Server 08 with Hyper-V
I took the plunge and reloaded my laptop, a Dell Latitude D830, with 64-bit Server 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V. I experienced no problems during actual installation and it even found most of my drivers. I did download all the Vista x64 drivers from the Dell site and installed those just because. They all worked great including the wireless: I'm attributing this to the fact that Server 08 and Vista SP1 share the same code base and presumably the same driver model.
I have experienced a few little "differences" that have caused me to do a little research though.
- The wireless feature is not installed by default, you have to go into the features and add it.
- The latest versions of Live Messenger won't load. From what I've read and seen, it's not a technical problem, rather an imposed limitation. The work-around to this is to download the Live Messenger 8.5 msi; it installs fine.
- After installing Hyper-V, the power management no longer allows standby and hibernation. From various posts, this appears to be a design choice because very few folks, if any will actually be running a production Hyper-V on a laptop or where these features are needed and so it just wasn't worth the cost and effort to make it work.
- As with Vista, if you are remote and need to log on with a domain account that is not yet cached, you must log in with another valid account, most likely a local one. You can then connect however you connect to the corporate network and then do a switch user. This will bring you back to the logon screen while still being connected to the VPN.
- Virtualization must be enabled in the BIOS as this was not the default for this particular laptop. Windows will warn you that virtualization must be enabled, but it will not prevent you from actually installing Hyper-V.
I'm sure there will be other little things, but for now, I'm satisfied.