You may have seen the "Smoked by Windows Phone" ad campaign, where a Windows Phone does something faster than another phone.   Well how about "Smoked by Hyper-V Server" challenge?  
 
As part of my initiative to "Do IT the Microsoft way", I set about switching over from VMware ESXi to Hyper-V.  After installing Hyper-V Server 8 Beta, I noticed it seemed to boot a lot faster.  This gave me the idea to have my own little "Smoked by Hyper-V Server" challenge.
 

For over 13 years, I've made a living off of Microsoft products.  However, Microsoft has always been only a portion of what I've made my living off of.  Throughout my career, every place I've worked has used Microsoft solutions for some areas, but chose products from other vendors in other areas.  In most cases where a Microsoft product was not used when one was available , I was not a decision maker. In fact I may not have even been with the company at all when the decision was made, so I didn't even have a chance to influence it.  Often I've often wondered why use Microsoft in some areas, but not others?
 

I finally had some time to install the Windows Server 8 Beta in my lab.  Since doing so, I've discovered there are 4 faces to Windows Server 8.   During install, you're presented with a choice between 2 of them, "Server Core" and "Server with GUI".  The other 2 currently require running a few commands to get to them.  The best part is, you can switch back and forth between then anytime you want.

The 4 faces of Windows Server 8 are:

1. Server Core
2. Minimal Server Interface
3. Server with GUI
4. Desktop Experience

You can read all about them and how to switch between them, in this TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831786.aspx

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2 was released today.   You can download it here.

Yesterday a security advisory was announced for vulnerability in SAMBA. Read more at ZDNet.

Today FreeNAS released version 8.0.4-p1, which contains a patch to fix the SAMBA vulnerability.  In the release notes, FreeNAS states that all versions prior to this one may be affected by this critical SAMBA vulnerability.   If you're running an earlier version of FreeNAS, it is important that you upgrade to this release ASAP.  

Yesterday the Exchange Team announced the Microsoft Exchange Conference 2012, the 1st time this conference has been held in 10 years.  The Conference will take place in Orlando Florida between September 24th and 26th.
 

Here's an interesting issue you may run into when migration from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010.   E-mails passing through the Exchange 2010 Hub Transport role may bounce back with a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) with the SMTP code 550 5.7.1 that says something like "Submission has been disabled for this account."

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released today (02/29/2012).  If you want to try it out, there's no better way to do it than with a Virtual Machine using VMWare Workstation 8.  As a reminder, only version 8 will work with Windows 8, so if you're still using version 7, it's time to upgrade.   If you installed the Developer Preview last year, than you should have no trouble installing the Consumer Preview, as the steps are nearly identical.    There are only some minor cosmetic difference for the install process.   If you haven't installed Windows 8 on VMWare Workstation 8 before, follow the guide I published last year.

Happy Leap Day! 

The Windows 8 Consumer preview is available for download here.

It is available in 5 different languages, including English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese.   The 64-bit ISO is 3.3GB and the 32-bit ISO is 2.5GB.   Product key is on the download page.