Somehow I missed the announcement that SP1 was released for Virtual Server 2005 R2.  Given that I run nearly all my development (and some non-development) environments on R2, I'm surprised I didn't catch wind of SP1!

You can download SP1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BC49C7C8-4840-4E67-8DC4-1E6E218ACCE4&displaylang=en.  It's interesting to note that Vista flavors are listed as supported host operating systems, yet include a "non-Production only" caveat.

I run Virtual Server 2005 R2 on Vista Business without any problems (well, if you know some tricks).  As I upgraded I noted the following:

• When installing SP1, be sure to turn off the Virtual Server service, else you will receive the following warning:

• It will detect the previous version and force you to upgrade:

• I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that some of these options are new.  Sorry, I haven't had the time to research them - when I do, I promise I'll post my findings.

The upgrade seemed to go without a problem.  I was able to mount and start my virtual machines without any problems whatsoever.

I know this is old news, but this post is primarily a reminder to myself -- I keep forgetting!  If you try to open a recently downloaded (or installed) help file (*.chm) in Vista, you will get the following message:

Navigation to the webpage was canceled.  Retype the address.

In order to view the help file, you have to right-click the file, choose Properties, and then click Unblock.

Thanks to Bill Evjen's for the reminder.

One of the first things I do after installing Vista is turn off UAC (ooh, I can already feel the criticism).  I just can abide having to authorize every single action I take on the computer.  It's one thing to ask me to confirm a change to IIS or a service running on my machine, but don't make me authorize the deletion of files on the operating system!  If I clicked delete and confirmed the deletion, just delete it!

Previously, if you wanted to add a network printer that ran on Windows XP or 2003, you had to have UAC turned on.  This means that I would have to turn on UAC, reboot my machine, add the printer, turn off UAC, and then reboot my machine again.  Just to add a printer.  Brilliant!

Fortunately Microsoft just released two updates:

• Windows Vista Performance Update
• Windows Vista Reliability Update

The first of the two specifically addresses the following "issue":

If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.

Finally!

To test this, I installed both updates (rebooting after each on), and then attempted to add a network printer.  Previously, clicking the Install driver button caused failed if UAC was turned off.

After installing the updates, however, it works exactly as one would expect it to work.

It only took six or seven months, but it seems this annoying "issue" was finally resolved.  Thank goodness!

I came across a great blog entry today that provided the following script.  This script will setup IIS with the proper configuration to allow Virtual Server 2005 R2 to function.  Just run this in the command line (or create a batch file) before installing Virtual Server.

start /w pkgmgr /l:log.etw /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-HttpRedirect;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ASP;IIS-CGI;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-ServerSideIncludes;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ODBCLogging;IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-URLAuthorization;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-IPSecurity;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;IIS-ManagementService;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;IIS-LegacyScripts;IIS-LegacySnapIn;IIS-FTPPublishingService;IIS-FTPServer;IIS-FTPManagement;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI

Note: this will pretty much install everything under IIS.  I recommend that you either go through and remove some of the above settings, or go in afterwards and do so.

Additionally, make sure that when you run the installer, select "Run as Administrator".

Thanks to Grant Holliday for the tip!

[Updated 06/21/07]

A good friend and former colleague of mine, Rich Finn, had a little trouble getting this to work based on my steps above (I'll have to review them again).  After he finally got the configuration correct, he sent me the following screen shot.  I hope this helps someone!