You use Device Manager to view, install, uninstall, disable, and otherwise manage hardware devices. You can access Device Manager from a number of places, including by right-clicking the Start button and clicking Device Manager from the resulting list. You can also find it in the Computer Management Console, under the System Tools node. By default, the list is organized by the various types of devices as shown in Figure 2-1, but there are other viewing and sorting options.

Figure 2-1. Device Manager is available from the Computer Management Console.

You can expand any node in Device Manager to view the installed device(s) that relate to the selected device family. In Figure 2-2, you can see that the Monitors entry only has one item listed, whereas Network Adapters has several. You can right-click any entry and select Properties to view information about its driver, among other things. You might see only four tabs for a simple device like a Plug-and-Play monitor (General, Driver, Details, and Events), or you might see more than that for more complicated devices like network adapters, also shown in Figure 2-2.

Figure 2-2. Expand any node, right-click the desired device, and click Properties to access its Properties dialog box.

Additionally, Device Manager offers four menus you can use to work with any of the installed devices:

It’s important to note that nearly all of the options available from the Action menu are also available in a device’s Properties dialog box or from the options that appear when you right-click an entry. For example, Update Driver, Disable, and Uninstall are available on the Driver tab.

You can change the default view for Device Manager when you need to access other options beyond a list of devices by their type. You access these views from the View menu. One option is Show Hidden Devices. There might come a time when you need to view hidden devices to troubleshoot something obscure.

Beyond this you can opt to change the view in these other ways:

If you need to troubleshoot hardware because you believe there is a conflict of some sort among resources, it’s best to see if Device Manager knows of any by following these steps:

Figure 2-3. Let Device Manager determine conflicts.

Although there is a lot more to learn about drivers, including managing unsigned drivers, disabling driver signing at boot up, managing the drivers in the Driver Store, and even configuring Group Polices that define what types of drivers can be installed and by whom, we don’t have enough space here to go into great detail. However, there’s enough here to get you started, and we suggest you continue your studies using the resources on TechNet and other trusted places on the Internet.

Install and uninstall

There are several ways to install drivers when they aren’t installed automatically or offered by Windows Update. One is by responding to a prompt from the Action Center. Although this is an end-user solution to a driver problem and not necessarily a network administrator solution, it’s still an option, especially when working with a home user. Action Center can discover problems and search for solutions automatically, and when a solution is found, it offers it up.

Another option for installing a driver is to download it from the manufacturer’s website and then double-click an executable file that contains the driver. You have to do this manually; there’s no automated task in place to do it for you.

Exam Tip

Updated drivers won’t be downloaded over metered connections. You might see a question on the exam that asks something based on this scenario. Expect that sometimes a simple answer such as “The user is on a metered connection” can be asked through a large, complex scenario, perhaps one or two paragraphs long, that includes lots of information that isn’t necessary for finding the solution.

Finally, you can use Device Manager. Because a driver will likely already be installed for a device, even if it doesn’t work properly, much of the time you’ll opt to update the driver. To get started, locate the device in Device Manager (try View > Devices by Type) and double-click the device. On the Driver tab, click Update Driver. In the Update Driver Software dialog box, choose how to locate the driver. If it’s one you’ve downloaded and saved to your computer, click Browse My Computer For Driver Software. Otherwise, click Search Automatically For Updated Driver Software, which will automatically look for a driver in all of the usual places. The latter is a good option if you think a driver is available from Windows Update.

Once you’ve located the driver, you can install it. If this goes well, the driver will be updated. However, sometimes Windows responds to your request with a message that states that the best driver is already installed (or a driver can’t be found), resulting in an unexpected complication. If Windows deems that the best driver is already installed, or if you want to install your own anyway, from the Properties dialog box in Device Manager, opt to uninstall the driver and make sure to select the Delete The Driver Software For The Device check box shown in Figure 2-4 (otherwise, Windows will keep reinstalling it).

Important: Manually uninstall a problematic device driver

Sometimes, even when you tell Windows to delete the software for a device, that software will continue to reinstall itself when you opt to scan for new hardware in Device Manager. When this happens you’ll have to delete the driver manually using the Pnputil.exe command-line tool, detailed later in this section, with the –f and –d switches.

Figure 2-4. If necessary, delete the existing driver files to prevent Windows from attempting to update the driver again.

