logo-ms-ws08-v As Jeff so rightfully pointed out Hyper-V Release Candidate is Here!!! owwwwww yes its how we roll on the virtualization front!!! we are moving forward faster and faster and with all our Kidaro fun this is just one of many great things that we are set to unleash!

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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...