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Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate code was made available on April 30 to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. There are many changes to the operating system. Here, I've highlighted some of the most important improvements in the implementation of Hyper-V. For example, running guest systems can be configured on the fly to add or remove virtual hard drives. I tested using the newly released Windows 7 Build 7100 along with the RC build of Windows Server 2008 R2. Changes in User Account Controls, PowerShell and AppLocker are all significant enough that IT managers should brush off their study skills and buckle down with the newest version of Microsoft's server operating system. Also look for changes in Group Policy, Active Directory, remote desktop services and deployment services. Even features that didn't change much in functionality usually have a new address; I spent a fair amount of time during my testing just poking through the user interface, looking for familiar landmarks that had been buried in new locations.
By Cameron Sturdevant
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- Running Together
Windows Server 2008 R2 RC improves on how guest machines are hosted in Hyper-V. In the next several screens, I'll add a virtual hard drive to this running instance of Windows 7 to add storage space. - Adding VHD
On the left, you see two virtual machines: EWK076, shown running, and EWK075, which is off. On the right, you see that I'm adding "ewkvhd081," a virtual hard drive I created earlier, to the running VM named EWK076. - Two Drives
Looking at the system properties on the virtual machine EWK076, you can see that there are now two hard drives available. Local disk C: is the 15GB drive that was created with the virtual machine and holds the Windows 7 operating system and also the new volume E:, which is a small 5GB virtual hard drive. - Now Just One
On the fly, I was able to remove the virtual hard drive E: through the Hyper-V manager running on my Windows 2008 R2 system. The virtual machine, EWK076, didn't hiccup as hard drives were added and removed while it was running. - Logical Processors
According to a November 2008 Microsoft posting on TechNet, Hyper-V can handle up to 32 physical processors. The number of logical processors that can be assigned to a guest is limited to the number of physical processors. Here, you see that my test system has two physical processors. - AppLocker
AppLocker replaces the Software Restriction Policies feature in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. AppLocker has been cleaned up to reduce administrative overhead and help control how users can access and use files, such as .exe files, scripts, Windows Installer files and DLLs. - User Account Control
In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, UAC increases the number of tasks that the standard user can perform without prompts for administrator approval, allows a user with administrator privileges to configure the UAC (shown here) and provides additional local security policies. - PowerShell
There are many new command tools, called cmdlets, including one shown in action here called get-hotfix that retrieved the security hotfixes off of another server on the eWEEK Labs test network. You can see the command at the bottom of the screen.
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