HYPER-V RELEASE CANDIDATE IS HERE!

Virtualization Nation,

Things are really busy at Microsoft with regard to virtualization. In just a few months, we've released the Hyper-V Beta, announced the Calista acquisition in January, announced the Kidaro acquisition in March, and we're back with more. Today, we are pleased to announce the Hyper-V Release Candidate!

So, what's new in Hyper-V RC? Here's a quick list...

Hyper-V Release Candidate Features:

· Improved usability:

• Partial localization support for Japanese and German.
• Hyper-V Release Candidate is partially localized in Japanese & German. This means that when Hyper-V is enabled on Windows Server 2008 Japanese or German many of its text strings will appear properly translated. In other cases, text strings may still appear in English. Hyper-V will be fully localized in numerous languages at Hyper-V RTM...
• Ability to enable Hyper-V RC on international locales.
  • The Hyper-V Release Candidate can now be enabled on international locales. (As opposed to previous versions which could only be enabled on an EN-US locale).
  • However, Hyper-V Release Candidate is only partially localized for Japanese and German. Thus, if you enable Hyper-V Release Candidate on any other language (such as Spanish, French, or Italian) it will appear in English. Hyper-V will be fully localized in numerous languages at Hyper-V RTM...

· Additional Guest OS support:

1. Hyper-V RC now includes support for Windows Server 2003 (x86) SMP
2. Hyper-V RC now includes support and integration components for Windows Vista SP1 (x86) and Windows XP SP3 (x86)

· Improved performance:

1. Hyper-V RC includes performance fixes for scalability and throughput for workloads
2. Hyper-V VMs using pass-through disks will see a substantial performance improvement over previous versions
3. Installing Hyper-V VMs via network (RIS/PXE/WDS) is greatly improved over previous versions
4. ...and lots more...

Before you jump right into the Hyper-V Release Candidate, I recommend you check out KB article 949219 which will walk you through the upgrade process step-by-step.

As always, thanks for the continued feedback. We're in the home stretch now...  Cheers, -Jeff