This pains all of us.
Which are the right drivers to use, download and install?

Constant complaints and gripes about what driver should we load, and what insane device is screaming with a yellow exclamation point – wanting to be installed!

Our good friends at Microsoft have (had) the answer!

The Microsoft Update Catalog!

Okay, so I’m here, and I have a search bar… So.. what do I fill in there?

This is where Device Manager comes into play. – Find yourself a driver or object which is suspect or in general you want to check out. – Wireless Drivers are always a challenge..

What you’ll want to do, is find the Hardware Id’s – this is where the cake is at!

At this point, take advantage of the shortest field available, and go as far as the first & – Such as:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4227

After searching, you’ll find it will return a large number of results. (21 results)

If you’re looking for a bit more granularity, try one of the slightly longer entries there.

By searching for PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4227&SUBSYS_10108086 now, we’re able to 11 results.

This can be very beneficial if you’re trying to do things such as – Run Windows Vista 64bit, use Windows Server 2008 as a workstation, and a number of things. This will further enable you to take advantage of the hardware that may be present without having to rely upon the OEM hardware manufacturers to provide you media they tend to never get around to.

So, this is often a debated question – Is my machine capable of doing Hyper-V?

Well, let the doubt be cast to the wayside a bit.

AMD Processor Utility to Check compatibility
Intel Checker (by GRC) to check compatibility
As seen in this screen shot as well

This alone will not dictate whether you can support Hyper-V as a lot of it falls upon your BIOS and whether the features exist there to enable. However, just to get past that initial conversation of “Is my processor supported” we have the following link and table.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Specification

As you can likely tell, all things being equal – All things are NOT equal!

From a validation perspective, all of the rules which apply to Microsoft’s Hyper-V should also apply to Citrix XenServer.

More on this later…

So, for those interested in the Microsoft Hyper-V Virtualization Exam (71-652) which will eventually become (70-652). Here are some answers to some general questions I’ve been seeing.

Q: What do you mean I have to pay $125.00 for this exam?

A: So long as the voucher still has entries open, it is FREE!!! (For a period there, the voucher wasn’t working but it appears to be working again) – And that Promotional Code is 652HV

Q: How do I sign up for this exam?

A: If you do not have a Prometric account, you need to go to www.prometric.com and sign up! Register, etc!

Q: How do I prepare or study for this exam? I don’t know anything about Hyper-V?!

A: This is one of the best questions out there. For those of you who have experience with Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, that part of the exam is taken care of. For those of you with Storage experience, that part is also taken care of. But the key differentiator is actually working with and playing with Hyper-V and the interfaces, building Virtual machines, etc!
There are a number of options available to you.

Online Training (E-Learning for a price $39.99 it looks like)
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=84700
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=92459

Read blogs about Hyper-V and Virtualization

Virtual PC guy’s Blog
Microsoft Virtualization Team’s Blog
Virtual Varia
John Howard – Hyper-V Team Lead
Mike’s Virtual Blog!
This blog as I document some of the details and the crazy In’s and Out’s in my spare time

And anywhere else as applicable.

So, I encourage you to sign up, give it a try, get out there and test! You’ll definitely have a better angle on what the future holds if you see what the exam is like, and see if this is something you want to pursue!

So, rumour has it that the Public Beta of Windows Home Server (Power Pack 1) is coming!
Power Packs for what I understand it, are basically renamed Service Packs, for reasons unbeknowest to me.

Nonetheless, it’s on the horizon…. coming soon!
Including a number of enhancements, fixes and general changes to the way things operate to introduce added efficiencies!

So, the future is now (or potentially now) for all you Windows Home Server enthusiasts out there!

Yep, that’s right! The Virt Exam (071-652) has been posted on Trika’s Blog, on a pure First-Come-First-Serve basis… which is the type of action of “Act Fast!”

Trika’s Post on 71-652 Hyper-V Beta Exam

Seriously, run don’t walk on over to Trika’s blog for this opportunity to partake in the Hyper-V beta!

I personally am on hook to take it in a few weeks… Already signed up with Prometric! :)


(Inline are the details copied from Trika’s Blog!)

*** Update!***

Special thanks to Priscila Silva in MCS for links to the E-Learning for Virtualization (Trika Comments!)

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=84700
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=92459

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