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Hyper-V and MS-Windows 8

Posted by Chris H. Filed in Windows 8

Hyper-V is a Windows Server virtualization platform. It is based on hypervisor which is a software program for operating system management. The hypervisor manages the system’s resources in order to enable the system to run multiple operating systems, hence creating a virtual multiple-system environment on a single system. The resources that hypervisor manages, mainly include the processor and memory. Hyper-V enabled by hypervisor, basically helps in managing the work required by resource intensive services, in a single computer system.

Hyper-V did not work for ordinary client machines until recently, reason being that it was considered to be a requirement of only the servers, till now. But with the increase in awareness and use of technology, there was a need to bring the technologies that were previously enjoyed only by the servers, to the clients as well. Microsoft attempted to provide this facility to the client machines by bringing Hyper-V to Microsoft Windows 8.

There were certain rules or pre-requisites that were established before bringing Hyper-V to Microsoft Windows 8. For instance, Hyper-V on Windows 8 needs to have x86-64 systems only, for it to work. Moreover, the system needs to have Second Level Address Translation and at least 4GB of RAM.

Microsoft Windows 8 is another version of Microsoft Windows operating system whose predecessor was Windows 7. Its preview version was release in September 2011. Windows 8, as any other new versions of any other product, has come with many new features that were not a part of its predecessors. For instance, the user interfaces for certain functionalities have been modified to provide better security and ease of use.  Windows 8 has certain hardware requirements as well and some of these are affected by Microsoft’s decision of bringing Hyper-V to Microsoft Windows 8 which was only a part of the Windows Server operating systems before, meant for the server machines.

There are many advantages of adding Hyper-V to the client version of Windows 8. Hyper-V does not only manage system resources for multiple operating systems, because if that were the case, then adding it to a client version of the operating system might not have been as useful as it is now. It supports and manages the system resources for resource intensive applications as well, such as the SQL server. Moreover, Windows 8 with Hyper-V provides the facility to take snapshots of the machine, which can come in handy when there is a debugging problem. The snapshot feature takes the snapshot of the virtual machine which saves and lets the user access everything at some later point in time. Microsoft Windows 8 has two views for the virtual machine, normally referred to as the VM. These are the Virtual Machine Console or simply the console view and the Remote Desktop Connection.

This addition of Hyper-V to the Windows 8 operating system, just like any other invention, will not be free of limitations. Many IT professionals have analyzed Microsoft’s decision to add Hyper-V to their next generation operating system and have come up with certain limitations that this addition may have. It may, for instance, hinder the performance of some applications particularly those requiring the processing of graphics.

More info: Hyper-V on Windows 8