Virtual Server 2005 and Windows 7

Wanna install Virtual Server 2005? Wanna install it on Windows 7? “Big Whoop, Wanna fight about it!”	Paddy Tanninger the Caddy Manager
Ok I know, I promised you all this post a long time ago. 2009/01/21 to be exact. So without much further ado, here is Virtual Server 2005 running on Windows 7.   That’s Windows 7 BETA.
When I tried to install this again on Windows 7 RC 1, I ran into this NASTY little thing. I say nasty with all the venom, hate and loathing I have in every fiber of my body.           To quote Microsoft: Hard Block: The software must exhibit the following behavior to qualify for a hard block: The OS is rendered unusable and unrecoverable (includes bug check). The hard block is preferable to the alternative user experience, including: a. The OS would be left partially functional, and no in-context guidance can be given to the user, and the hard block can provide steps to remedy the problem. b. An application would be left unusable and unrecoverable (can’t be repaired by uninstall or upgrade). This should be an extremely rare case, since recovering from an application installation should be possible through install/uninstall software. The vendor would need to prove that that is not an option.       Hard blocks are EVERYTHING that is wrong with our software industry today. The proverbial PRE KILL SWITCH, the DRM SQUARED, the “I know what’s good for your machine mentality.” If Virtual Server 2005 works with the Windows 7 Beta build, then what have you done to make this program FAIL in the RC version. If all Microsoft is trying to do is encourage people to use the Windows 7 native VHD support, then do so by telling me that in a soft block format but give me the option to do things my way too.
Frustrated, my next step was to try to put a stop to Program Compatibility Assistant (henceforth known as ASS) by using gpedit.msc, disabling services and even installing some updates etc. BTW. What the hell is Program Inventory (PDU), Application Telemetry “The PDU inventories programs and files on the system and sends information about those files to Microsoft. This information is used to help associate files to programs and diagnose application compatibility problems.” Hmm. Seems to me like this could be an invasion of privacy waiting to happen.           Frustrated again, I emailed the SharePoint team asking for some sense of sanity. How do they want us developing on SharePoint if we can’t use Virtual Server. Virtual PC? Scoff! That’s for kiddies and your grandma! Ha!   Thank you to Dave Pae for that email.   So now to go to the following URL and read up:  http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/05/14/native-vhd-support-in-windows-7.aspx

 

 

My next post should come up with a solution for how to make your existing VHD files work with Windows 7 RC 1.

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Windows 7

I have been using Windows 7 as my main development machine for a while now and its a very interesting OS. You can read more about it on the interwebs but here are a few things I personally came across.

1) Virtual Server 2005 runs well. Also, my SharePoint (MOSS, WSS) images are running very well on there. I wasn’t able to figure out how to create Loopback adapters but I haven’t needed them. I set the adapter to connect using the wireless network adapter and RDP into the OS using that assigned IP. Noteworthy is just how fast the SharePoint sites come up in the Windows 7 IE 8 browser when I’m connecting to my Virtual Server images.

2) VS 2008 runs but throws a package load error.

3) Flash installer properties crashes explorer.
If I try to look at the properties of the flash installer you see here, Windows Explorer crashes and restarts. To be fair, I am not seeing this error right now. It was happening yesterday night.

4) Wireless networking glitch.
Everytime my laptop goes to sleep, it will completely loose the ability to connect to a wireless network. It appears that the Wireless Adapter gets disabled and will not enable until I reset the machine. The one workaround I found is to disable the adapter manually before shutting down, then enabling it myself when the machine comes out of sleep.

5) IIS slows bootup, significantly.
I have found that installing IIS etc to enable asp.net development really slows the machine down when booting or shutting down. Workaround is to turn off unnecessary services in services.msc and just give it a little time.

6) My color depth is stuck at 16bit.
I cannot get it to 32bit without going into the Nvidia control panel and manually setting it there.

The above were the issues I have faced. Doesn’t really inhibit my ability to work so i’m not too worried. The one thing to remember is that this is a BETA! I don’t expect it to work flawlessly but I do expect these issues will be resolved when the OS goes RTM. It is important to keep things in perspective, ladies and gentlemen.

I am just blown away by the responsiveness of the OS and applications on there! Once the OS has loaded, things are just BLAZING FAST! Here are the specs I am currently using.