Websecurify | Blog: Introducing Panic Mode

Websecurify | Blog: Introducing Panic Mode: Simply put, Panic Mode is an extension for Chrome and soon for Firefox, which allows you stay secure online. When you turn it on, all ht...

Useful tool to browse with SSL in Chrome and Firefox. Can be really usefull when using public Wifi Hotspots, like for instance on an airport or at McDonalds or an Internet café. Handige

Hyper-V>> Save diskspace using a differencing disk

In the last blog, there is explained how to create a virtual machine. In this blog we'll talk about creating a differencing disk. 

What is a differencing disk?

A differencing disk is a disk that's based on a so called parent disk. This parent disk can be a sysprepped image of Windows 7/8/2008/2012 or another OS. It can also be just a plain simple image of another machine. The differencing disk uses this parent disk, and saves only the differences in it's own disk. This way you can create lots of machines that are based on the same parent disk. The performance will be a little less good then normally, but it's still workable. However, because you'll need less snapshots and initial disks, the free disk space on your storage will be better. The snapshots you will make will also be smaller. 

How do I create a differencing disk?

1. First, make a new VM. See my previous blog for the steps that need to be taken to achieve this.

2. Give the VM a fitting name.

 

 

3. Choose 'Attach a virtual hard disk later' and finish the wizard.

 

 

 

4. You will return to the Hyper-V Manager. Right click, and choose Settings. THe screen below will appear. Go to IDE Controller 0 in the left pane, and click on Add.

 

 

 5. You will see the following screen. Now click on New.

 

 

 6. Click Next. The following screen will appear. Choose VHDX. Take notice that this format is only compatible with Windows 8 and newer.
 7. Click Next again, and now you can choose the type of disk. Choose for differencing disk.
 

 

 

8. Give the disk a recognizable name, and click on Next. 

 

 

9. Choose the parent disk in the next screen. In this particular case, I've chosen a sysprepped Windows 7 disk.

 

 

 

10. Click again on next, and check the summary to see if everything is OK. When this is the case, click Finish. 

 

Note: You can check if the disk really is a differencing disk using Powershell. You can also check this in the properties of the disk. 

Hyper-V - How to create a virtual machine

This blog describes the steps on how to create a virtual machine in Hyper-V. See this blog for more information on enabling Hyper-V in Windows 8. 

The required steps are the following:

1. Open the Hyper-V Manager using the start menu (type 'Hyper-V').

2. The Hyper-V Manager is opened. Go to Actions, to create a new virtual machine:

3. A wizard will appear. Click Next on the first screen. On the second screen you can give your virtual machine a name:

 

 

4. After giving the VM a name, click next to get the next screen. Here you can assign the amount of startup memory for your machine. We have chosen for 2 GB in the example.



 

5. Click Next again and Next to set an optional networkconnection (these settings can be altered later on if neccessary).

 

 

6. Click Next again to setup the settings for your virtual hard drive.

 

 

7. Again click next to setup the installation options. You can choose to boot from the network, load an iso or other bootable media, or to skip this step for now.  

 

 

8. Click next again for a summary of your settings, and click finish to end the wizard. 

 

9. You will return to the Hyper-V Manager. Here you will find an overview of all your virtual machines. Right-click your created machine, and click on Connect...

10. Now you will see the screen below. Here you can start, inspect, shut down and snapshot your virtual machine.

 

 

 

 

11. Press the on/off switch to start the computer. With the 'media' menu you can insert an iso to install Windows or Linux(as an example)

 



 



 

Free Hyper-V in Windows 8! How do I enable this?

Like some of you might already know, Hyper-V is a free feature in Windows 8 nowadays! This will save you an expensive VMWare license. The only thing what you need is to activate the feature (and also you'll need a computer with VT technology). Here's how:

1. