Difference Disk Chain Length in Hyper-V R2

In Hyper-V R1, you could have a maximum of 50 difference disks in a parent-child chain. This was not typically a problem unless you heavily used snapshots. Hyper-V R2 has expanded the number of supported difference disks in a chain to 1024. This should satisfy even the most heavy snapshot users.

Note the performance of the difference disk read/write has also improved. See the following whitepaper for more details

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ISCSI configuration on server core

When Microsoft released Windows Server 2008 R2, they helped all of the command line challenged ITPros by adding the iSCSI control panel applet. To launch the control panel applet, type ISCSICPL.EXE at a cmd prompt. Then use it just like you would on a full GUI version of Windows Server.

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Easy Screen Shots of VMs

Need to capture screen shots of your virtual machine for documentation? In Hyper-V you can do this directly from the VMConnect console. While the VMconnect console is running all you have to do is click on the VMConnect console menu option called Clipboard and select the "Capture Screen" option. This will capture the entire video window of the VMConnect screen and place is in the clipboard buffer. Just paste it where you need it in your document or paste it into PAINT and save it to a file for later use.

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Switching a VM to Full Screen

Want to view a VM in full screen mode so it looks like it is the OS or application that is running on your machine? If you are using the VMConnect tool built into Hyper-V you would click the View menu option, then select Full Screen. You can also just press CTRL-ALT-BREAK to toggle the mode. 

Note on most laptops you will need to press CTRL-ALT-FN-BREAK because the break key requires pressing the Function key. If you do not have a key labeled BREAK, then try the key labeled PAUSE.

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Quick way to enter those long product keys into a VM

Do you use your MSDN subscription for your lab VMs? Are you tired of typing in the product key for the OS install screen by hand? How about if you could copy and paste that key...well there is a way.

1. Go to where the product key is listed in MSDN or where you store the key
2. Copy the product key
3. In the VMConnect window of the VM you want to paste the key, select the Clipboard menu option, and then select the type clipboard text option. This will type the text in the clipboard buffer like you were typing it yourself in the VM.
4. You can also place your cursor in the VM window and press CTRL-V

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Do I need to install Integration Services in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2?

Actually you do not need to install the integration services in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 because they shipped with the R2 edition of integration services already integrated into the drive store. Now when a new version of Integration services are available as part of a hotfix or service pack, you will need to update them at that point. Until then do not worrry about it.

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