Creating a Hyper-V Windows 7 Virtual Machine

A virtual machine is an operating system that is running within the Hyper-V virtual environment. You can run multiple virtual machines on the same physical machine. By placing multiple virtual machines on the same physical machine, Hyper-V allows you to maximize performance by utilizing hardware resources.

The hypervisor is a 64-bit mechanism that allows Hyper-V to run multiple virtual machines on the same physical machine. The hypervisor's job is to create and manage the partitions between virtual machines. The hypervisor is a thin software layer that sits between the virtual machines and the hardware.

Virtual machines are full operating systems that run in a virtualized environment. The end users who connect to the virtual machines cannot tell the difference between a normal machine and a virtualized machine. Because of this, you can set up your virtual machine environment the same way you would set up a normal machine.

Perform the following steps to install Windows 7 as a virtual machine on Hyper-V:

1. Start the Hyper-V Manager by clicking Start → Administrative Tools → Hyper-V Manager.
2. When the Hyper-V Manager starts, click the New → Virtual Machine link in the Actions section.
3. Click Next at the Before You Begin screen.
4. At the Specify Name And Location screen, type Win7VM in the Name field. Leave the default location. Click Next.
5. At the Assign Memory screen, type 1024MB and click Next.
6. At the Configure Networking screen, choose your network adapter from the Connection Type drop-down list. Click Next.
7. At the Connect Virtual Hard Disk screen, click Create A New Virtual Hard Disk.
8. Type Win7.vhd and make the hard drive size 20 GB. Click Next.
9. At the Summary screen, check the ''Start the virtual machine after it is created'' check box and click Finish.
10. When the Win7VM starts, you receive a boot failure. Click the Media menu option. Click DVD Drive and then capture your DVD drive. Place the Windows 7 DVD into the media device. Then press Enter.
11. The Windows 7 installation should start. Install the Windows 7 Enterprise Edition as normal.

Now it might not be feasible to set up a Windows Server 2008 machine with Hyper-V to run Windows 7. So there is a better way for client operating systems: Microsoft Virtual PC.