Real World: Install legacy hardware

In many organizations, legacy hardware still plays a very important role in getting the job done. It might be a legacy printer, an infrared device, or even a modem. This hardware might not be detected automatically. There’s an option in Device Manager that can help you install these kinds of devices. To do so, insert any installation media you have for the device and then follow these steps:

1. Open Device Manager. On the Action tab, click Add Legacy Hardware.

2. Click Next on the Welcome page and then select one of these options:

   • Search For And Install The Hardware Automatically (Recommended)

   • Install The Hardware That I Manually Select From A List

3. Follow the resulting prompts. This might involve selecting a port for a printer, selecting the device from a list, or making other choices.

Once installed, you can manage the device in Device Manager.

With the proper driver installed you can now configure the installed devices. As is true with virtually any task in Windows 8.1, there are multiple ways to do this. There are two I’d like to introduce here: Devices and Printers and Device Stage. Although both are consumer and end-user tools, they can be of some use to network administrators.

Use Device Stage

Sometimes you can double-click a device in the Devices And Printers window to access it in Device Stage. It has been my experience that Device Stage opens less and less frequently for installed devices, though. Double-clicking a printer often opens the print queue, not Device Stage. Double-clicking a Bluetooth headset opens its Properties dialog box. Only rarely does Device Stage open for a device, but for the sake of covering it, Figure 2-6 shows Device Stage for a wireless mouse. You can see that there are options to download software, find solutions, and even register your mouse. This feature appears to be fading out, though.

Figure 2-6. Device Stage offers another method to access device properties.

Device drivers have the potential to damage a computer if they are laced with hidden malware by dishonest programmers. Thus, a technology is in place to test, approve, and then sign drivers to verify they are safe to install and have not been altered since the testing and approval process has been completed. Once approved, the drivers are digitally signed with a digital signature by an approved authority (often a trusted organization or publisher). This signature is created using a cryptographic algorithm and is appended to the device driver. This verifies that the driver is authentic and secure when you get it, because the algorithm is verified.

Unsigned drivers can be the cause of various computer problems, especially those that are difficult to diagnose. You can check if any unsigned drivers are installed on any computer by using the command-line tool Sigverif.exe. To perform this check, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the Start button and click Command Prompt (Admin).

2. At the command prompt, type sigverif.exe and press Enter.

3. Click Start to run File Signature Verification and then view the results. See Figure 2-7.

4. Click Close (not shown).

Figure 2-7. Use the command Sigverif.exe to see if there are any unsigned drivers on a computer.

If you find unsigned drivers, you might be able to look at the path of those drivers to see where they are saved and perhaps what device they are installed with or refer to. This might help you uncover which device is causing difficult-to-diagnose system problems.

More Info: Learn more about digital signatures

For more information about digital signatures and signed drivers, refer to the MSDN article at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff543743(v=vs.85).aspx.

So, just how do unsigned drivers get on a system? For the most part, they either are installed by the computer manufacturer or installed by the end user. If Windows suspects a driver has been tampered with or knows the driver is unsigned, the user will receive a prompt and, in many cases, have the option to install it anyway.

Here are the three messages offered for unsigned drivers:

• Windows Can’t Verify The Publisher Of This Driver. Either there is no digital signature or the signature has not been verified by a trusted authority (an organization or publisher that has been authorized to sign). If you must install the driver, make sure it is from the manufacturer of the device and that you download it from the manufacturer’s website.

• This Driver Has Been Altered. The driver has been verified by a trusted authority but has been altered since then. The protected checksum (a value stored with the device dependent on the content) is not what it is expected to be. It might have been altered on purpose to include malware, or it might have been altered by the manufacturer. If you must install the driver, make sure it is from the manufacturer of the device and that you download it from the manufacturer’s website.

• Windows Cannot Install This Driver. Windows 8.1 64-bit operating systems will not install a device driver that has been altered since it was verified or one that has not been verified at all. It is possible to bypass these digital signature requirements, but you must reboot the computer in Advanced mode.

If there is no way around the inability to install an unsigned driver, you can disable digital signing, reboot the computer, and install it anyway using PC Settings, on the Update And Recovery tab, under Recovery options. As shown in Figure 2-8, under Advanced Startup, click Restart Now.

Figure 2-8. To disable driver signing you must restart the computer in Advanced mode.

