re: Virtual PC 2007 goes gold - download link is live

Bill Walter — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:48:50 GMT

Does this version support loading 64 bit Virtual Systems like VISTA 64, Windows 2003 64, Exchange Server 64 etc. If not is there a version of Virtual PC or Virtual Server that supports 64 bit Virtual systems? If not released is that a product that Microsoft intends to develop and support or do we need to look to other vendors for a way to test and evaluate 64 bit operating systems and applications?

re: Virtual PC 2007 goes gold - download link is live

Keith Combs — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:07:34 GMT

Not yet. Guest support for x64 operating systems is still under development. From the Virtual Server FAQ at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/evaluation/virtualizationfaq.mspx :

Q. What is Windows Server Virtualization?

A. Windows Server virtualization, previously codenamed Viridian, is a hypervisor-based technology that is a part of Windows Server “Longhorn”. It provides a scalable, secure and highly available virtualization platform. It is part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to provide our customers and partners with the best operating system platform for virtualization.

Q. What is Windows hypervisor?

A. A core component of Windows Server virtualization, Windows hypervisor is a thin layer of software between the hardware and the OS that allows multiple operating systems to run, unmodified, on a host computer at the same time. It provides simple partitioning functionality and is responsible for maintaining strong isolation between partitions. It has an inherently secure architecture with minimal attack surface, as it does not contain any third party device drivers.

Q. What benefits does Windows Server virtualization offer customers?

A. Windows Server virtualization provides customers an ideal platform for key virtualization scenarios, such as production server consolidation, business continuity management, software test and development, and development of a dynamic data center.

Windows Server virtualization provides key functionality which an ideal virtualization platform should provide - scalability, high performance, reliability, security, flexibility and manageability. It provides scalability and high performance by supporting features like guest multi-processing support and 64-bit guest and host support; reliability and security through its hypervisor architecture; flexibility and manageability by supporting features like live migration of virtual machines from one physical host to another, dynamic addition of virtual resources and integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager.