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Running Win08R2 w/ Hyper-V as a Desktop

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You would think by now that Virtual PC or ‘WindowsXP Mode’ on Win7 would be able to run x64 guests. In the Microsoft world, the only way to do this is with Windows 2008 Server and the Hyper-V Role. When the hard drive in my work laptop died, I decided to install the RC of Server 08 R2 with Hyper-V. I have been running this for about two months now as my main OS and am reasonably happy with it.

There are several roles, features & options you can configure on the OS to give it the look and feel of Windows 7. But it still didn’t feel quite right. At TechEd Mark Tigwell suggested I look over this list of configurations posted on TechNet blogs for running Server 08 as a desktop OS.

The settings listed shaw up the differences but do not include instructions to permit local User (non-admin) account managing rights in Hyper-V. Instructions for that can be found here.