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When talking about Hyper-V with customers or colleagues, I notice that there is quite some confusion around the definition of Hyper-V Server and Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V.

Hyper-V Server 2008 / 2008-R2
The Hyper-V Server is a stand-alone product, which contains only the Windows Hypervisor, Windows Server driver model and virtualization components.  What’s important to know, the Hyper-V Server comes for FREE!.

No, Hyper-V Server is not just Windows Server Core + Hyper-V, the only thing this server is designed for is virtualization and therefore does not contain any other server roles.

Windows Server 2008 / 2008-R2 with Hyper-V
Here Hyper-V is an enabled server role running on Windows Server 2008 (64 bit) or Windows Server 2008 R2 (note that Server 2008 R2 only comes in 64 bit).

The below table provides an overview of the Hyper-V Server and Windows Server products.

Source: Microsoft

Other Sources:

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Preview (Paul Thurrot)

Microsoft TechNet – Hyper-V

First Look: Hyper-V Server

If you are looking for a very easy 5 minute video that explains Volume Activation for Windows 7, then click here

Additional sources

TechNet Volume Activation

Volume Activation changes in Windows7

Windows 7 Activation Improvements

I just connected to our fresh installed Windows 2008 server that we intend to use as a remote system management console. The server is a member of our Windows 2003 Active Directory domain, not a DC itself.

I wanted to launch the Active directory users and computers console, but did not find it under the Administrative tools. Okay, this must be something similar like with Windows Vista when you install the RSAT tools I thought, and yes it is, you must first enable that feature.

First, on the windows 2008 system open the server manager. Then select Features, Add features as shown in the picture below.

then select Remote Server Administration tools, Role Administration tools, and then enable Active Directory Domain Services Tools. (note the screen shot below was taken after installation, that is why it is shown as installed).

confirm the following message boxes and after a while (including a system reboot) the tools are installed and ready to use. Enjoy AD administration !

Also note that if you want to access the Group Policy Management Console, you must follow the same path, just look out for the GPMC console in the available features list.