After you click Restart Now on the screen shown in Figure 2-8, follow these steps:

1. Click Troubleshoot.

2. Click Advanced Options.

3. Click Startup Settings.

4. Click Restart.

5. After the computer restarts into the boot menu, press 7 on the keyboard. (The computer restarts.)

You can now install unsigned drivers as necessary. When complete, restart the machine normally.

Exam Tip

Windows 8.1 64-bit operating systems block the installation of unsigned drivers by default. This might be the answer required for a much larger question, perhaps a scenario about device driver installation, in a domain, with no changes to Group Policy, and so on.

Windows 8.1 contains a Driver Store to hold device drivers that have been tested and approved by Microsoft and thus digitally signed. The Driver Store can be updated via Windows Update and other means. When you connect a device, this is where Windows looks for a driver first. If it doesn’t find one, it searches Windows Update. This method works in most circumstances, but sometimes Windows installs a driver it deems best and there’s no way to uninstall it, update it, or successfully delete the driver files by using Device Manager or other methods.

If you know this is the case for a specific device, you can install a driver manually before connecting the device. To do this you use the Pnputil.exe command at an elevated command prompt. You can also use the command to manage the Driver Store, including adding, deleting, and listing driver packages. A driver package consists of all of the data needed to install the driver, including but not limited to the following:

The syntax for the Pnputil.exe command is to type pnputil.exe –a <path to the driver> <drivername>.inf. The following are some parameters to consider:

If you are interested in seeing the DriverStore folder, navigate to C:WindowsSystem32DriverStoreFileRepository.

When working with a lot of users and computers, it is unsafe to leave users in charge of installing their own driver updates. You, as a network administrator, need to control what happens with driver updates by creating a driver policy. You might institute a driver policy that doesn’t allow anyone to install any device drivers until something stops working. Your driver policy might be the exact opposite of this, with your reasoning being that because drivers often address problems, offer new features, and even improve device performance, all updates (once tested) should be installed. Generally though, it isn’t this cut and dried. You’ll test and install some updates and you won’t worry with others.

Whatever you decide, you should set up a test lab, even it if is small, to try device drivers before you deploy them. In addition, just to be on the safe side, you should opt to install drivers only after a couple of weeks have passed since their availability so that any problems can be resolved by the manufacturer, if any exist. You should institute a rule regarding unsigned drivers or drivers that offer prompts during installation, too.

You can also apply Group Policy to manage what users can do with regard to driver installation. Here you’ll experience one item you can change: By default, only members of the Administrators group are allowed to install new device drivers on the system. If you enable this in Group Policy, then members of the Users group can install new drivers for device setup classes that you specify. If you disable it (or do not configure it), only members of the Administrators group can install new device drivers on the system. There are other settings to explore beyond what you find in the Driver Installation node you see here, as you’ll see in the next set of steps.

To sample how group policies can be applied to control driver installation on a local machine, follow these steps:

Figure 2-10. Explore group policies that relate to driver and device installation.

You can use this group policy and setting to restrict or enable access both on local machines and in domains.

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of the information in this objective. You can find the answers to these questions and explanations of why each answer choice is correct or incorrect in the “Answers” section at the end of this chapter.

There are several ways to install and repair applications. You are probably aware of the traditional options: You can insert the application CD or DVD and choose the repair option, uninstall an application from Control Panel and then reinstall it by using other methods, or even select the program in Control Panel and click Repair. Here you’ll learn about two lesser-known options: using Windows Installer files (MSIExec) and the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT).

By default, all users can access the Windows Store. You might want to change this behavior. There are two ways to modify access. You can configure it so users can’t access the Windows Store at all, or you can limit their use by allowing them to acquire only specific apps.

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of the information in this objective. You can find the answers to these questions and explanations of why each answer choice is correct or incorrect in the “Answers” section at the end of this chapter.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to prevent users from accessing specific apps without using the tools designed for that purpose. AppLocker (also known as application control policies) can help in this regard. By using it, you can control what applications and files users can run by creating specific rules with the restrictions you want to apply.

On a high level, AppLocker, available inside the Group Policy Editor, is organized into four areas called rule collections, where you can create rules for the various types of applications in your workgroup or enterprise. You can see the four entries in the left pane in Figure 2-15. No rules exist by default. The four areas of rule collections (or containers) are executable files (.exe, .com), scripts (.ps2, .bat, .js, .cmd, .vbs), Windows Installer files (.msi, .mst, .msp), and packaged apps (.appx). AppLocker uses these rules to determine which applications users can run. The path is Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings, Application Control Policies, AppLocker.

