workstation 2008.

• Enable hardware virtualization in the BIOS.  Doesn't work well without it.
• Installed Paint.NET with no issues.
• I had originally installed SQL Server, but with my new understanding of Hyper-V, I can see no reason why I'd want this on my host.  It's now removed... minus some of the tools.
• Installed RoboForm.
• Changed my theme to Vista.  When I did this Roboform no longer showed up on in IE.  Tried searching for some answers and even reinstalled Robform with no luck.  I changed my theme and changed it back again and now for some reason it's back.  Confusing.
• I'm a Zune owner (sigh) and decided to research installing it before I screwed anything up.  I have no idea if this is really required, but I found these steps on another blog and it seemed to work.  1) Download and Unpack the setup files.  Execute \x64\packages\zune-x64.msi as an Administrator.  I couldn't right-click Run As, so I executed a command prompt as Administrator and used msiexec /i.

What's next?  I've already started creating some Base VMs to mess with.  You can't copy a VM directly in Hyper-V.  You'll need to make a copy of the VHD and then create a new VM to use it.  Keep in mind each VM has identical MAC addresses and such, so it just really wouldn't work.  I also will most likely remove Visual Studio from my host and just do all the work inside a VM.

What's just a little silly about all this was that I originally went to a Server 2008 in order to do all development from my host, without a VM, but as I see the advantages of Hyper-V, I've really come full circle.

Good luck,
-Chris

It's been quite a while since I've put anything in this space, but today I was motivated by a friend who mentioned he hadn't heard much from me in a while.  The last couple nights I have been spending my time hammering away on creating a workstation out of Windows Server 2008 on my Dell D630 laptop so I thought that would be a cool thing to talk about.

Before I get going on what I had to do, I'll first admit I found most of what I learned on other sites, but the information seemed to inconsistent and even outdated (from Beta attempts), so I thought I'd compile everything here.

Do yourself a huge favor before trying any of this.  Just put a new hard drive in and keep your old drive completely loaded with your previous OS.  You may or may not like the results or your new Server/Workstations and this will make it much easier to go back.  Plus you can put it in a USB caddy, plug it in and copy your needed files when finished.

So what did I do?  Here are the steps I took, although I admit I tried some things that broke my server and I had to remove.  I'll detail at then end.

• Had our network guru create a Server 2008 image for me with hyper-v.  He uses Acronis and seems to have these images built for just about anything, so it's a lot easier than doing this myself.
• Installed Daemon Tools to install from all my ISO Image (read warning at the bottom of this post)
• Installed Office 2007 Clients (plus Visio and SharePoint Designer)
• Added IIS.  From Server Manager| Role and added Application Server and IIS roles
• Installed Visual Studio 2008 (I may remove this and never develop on my host) (And yes I still write code, just nothing that matters)
• Installed SQL 2005 (I'll probably remove this too as I've decided not to put SharePoint on my host either)
• Turned off UAC (Administrative Tools|System Configuration|Tools|Disable UAC)
• Turned off IE Protected Mode (Launch IE as Administrator, Tools|Internet Options|Security, disable the tabs for each zone you want to turn off... I only left restricted sites on)
• Turned on Windows Search.  Server Manager|File Services|Add Role Services|Windows Search Service.
• Turned on sounds.  Server Manager|Configuration|Services|Windows Audio.  Set to automatic and then start.
• Installed Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash.  Run IE as Administrator and browse to www.adobe.com.
• Enabled .NET 3.0.  Server Manager|Features|Add Feature\.NET Framework 3.0 Features.
• Installed Wireless drivers.
• Installed Live Messenger 8.1.  Run IE as Administrator and browse to download site.
• Turned on Desktop Experience (needed for Defender and WIA).  Server Manager|Feature|Add Features.  I also added Server Backup and Powershell for my enjoyment.
• Turned on Windows Image Acquisition.  Server Manager|Configuration|Services|Windows Image Acquisition (WIA).  Set to Automatic and then Start.  (I need this for my scanner drivers)
• Installed Scanner Drivers (yes, Fujitsu)
• Copied Live Writer so I could write this.  Program Files(x86)\Windows Live\Writer on my Vista machine to the same location on Server 2008.
• Installed Google Chrome :).  Launch IE as Administrator first.  www.google.com/chrome.
• After getting tired of manually starting IE as Administrator I made it the default.
• Turned on many IE browsing features from Tools|Internet Options|Security and Tools and Advanced, such as XPS, XAML Browser Apps, Active X Prompt, File Download and many more.

I'm sure I forgot something, but this will get you started for sure.

What don't I like?

• No ability to sleep with hyper-v.  Also, when I put my laptop in my bag without shutting down it overheats and reboots itself.
• So far, that's it.

What rocks?

• The fact at so much was turned off by default does two things.  1) Forces me to learn what does what in the OS as I enable what I need.  2) Makes my new workstation run faster because all the stuff I don't want is not on by default.
• Server Manager!  This is so much better than what we had before, although it took a while for me to figure out how to do simple things like enable 3.0 .NET Framework.  The MSI install failed and I was scratching my head.
• Hyper-v of course

What broke?

• I couldn't get the Windows 2008 Workstation Converter application that is all over the Internet to work.
• I read several places to install the old MSN Messenger and let it upgrade to the latest Live Messenger 8.5, but it didn't seem to work quite right and is not supported.  8.1 is supported and does the job just fine.
• Daemon Tools and Live Messenger running together crashes the server.
• Live Writer install does not work.  Copy it as seen above.

What haven't I tried yet?

• Bluetooth
• Windows Mobile phone drivers (Blackjack II)
• Converting other Virtual Machines to Hyper-v (VMWare and Virtual PC)

Have fun, but please don't blame me when you ruin your system without a backup.

-Chris