RTM-Weekend! Win7, 2008 R2, Boot from VHD and more!

Yay! It’s RTM Weekend! Alright, not for everyone, because as we all are patiently waiting for August 6th as RTM hits TechNet and MSDN, but I needed to get the jump on things because I think I’m busy next weekend!

So, what does RTM weekend entail for me?  Testing was the first ground.   Testing installations on my hardware, and getting a feel for how I’ll architect my deployment model for Win7 and 2008R2!

First things first – Create bootable VHD Images to run my OS out of.    Yes, I planned to deploy my systems via Boot from VHD, so I needed to create bootable images! And for this little decision, I opted to take advantage of WIM2VHD! So, what exactly is WIM2VHD?  Well, that’s pretty simple to explain!

The Windows(R) Image to Virtual Hard Disk (WIM2VHD) command-line tool allows you to create sysprepped VHD images from any Windows 7 installation source. VHDs created by WIM2VHD will boot directly to the Out Of Box Experience, ready for your first-use customizations. You can also automate the OOBE by supplying your own unattend.xml file, making the possibilities limitless.
Fresh squeezed, organically grown, free-range VHDs – just like Mom used to make – that work with Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Windows 7’s new Native VHD-Boot functionality!

All you need in order to be successful with WIM2VHD is:

  • A computer running one of the following Windows operating systems:
    • Windows 7 Beta or RC (or RTM)
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta or RC (or RTM)
    • Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V RTM enabled (x64 only)
  • The Windows 7 RC Automated Installation Kit (AIK) or Windows OEM Pre-Installation Kit (OPK) installed.
  • A Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 installation source, or another Windows image captured to a .WIM file.

Then, simply execute a command like I did below and you’re moving along!

Create a bootable VHD of Windows 7 Ultimate
cscript WIM2VHD.WSF /wim:D:\sources\install.wim /sku:ultimate /VHD:C:\vhd\win7ult.vhd

Create a bootable VHD of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
cscript WIM2VHD.WSF /wim:D:\sources\install.wim /sku:serverenterprise /VHD:C:\vhd\R2Ent.vhd

This frankly takes care of most of the work on your  behalf! (Sure did for me!)

FYI: The image defaults to 40gb, so if you want to change that, use this flag /size:<vhdSizeInMb>

After this point all you need to do is bcdedit and make the system bootable and you’re set!

bcdedit /copy {current} /d “New VHD Description”
    bcdedit /copy {current} /d “Windows 7 Ultimate”
bcdedit /set <guid> device vhd=[driveletter:]\<directory>\<vhd filename>
    bcdedit /set {GUID} device vhd=[c:]\vhd\win7ult.vhd
bcdedit /set <guid> osdevice vhd=[driverletter:]\<directory>\<vhd filename>
    bcdedit /set {GUID} osdevice vhd=[c:]\vhd\win7ult.vhd
bcdedit /set <guid> detecthal on
    bcdedit /set {GUID} detecthal on

And you can perform those same exact steps again for your 2008 R2 VHD as well.   It’s not only pretty straight forward, but it’s so simple anyone can do it! After performing those steps I was up and running on a system which had no data, nothing, notta!

Now, to apply some context and depth to how I chose to use my deployment model.  I’m running on my personal Lenovo T61p, which I have a Kingston 128GB SSD disk inside of.   Because I wanted to have ‘some’ kind of Native OS in order to help work on anything should something go wrong, I opted for a 2008 Server R2 Enterprise (Core) installation.  That gives me a minimal foot print, yet an OS I can feel comfortable and confident in being able to work on and with!  

What this enables is my NOS which runs on the “C:” drive, and has a VHD directory where my images live.  However, when I’m booted into either of my BootFromVHD OS’s on here, the native SSD becomes the “D:” drive whereby I can share files between the two systems!   However, if you forget to copy something to the shared volume and need to access it, feel free to use the mount VHD feature in the Disk Management tool (or Storage in 2008)

image image

I personally prefer to mount it read-only because… I don’t want to take any risks, especially when it comes to “Anti-Virus” or other things. (Unless that is my specific intention)

Now that you have a working and operational system you’re good to go! And if you stick with a NativeOS for Maintenance reasons, you can use it to take hard backups of your VHD’s for migration to other hardware or general recovery to other points in time! (note: You can backup the un-used OS from your active OS if you’d like as well :))

So, hope you have a good RTM weekend coming up, I look forward to being able to generate and use my license keys come August 6th!