After you’ve decided which container to use for your rule (your choices are Executable Rules, Windows Installer Rules, Script Rules, or Packaged App Rules), you need to decide what kind of rule to create. There are three choices:

If you plan to use AppLocker, understand that once enabled and in use, AppLocker blocks all executable files, installer packages, and scripts unless otherwise noted. You therefore must create default rules that enable users to access the files needed to run their system first. After that, you can begin configuring what you do and do not want them to use.

One way to apply AppLocker is to create a rule to deny access to a specific app that appears on the Start screen. You might want to do this on a machine if you find the users are playing games, using Skype, and so on. On a high level you’ll need to open the applicable Group Policy Editor, create a Packaged App Rule, opt to automatically generate rules for everyone, and then locate an entry such as Microsoft.BingTravel. Using the wizard, opt to deny the app. You’ll also need to enable and start the Application Identity Service on the local machine to which you want to apply the restriction. This is necessary because you could create a set of rules that doesn’t allow access to files Windows needs to run.

In scenarios in which AppLocker won’t work, you’ll have to create your rules using Software Restriction Policies. This feature has been around a long time, so it is backward-compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista and can also be used for Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers if you only want to use one feature to manage all the computers in your organization. Because the feature is older, it isn’t as efficient as AppLocker, though. It can’t generate rules automatically, for one thing, which means you must configure rules manually and one at a time.

As with AppLocker, you can create rules based on specific conditions:

To create a Software Restriction Policy you use Group Policy Editor. Navigate to a Group Policy object and then to Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings, Software Restriction Policies. Right-click Software Restriction Policies and click New Software Restriction Policies. You can now create rules of your own.

Click Additional Rules to get started. Right-click inside the Additional Rules pane and click the desired option for creating a new rule. You’ll have to configure your rule manually, without a wizard, by inputting the required components. See Figure 2-15.

Figure 2-15. Create rules manually using Software Restriction Policies.

When you configure rules, there are three settings:

It’s common for users to carry USB flash drives with them everywhere they go. I have a USB key on my keychain (really, it is shaped like a key!). Having access to a portable drive makes it easy for users to take data with them without having to carry a laptop, connect to a network or domain, transfer data to a tablet or phone, or access a cloud drive. Unfortunately, this is also a common way for viruses to spread and for sensitive data to be taken off premises (and potentially lost or stolen). In an even worse scenario, a malicious user could access another’s computer and copy data without anyone knowing, should the ability arise due to a workstation left unattended or unlocked. Beyond USB drives, users can also copy data to CDs and DVDs and even memory cards.

Deciding who can use these kinds of drives to transfer data is a difficult task. Some employees will need this ability. Some won’t. You’ll have to take careful inventory and decide which employees fit into these two groups and then configure your group polices accordingly. Whatever you decide, the option to configure settings for removable storage access, whether on a local machine or on a domain server, is available in the Group Policy Editor.

To access removable access policies, follow these steps:

Take some time now to open the screen shown in Figure 2-16 and double-click each entry to see what it offers. You need to be able to name the policies and know what they do if you enable them. For instance, the setting All Removable Storage Classes: Deny All Access enables you to block access to all classes of removable storage devices, and this policy takes precedence over all of the policy settings for individual classes. Similarly, CD And DVD: Deny Read/Write/Execute Access, if enabled, denies users all access to the CD or DVD drivers in the computer or gives users only the access you specifically allow or deny.

Assigned Access is a new feature offered in Windows 8.1 RT, Windows 8.1 Pro, and Windows 8.1 Enterprise. In a nutshell, it’s a type of “device lockdown” technology. With it, you can use PC Settings to choose a specific user profile and assign an app to that profile. This gives a single Windows Store application experience on the device by opening a specified app at boot up and after authentication of the user. You can prevent other apps from opening and configure filters to keep the logged-in user from changing system settings or even using specific keys on the keyboard.

You can configure Assigned Access in situations in which the user only needs to access one thing. Perhaps it’s a reading app used by elementary school students. Perhaps it’s a tablet that’s available at a makeup counter in a department store. It could even be a specialty device offered by a manufacturer to only do one thing, such as manage a fantasy football team using a single app designed for just that.

