[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] brb8two:
Hi All,

This is my first guide on XDA and this might not be the right topic but it's related. (This is for Advanced users)

I want to start this thread to show how you can use Microsoft's Free Hyper-V Server for more than just "Hyper-V".

I have done tests with Hardware and VMWare Player (V5) with both Hyper-V 2008 R2 & Hyper-V 2012.

System Requirements;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V#System_requirements_and_specifications

And more specifically;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V#Microsoft_Hyper-V_Server

Download a Free copy of Hyper V Server; (It’s free, so no Install key required!)

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/hyper-v-server/default.aspx (You might need to register)

I have successfully used VMWare Player 5, Version 4 works for Hyper-V 2008 R2 but not 2012.

If you are trying this on hardware directly, you’ll also need to download your system’s drivers (at a minimum the Network Card) and a web browser

. i.e. Chrome downloader from: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/ (Tested to work correctly in Hyper-V Environment) Save these to a USB stick.

Anything else can be downloaded once Hyper-V Server is up and running.

Follow the Hyper-V installation as usual (all defaults)

As a guide; Select Custom Installation, you'll need more than 10GB hard drive size after we add extras, so pick 20GB as a minimum. wait for the re-boot

At this point you'll be asked to set a password and you'll get a command prompt for a user interface.

That's right, Desktop, control panel, Start menu, Metro, Task Bar, System Tray, Internet Explorer are all User interface elements that are removed from this copy of windows.

This is where this [GUIDE] starts to provide non-standard information;

Let's start by Installing your Drivers. (I'm assuming you know how to use the command prompt to change drive letter of your USB drive and launch the driver installer program.)

OR in VMWare case, on the menu select Install VMWare tools. This will not launch automatically, hence you'll need to use the command prompt to change to your CD/DVD Drive and launch the "Setup.exe" for VMware tools.

Now start the installation for Chrome, similar to above.

Now Chrome is running, Close the prompt to select default browser (it's your only browser...)

Sometimes I have found Chrome to crash with a dinput8.dll error (no all websites), Chrome works with this prompt up, but it's nicer to avoid it prompting.

http://www.driverskit.com/dll/dinput8.dll/585.html * We'll get back to this later...

You'll need to be uncompressed the above file, so lets download 7Zip also

http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Now we need a file manager, since there is no Windows Explorer (or now called explorer) Explorer2 (x2) fits the bill nicely.

http://www.zabkat.com/x2lite.htm * Free Light Version (There are issues with not displaying some files, That because it’s a 32bit application that is not 100% compatible with a 64bit environment), The Pro Version is US$29.95 and is available in 64bit. When you install this, select the option to replace Explorer (note: there is no explorer, so this option allows explorer2 to handle some calls to explorer)

Now download a Start menu, Taskbar “desktop” replacement http://www.emergedesktop.org/* Free and customizable.

-	Lets customize the Emerge desktop,

-	If not started run “C:\Program Files\Emerge Desktop\emergeCore.exe”

-	Lets start by removing menu Items that are broken due to not having a full copy of windows.

--	Settings, Configure Core, Click on emergeLauncher.exe, the press the Cog.

---	Delete “Homepage”

---	Delete “Executable %AppletDIR%\documentation\...”

---	Delete “ Tutorial”

---	Add Type “Live Folder”, Folder “C:\Users\Public\Desktop” (Click Save)

--	Settings, Configure Core, Click on emergeTasks.exe, the press the Cog.

---	Change Icon Size to 16x16 (Click OK)

-	Start menu (or right click any where on the desktop) select Desktop Display, right click, Delete.

Now any new program that puts a shortcut in this folder “C:\Users\Public\Desktop” will appear on the launch Task Bar.

For some "Control Panel" replacement options download a GUI for managing some windows features (These projects help to speed up initial configuration;

http://corefig.codeplex.com/ Corefig for Windows Server 2012 Core and Hyper-V Server 2012

https://coreconfig.codeplex.com/ for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Core edition

This together with Sconfig can do quite a bit of windows configurations without resorting to the command line.

Ok the dinput8.dll.zip you downloaded earlier, you can un-compress this and put the dll (not the zip) in to the C:\windows\system32 folder.

If you want to make re-starting faster and don't plan on using Hyper-V, lets remove it. (coreconfig I think has this option but the following will always work) In a command prompt window type the following;

start /w ocsetup microsoft-hyper-v /uninstall

(Windows will need to restart a couple of times to do this)

(Optional) Enable a network share (You can use this like a Network file Server now, I don't know if there is a limitation to the number of connections like in desktop versions of windows)

net share /Grant:Administrator,FULL system=c:\

Remote Desktop Concurrent Users limit: 2 (one console, one remote OR two remote) (1 UP on a windows workstation copy)

Enable with from the Sconfig utility..

If you want to run SQL Server (Tested with 2008 R2) you'll need DotNet3.5

In a command prompt window type the following;

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All

I did this as a test a while ago and I think that is all I needed to do and it worked. (I have gotten it to work, so it would be interesting on how much it can be pushed on this platform)

Need Java? Download Java http://java.com/en/download/

Need to use Office Documents?; http://www.libreoffice.org/download

Need FTP Server?; https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=server

Need Web Server?; http://mirror.mel.bkb.net.au/pub/apache//httpd/binaries/win32/

Need QEMU support? http://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/

I used the built in Windows Updates (option 6 on the Sconfig utility) but I also prefer to use: WSUS Offline http://wsusoffline.net/

WSUS will also quickly get you copies of Silver light & C++ run times (or you can find the URL's manually), I find it's best to use both, WSUS Offline for quick offline copies and windows updates for the latest Microsoft has to offer... (I did not say latest & greatest...)

Work in Progress (probably not going to happen without 3rd party work).

Need Sound? (Don’t know of a solution yet…) I saw someone working on this with Server 2012 Core but I did not find the solution or if it would work with hyper-V copy.

Need Direct X? (Don’t know of a solution yet…) I've tried downloading -redist copies, etc but Direct X has been integrated into windows for years and this is the copy it's removed from.

I'd also want to get VMWare Player working or similar for the USB Pass through feature and 3D client support but I'd probably have to use an alternative. (I heard of a USB Driver for windows to share over Ethernet to another copy of windows)

Okay, this is all I have got for now, your thoughts?