Get On The Bus Strikes Back!

Get On The Bus Strikes Back!

*Heavy Breathing* Ken, I am your father, err, Sorry about that.. but welcome back the BUS, Euro-style!

That’s right! For those of you who missed it the first time, this time it’s back, and more euro than ever!   But what does this mean?

Oh, I have no idea! But my thoughts are, a rocking cross-multi-country bus tour across Europe which if you knew about the first tour at all… should ROCK!   More details will come as I find out about them!

Watch this page for updates, and find out how you can join us on the bus for a free trip to TechEd Europe! Oh, and watch my blog for my take on things too!

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have RTM’d?!?

Booyah! Did you hear that? Booyah!

And my good friend Rick Scherer has said:

Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 have been RTM

The Windows Blog has said this:

Windows 7 Has Been Released to Manufacturing

While the Windows Server blog has said:

WINDOWS SERVER 2008 R2 REACHES THE RTM MILESTONE!

So what does this mean? Well, here is a little caption borrowed from the Windows Blogs

The RTM code will be delivered to our partners within the next few days who will then start preparing to deliver some amazing new products timed to hit at General Availability (GA) of Windows 7 on October 22nd. And going forward, I expect to be showcasing MANY of these new products here on The Windows Blog.

What does this mean for me? As soon as it hits TechNet (hopefully in the next 7 days) I’ll be reloading my production machine I use 99% of the time with Win7, using my SSD drive.  Oh, did I mention Booyah? yea!

*Update!* Word on the street is, TechNet subscribers get it on August 7th.. so there we go!

Press Release: Microsoft Releases Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Whoever said there’s no such thing as a free lunch: Microsoft Learning SnackBox!

 

Snackbox!

Thanks to Mike Mulcare for announcing this on born to learn!

So, what exactly is SnackBox?

Welcome to SnackBox

Learning Snacks are short, interactive learning presentations about Microsoft technologies and include various media, such as animations and recorded demos. Are you an expert? Be part of this growing and vibrant community – create your own Learning Snack and share it with the world here!

Well, that’s a verbatim explanation taken from the site, but what does that really mean?

image

SnackBox Highlights

  • Provides an easy way to browse and find Microsoft Learning and community- created snacks. 
  • Enables the Microsoft Learning Community to easily create snacks using the LCDS and Snack Converter tool.
  • Distinguishes between community produced and Microsoft produced Snacks
  • Allows users to rate snacks
  • Allows us to highlight top community contributors

Alright, enough copy and paste.  Are you seriously telling me that Microsoft has created a simple way to not only create content using LCDS to share with the Learning and Education community, but respectively they have also created a venue for sharing this information with the world, including featured content? If that is the case, woohoo! :)

Though seriously, I highly encourage you to check this out, whether you’re a creator, learner or looking to be a creator/learner/educator/trainer and beyond :)

Win7: Not your mothers calculator (zOMFG Calc!)

What? Seriously? Are you seriously trying to tell me that Calculator is cooler than just ‘watch me add, watch me divide! ooh, scientific view? whatevah!”

Seriously though, it is!  I didn’t even give it a second glance until someone I’m working with here launched it and the world started to shift before my eyes! (Our unspoken voices have been heard?!?)

While on the surface it looks like it always did “oh blah, calc”

Calculator Calc features!

When you start to look under the covers, things start to shift and change!@

Sure, Programmer Mode is kind of cool, and even Statistics

Programmer Mode Statistics

But once you turn on Unit Conversion or Date Calculation, we enter near zOMFG territory!

Unit Conversion Date Calculation

What is the killer? the true Zed in zOMFG?!?! It’s the Worksheets! THIS IS CALC DAMNIT!

Worksheets

Mortgage Vehicle Lease Fuel Economy (mpg) Fuel Economy (L/100 km)

So, whoa, wow and check it out! I wonder if they’ve drastically changed any other ‘core’ functionality that we all take for granted!