To use Assigned Access you need to configure at least one standard user account. You can do this in many ways, the easiest being using PC Settings. Click Accounts and work through the process required to create the account if one does not exist. Once created, you see the Set Up An Account For Assigned Access option.

Then you do the following (see Figure 2-17):

Figure 2-17. Set up Assigned Access.

When you reboot the computer, the standard user account will be the only option available and the app you’ve configured as the single available app will be available, too.

To really personalize Assigned Access for large-scale deployments, you’ll need to use Windows Embedded and Lockdown features. When you do, you can employ remote scripting and management, customization of gestures, limitations on the use of keyboard, and restrictions configured for system notifications, among other things. There’s a seemingly unlimited number of combinations that can be assigned to different users on a device, allowing for different levels of restriction. For more information about Windows Embedded technologies, refer to this article on MSDN: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windows-embedded/archive/2013/10/16/windows-embedded-8-1-assigned-access-and-windows-embedded-lockdown.aspx.

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of the information in this objective. You can find the answers to these questions and explanations of why each answer choice is correct or incorrect in the “Answers” section at the end of this chapter.

The technology used to create websites is ever-changing, like everything else that has anything to do with computing. The transitions that have occurred over the years have left some websites (and website managers) behind the times. Older websites, whether they are Internet or intranet, that are still configured with the older technologies often don’t display well when opened and viewed in newer web browsers like IE 11. Thus, IE 11 offers Compatibility View. When enabled, the browser displays the selected page in Compatibility View mode and the webpage can be viewed properly.

An end user can quickly enable Compatibility View mode for a webpage by clicking the Compatibility View icon in the IE 11 address bar on the desktop. This button will be available to the end user if the site is on Microsoft’s list of websites that aren’t compatible. Users can also manually add websites to their own personal lists. Figure 2-18 shows what the Compatibility View icon looks like and the Compatibility View Settings dialog box. To add a website manually, type the name of the website in the Add This Website text box and click Add and then click Close.

Figure 2-18. Use Compatibility View.

In larger organizations, you will probably want to control what happens with Compatibility View using Group Policies. You can find the options for Compatibility View in the Group Policy Management Editor from Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Internet Explorer, Compatibility View. Make sure you are familiar with all of these options.

Table 2-2 outlines the available Group Policy settings for IE 11.

IE 11 also offers various security and privacy options. You can access the same feature as any end user can by using the Tools button and clicking Internet Explorer Options. There are two tabs to explore: Security and Privacy. These two tabs offer options related to security settings for the four zones (Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites, Restricted sites) and how you want to protect your privacy (such as never allowing websites to require your physical location, using the Pop-Up Blocker, and so on).

The other tabs offer a few security and privacy options, too. For example, the General tab offers the ability to delete your browsing history each time you exit IE 11. The Content tab lets you manage AutoComplete settings and how you’d like to use certificates for encrypted connections and identifications. You’ll need to explore each of these tabs to see what’s available and to make sure you know how to make changes. Understand that the changes you make here also affect the IE app on the Start screen. You can open the Internet Options dialog box by clicking the Tools button and then clicking Internet Options. For the most part though, you’ll control IE through Group Policy.

There are lots of new IE 11 Group Policy settings you need to be familiar with. Make sure you understand what happens when you enable, disable, or do not configure various policies. Figure 2-19 shows some of the options in Group Policy that are available to configure in the Local Group Policy Editor. Note these options specifically: Turn Off InPrivate Filter and Turn Off InPrivate Browsing.

Figure 2-19. Configure Local Group Policy settings for Internet Explorer 11.

There are other areas of Group Policy to explore beyond the Privacy node. For example, if you click Internet Explorer in the left pane, in the right you’ll see options that include Security Zones: Do Not Allow Users To Change Policies and Disable Automatic Install Of Internet Explorer Components.

There’s another area of IE 11 on the desktop to explore, and that is the Manage Add-Ons dialog box, shown in Figure 2-20. From there you can view information about the following and how each is configured on the local computer:

Figure 2-20. The Manage Add-Ons dialog box lets you enable and disable features that have been added by the user.

Download Manager is a feature in IE 11 that keeps track of your downloads and download processes. The names of the files you’ve downloaded are maintained in the list, which makes these easily accessible at any time. You can open Download Manager from IE on the desktop from the Tools menu; just click View Downloads. Once it’s open, note the Options link. This is where you configure options for Download Manager, specifically where to store downloads by default and whether to be notified when a download completes. Figure 2-21 shows Download Manager.

