Microsoft Virtualization Secrets

Examining the Benefits of Virtualizing Locally

Fortunately, Microsoft plans to offer built-in client-based Hyper-V support for Windows 8.

While the limitations of current client virtualization seem apparent, before criticizing Microsoft for not offering a type 1 hypervisor for Windows 7 capable of supporting a 64-bit guest, consider why you really want client virtualization and the needs of client operating systems. The uses for client virtualization fall into two major classes:

• Application compatibility
• IT professionals and developers, usually considered “power users”

Most applications can be made to run on Windows 7 through application compatibility technologies, also known as shims. Fully explore any such options for an application before using client virtualization.

Currently, application compatibility is a huge challenge for organizations that want to move from Windows XP to Windows 7. Numerous applications will not run on Windows 7, for a variety of reasons. Some have dependencies in the operating system that are no longer present, and some have 16-bit components but the organization now wishes to use a 64-bit operating system. The most common issue, however, is that the original application was poorly written and used nondocumented methods to perform functions that worked at the time but no longer work with newer operating systems. For applications that cannot run on the client operating system, one solution is to run the application on a Windows 2003 Terminal Server, ...