Fix Windows 8 Build 8102 M3 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V VM Issues

Early adopters running Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) as a hosted OS inside a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V virtual machine might come across some issues, Microsoft confirmed. 

The problem impact not just Windows 8 client, but also Windows Server 8 Developer Preview, both of which were released to testers during the first days of BUILD in mid-September 2011.

According to the software giant, the glitch only impacts those early adopters running the early testing Build of Windows 8 in a virtual machine using the hypervisor role of Windows Server 2008 R2. 

 “In this scenario, you may experience one or more of the following issues:

• The Windows Developer Preview or Windows Server Developer Preview virtual machine stops responding.
• The Windows Server 2008 R2 host computer displays a stop error message and restarts automatically. This behavior brings down all other running virtual machines together with the host computer,” Microsoft explained. 

The software giant has already identified the source of this problem, explaining that “The issue occurs because the Hypervisor does not handle the one-shot synthetic timer that is also known as an aperiodic timer correctly.”

Not only this, but an update is already available for download to customers testing Windows 8 Developer Preview in virtualization scenarios involving Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V VMs. 

Microsoft might be using the term ‘update’ a bit loosely in this particular case since what it’s actually offering customers is a hotfix. 

Furthermore, those impacted by the issues described above will not be able to access and download the hotfix directly, they’ll need to contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support in order to do it. 

According to the software giant, the hotfix applies to both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1), but only as long as the Hyper-V role is installed. 

Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.

Posted in: News, Review