Figure 2-21. Download Manager keeps track of the files you download from the Internet.

You can also right-click any entry in the list to delete the download, copy the download link, go to the download webpage, open the containing folder, report that the file is unsafe, and rerun the security checks that were run after the file finished downloading. You can manage Download Manager in Group Policy.

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of the information in this objective. You can find the answers to these questions and explanations of why each answer choice is correct or incorrect in the “Answers” section at the end of this chapter.

If you have a computer that is compatible, you can create and configure a virtual machine. However, you must first install Client Hyper-V. You do this in Control Panel, under Programs. Click Turn Windows Features On Or Off, locate Hyper-V, and select all related entries. See Figure 2-22. Once enabled, click OK and restart the computer.

Figure 2-22. Install Hyper-V and its components.

Create a virtual machine

You use the Hyper-V Manager (Figure 2-23) to create a virtual machine. You can open this manager from the Start screen by typing Hyper-V Manager and clicking it in the results. By default, no virtual machines exist. The Hyper-V Manager window is separated into five panes:

• Hyper-V Hosts, which enables a local and remote connection to Hyper-V host computers.

• Virtual Machines, which lists the virtual machines on the selected Hyper-V host.

• Actions, which enables you to configure host networking and settings.

• Checkpoints, which enables you to access saved checkpoints (or snapshots) of the selected virtual machine. (A checkpoint is like a picture of a virtual machine; it is a point-in-time image of the current settings and configurations.)

• Details, which enables you to view available tabs to configure functionality options.

Figure 2-23. Use the Hyper-V Manager to create and configure a virtual machine.

To create a virtual machine, follow these steps:

1. Log on with Administrator credentials, open the Hyper-V Manager, and from the Action menu, click New>Virtual Machine.

2. Click Next to start the creation process.

3. Specify the name and location of the new virtual machine. It’s best, for now, to keep the default location, so click Next. See Figure 2-24.

   

   Figure 2-24. Work through the wizard to create a virtual machine. Name it in this window.

   Important: Making changes to the virtual machine

   You cannot change the generation type applied to a virtual machine after you’ve created it.

4. Choose the Generation option that best suits your needs and click Next:

   • Generation 1 supports the same virtual hardware that the previous version of Hyper-V did. You can use it on operating systems including Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7, among others.

   • Generation 2 supports Secure Boot, SCSI boot, and PXE boot using a standard network adapter. Guest operating systems must run at least Windows Server 2012 or 64-bit versions of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.

5. Enter the amount of startup memory required and choose whether to use dynamic memory for this machine. Click Next.

6. On the Configure Networking page, click Next. You’ll only see options here if you’ve previously created Network Switch settings.

7. Verify that the Create A Virtual Hard Disk option is selected and that the settings are correct. Click Next. See Figure 2-25.

   

   Figure 2-25. Verify the settings you’ve configured.

8. For our example here, leave Install An Operating System Later selected and click Next. (You could opt to install an operating system now, though.)

9. Click Finish (note the new virtual machine in the bottom pane of the Hyper-V Manager).

10. Leave the Hyper-V Manager open.

Configure a virtual machine

Once you’ve created the virtual machine, you can configure it; until then, it isn’t really useful. This involves installing an operating system and configuring the hardware settings to suit your current needs. Before you start, locate an operating system disc or disc image. In this example, we’ll insert a Windows 8 disc into the DVD drive.

To configure a virtual machine, follow these steps:

1. In the Hyper-V Manager, in the top-middle Virtual Machines pane, click the virtual machine to configure. See Figure 2-26.

2. Click Action and click Settings.

   

   Figure 2-26. Configure settings for your new virtual machine using the Action tab.

3. In the Settings For window, under IDE Controller 1 (in our scenario), click the DVD drive.

4. In our scenario, in the DVD Drive pane, click Physical CD/DVD drive and verify the correct drive is selected if more than one exists. See Figure 2-27.

   Note: Explore all options in the Settings For window

   Make sure to explore the options in the right pane of the Settings For window shown in Figure 2-27. Click each one to see what’s available. It’s generally self-explanatory: BIOS, Memory, Processor, and so on.

