Microsoft recently RTM-ed a new release of their server operation system ‘Windows Server 2008 R2’. Although debatable I think they did the right thing when they decided to only release a 64 bit version.
From a developer perspective however there is a nasty side effect that you should be aware of. This is caused by the fact that there is no MS virtualization tool running on a client OS that supports 64 bit guests.
Most developers follow the best practice to do development in a virtual environment and use their host for e-mail, word processing, etc.
In my case the host was Windows 7. I used my server running hyper-v to initially build the a new virtual BizTalk 2009 development box running on Windows Server 2008 R2. After that was done I wanted to transfer the .vhd to my laptop and run it from there.
As far as I know the MS options for running the VM are:
- Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
- Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2
- Microsoft Windows Virtual PC (currently RC)
As none of these options support 64 bit guest meaning I can’t use a Microsoft Virtualization tool to run my new Windows Server 2008 R2 development environment. Hyper-V supports 64 bit guest OS but doesn’t run on Windows 7.
The “not so nice” solutions left for me were:
- Use a non MS virtualization tool (like sun virtual box or VMware) that support 64 bit guests.
- Replace Windows 7 on my host with windows server 2008 hyper-V.
- Rebuild the virtual machine and use another 32 bit OS.
Posted by Randal van Splunteren 
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