OK, we all have favourite little utilities that we would have trouble living without. As a computer writer, screen shots are my life, and I've been using HyperSnap for at least 12 years now. My original license cost $25, and at some point I paid for an upgrade to v4 or v5 and I upgraded yet again when version 6 came out. All in all, the program has probably cost me $40 over those 12 years. It's the first application I load on every machine I build. I simply can't live without it. Oh, and I've asked the author, Greg Kochaniak, more than once, if I should buy additional copies, and he always says the same thing: That's "fair use", and I don't need to buy additional licenses - the license is to me, to load and use as necessary.
Now if that were all there were, the program would be on my good guys list. But it's way better than that. This spring, while I was working on an earlier build of Longhorn Server (now called Windows Server 2008), I had a problem with HyperSnap and it wouldn't run on LH. I posted a query on the Hyperionics Support Forum and Greg had a new build that worked within 4 hours! So, I'm writing the chapter on Server Core and I run into a problem - it won't even install because of the limited "stuff" in Core. So, I log onto the forum, and Greg is off on a holiday, but checking his forum messages. We try a couple of things, and finally determine that an older version of HyperSnap, Version 3, will load and capture pictures. But it can't save the files because the dialog it uses is not available in Core. Greg says "remind me on the day I get back from my trip to Poland and I'll whip up a new file save dialog".
Well, Greg got back yesterday. And I've got a working build today! Now, honestly, it just doesn't get any better than that. So, if you ever need the world's best screen capture utility, or the most flexible and simple graphics file conversion utility, please - buy HyperSnap. Not only is it an easy to use, very flexible, and powerful utility, but it's written by a real person and supported by that same real person. And he's very much one of the good people that make me glad to be in this business. (oh, and it runs just fine in 64-bit Windows, of course!)
Charlie.
The Preview Release ("pre-beta" quality) of Windows Server Virtualization (WSv) is now available as part of Windows Server 2008 RC0. See John Howard's Blog for details on installing the Virtualization Role in RC0 (US English ONLY at this point.) Even though this is pre-beta quality, it's a solid and useful release. I've currently got 8 VMs up and running on it on my HP ProLiant ML350 G5 Server - a GW Server 2008 (32-bit) with 1GB of RAM, two domain controllers (Server 2008, one 64-bit, on 32-bit, each with 2 GB of RAM assigned), a Terminal Server (Server 2008 64-bit with 4 GB of RAM and 2 CPUs assigned), a 32-bit Server Core(1GB), an XP SP2 client, an XP x64 client, and a Vista 64bit client.
Total RAM utilization on the HP is 13 GB, and so far I'm not hurting on CPU either. Guest speed is quite acceptable, and I haven't had any issues with crashing so far. IOW, it's pretty darn stable. Unfortunately, at this point, there's no support for the new equivalent of VMAdditions in the client OSs. This is something that must change by ship if there is to be any hope of displacing VMWare.
All in all, a good, solid, initial preview. I'd strongly suggest folks grab the RC0 release, which should be on MSDN and TechNet by now, or very shortly, and start playing with the new WSv. It's a big step forward for MS. And does seamless 64bit guests, something I've been really missing.
Charlie.