Windows OS

The image below is a non-doctored screenshot of a Hyper-V Server 2008 VM instance copying a 4.22GB .WIM file from the host Server 2008. The file copy went from my laptop's 7200 rpm hard drive to my laptop's 5400 rpm drive bay hard drive, using Windows File Shares between the host and guest. The file copy eventually slowed down because Hyper-V had to auto-extend the VM's VHD to hold all of the contents.

Interesting sidenote: Hyper-V network interfaces report themselves as 10GB interfaces, and the Hyper-V remote control seems to be a wrapper around an RDP session secured by a self-signed SSL certificate. How can you tell? Put a Hyper-V session to full screen - notice the drop down that looks exactly like a full-screen RDP session? That's because it is. Notice the padlock? That's the SSL certificate.

KMS servers hand out licenses for Windows Vista and Server 2008 on corporate networks.

One aspect that was not addressed very well, in my opinion, was the situation when an "outsider" plugs into your network. If their copy of Vista needs to be re-authorized, they could potentially pull down your enterprise's license key. Does it happen very often? I doubt it. Is it possible? Very much so.

A clever solution I overheard this week from someone at Microsoft was the following:

Problem: Anyone that plugs into a KMS-enabled network can grab an enterprise license for their Vista/Windows 2008 computer by default with KMS services.

Solution: IPSec-ize the KMS server ports – only domain joined computers can “see” the KMS server due to IPsec rules. "Outsiders" can't see the KMS server.

This could also be a handy thing for NAP to take care of, now that I think about it.