Hyper-V and VMWare Workstation 6 are like oil and water on a Windows 2008 Server x64 system

I might be running into a specific issue with my system but I suspect it is something other than the stated error message. I have Windows 2008 Server RTM installed with Hyper-V, as an experiment to run it as a full-time Desktop OS. I know it is not intended as such but considering that Vista SP1 and Server 2008 come from the same codebase, it is fun to try. They even report the same version and build number.

I know there are much more different under the hood and other build options were used in each build. I do mostly server-centric work anyway, so it makes sense to run the OS this way.

Anyway, anytime I try to fire up my VMWare XP VM, I receive a blue screen about 30 seconds into the boot process of the VM. It will say an unexpected hardware error has occurred. I haven't debugged it yet but I will when I get a moment. The actual Windows 2008 x64 host blue screens.

If Hyper-V is not installed, VMWare works fine under Windows 2008. I know Hyper-V is a work in progress, so I wasn't expecting miracles. Before the trolls come out, I doubt this is on purpose.

Overall, Windows 2008 x64 is quite a nice desktop OS. I still believe x64 adoption has been crippled by forcing the use of signed drivers. I understand the reasoning behind it, but if you are going to do it for x64, you might as well do it for x86 too. If you thought people were formatting Vista and returning to XP in droves now, you would see many more doing so if they forced this issue on the x86 side too. x64

I know you can do 'test signing' of drivers and I know the technical reasons why signed drivers are good, but sometimes you just want to be able to use your devices without pressing [F8] every boot up. I have seen some crazy pre-boot keystroke injectors to work around the issue, but I don't want to go down that road.

I don't like self-signing the drivers because your desktop gets stamped with 'Testing'. I know, I know, ask your vendors for properly signed drivers and this is a non-issue but there are many free programs out there that can't afford a Verisign certificate.

In the past, in Vista RTM until a few security updates later, you could work around the issue with a bootcfg switch.

Anyway, there are a few things you need to enable to make Windows 2008 more Vista-like:
1. Enable the Windows Audio service.
2. Install the File Server Role of 'Windows Search', if you want enhanced search in Office 2007 and the desktop.
3. Install the Desktop Experience feature.
4. Install a 3rd party Bluetooth stack, such as Broadcom, if you are using x64 and want a full stack.

Things I miss when running Server 2008 instead of Vista:
1. Diskeeper - due to this OS being a server SKU, my verison of Diskeeper won't install. I expected this.
2. Dreamscene - I know it is eyecandy fluff but once you get used to it with a good collection of movies, you miss it.
3. Windows Live OneCare - Instead, I am using Forefront Client Security in an unmanaged mode. One of the 'home' benefits of the Forefront license, as a gold partner.

Overall, I would say about 99% of my applications I had in Vista x86 are working on Server 2008 x64. The ones that are not working I can live without.

Thankfully, I am dualbooting so if I find a true showstopper, I can just boot into my Vista x86 hard drive.