In my Private Cloud talks with IT Pros, how best to virtualize Microsoft Exchange workloads, regardless of underlying hypervisor, has been a recurring hot topic area of discussion.  At Microsoft Tech Ed 2012, Jeff Mealiffe, Senior Program Manager on the Exchange team and responsible for Exchange virtualization guidance, delivered a great session on "Best Practices for Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010".  This is a great resource to study when planning virtualized Exchange deployments! Below, I've included the recorded session video, along with a link to the downloadable slide deck, an indexed recap of my session notes and links to additional tools and resources that I've personally found helpful.

Mike Halsey, a Microsoft MVP and author of several books on Windows 7 and Windows 8, has recently released one of the best videos I've seen on using the new Windows 8 Start Screen.  I've included the video below and I highly recommend sharing it with any users that are getting started with Windows 8.

During a recent virtualization event, an IT Pro posed a question regarding virtual machine saved state security in Hyper-V: "I read an article where a non-administrator was able to access VMware files such as the virtual machine disks and the virtual machine saved state and then able to view the in memory contents of the VM such as passwords." Is this a concern in Hyper-V?

Have you recently downloaded Windows 8 RTM?  In this article, we'll introduce you to the new options available for making Backup and Recovery in Windows 8 easier than ever, including Windows 8 File History, launching Windows System Backup and Windows 8 Refresh & Reset PC.

Did you download Windows 8 Enterprise using your MSDN or TechNet subscription?  As a the full-feature "business edition" of Windows 8, the Enterprise SKU defaults to using corporate Volume License activation on a business network.  On a business network, this process provides a simplified end-user activation process, as Windows 8 Enterprise automatically determines which servers to activate against using DNS without you needing to manage individual activation keys for each PC.  But how do you activate Windows 8 Enterprise if you're not connected to a business network, perhaps when you are testing Windows 8 in an isolated lab environment?