   

   Figure 2-27. Choose the option that represents where the operating system disk or image exists.

5. In the Virtual Machines pane, click the newly created VM again.

6. Right-click the VM you selected and then click Start.

7. Right-click the VM again and click Connect.

8. If setup doesn’t start, inside the virtual machine’s window, click Action, and click Ctrl+Alt+Del. This will restart the virtual machine and allow the installation process to start. You can see the Action menu in Figure 2-28, as well as the first screen of the Windows 8 installation process.

   

   Figure 2-28. Configure the new VM by installing an operating system.

Important: A virtual machine needs a product ID

If you’re installing a new client on a Windows 8.1 Professional machine, you’ll need a valid product ID.

Once installation completes, you can work with the new VM just as you’d work with any operating system. Figure 2-29 shows an example of what a running, installed, VM looks like.

Figure 2-29. A VM running on a Windows 8.1 computer.

If you were familiar with Client Hyper-V before you started using it in Windows 8.1, you probably know the term snapshot. This has been replaced with a newer term, checkpoint. You manually create a checkpoint to save the state of a virtual machine. This saves all of the hard disk’s contents, including application data files, settings, configurations, and so on. When you’re sure you don’t need the checkpoint anymore, you can delete it (these files can be quite large). Additionally, checkpoints are portable.

To create a checkpoint, follow these steps:

To test a checkpoint, follow these steps:

Client Hyper-V provides a Layer 2 network switch, which is software based. This is what enables the VMs you create to connect to networks. You can use the switch to connect to a physical, external network or to virtual networks you’ve already configured in other Hyper-V hosts. The switch also provides security for the VM because it is positioned between the host’s physical network interface card (NIC) and the VM’s virtual NIC. Additionally, the Hyper-V Virtual Switch has policies already in place for various isolation, security, and service levels and protects against malicious VMs and external ones. The switch is already installed.

Before you create a switch, there are a few terms with which you should be familiar:

You can create three types of virtual switches:

To create and configure a virtual switch, follow these steps:

After you have created the switch, you can test it. If you created an external switch, for instance, you can test connectivity to the Internet easily. You can also open the Virtual Switch Manager from the Action pane on the right side of the Hyper-V console and rename the new switch or make notes regarding it.

In the set of steps that precedes this paragraph, you were instructed to select an Ethernet-based solution when selecting the network to which to connect. That’s because the virtual switch in Hyper-V is a Layer 2 switch, and data can only be sent and received through a physical network adapter. A wireless adapter won’t work. So, if you want to use a wireless connection, you need to configure a workaround. However, employing the workaround is a fairly complicated task, so if Ethernet is an option, use it.

Virtual machines need virtual hard disks to function. VHDs are files that you can transport on a USB flash drive. These files are in the format of either VHD or VHDX. VHDs reside on the host computer and contain either an operating system or data that is used by the VMs. You can boot to a VHD if the host is running Windows 7 or Windows 8. You learned quite a bit about VHDs in Chapter 1, specifically how to install Windows 8.1 onto a VHD. You also learned quite a bit about VHD technology. If you haven’t read that part of Chapter 1, read it now and return here when you’re done.

There are two main differences between the two types of VHD formats:

If you can use the VHDX format, you will have access to the larger file size and these features not available in the older VHD format:

To create a VHD from the Hyper-V Manager, in the Action pane, click New, and then click Hard Disk. Work through the wizard and select the file type format to use (VHD, VHDX), the size (Fixed, Dynamically expanding, Differencing), and name and location, and then opt how to configure the disk. If you want to apply the VM you created in this section, in the Name box you’ll need to type the name of the VM to use. When prompted, create a new blank VHD. You can now attach the hard disk to a VM, export it, import it, inspect it, and so on.

The easiest way to move a VM is to shut it down, export it to the new disk, and then import it to the desired location. You might need to export a VM from your production environment, open it somewhere else (perhaps on your desktop with Client Hyper-V), perform any required troubleshooting, and then export it back into the production environment.

To move a virtual machine, follow these steps:

When you import the VM, you work through a similar wizard that prompts you to browse to the VM, select the VM, and so on. Once you’ve done that, you are prompted to select an import type. The three options are described here:

To import a VM, follow these steps:

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of the information in this objective. You can find the answers to these questions and explanations of why each answer choice is correct or incorrect in the “Answers” section at the end of this chapter.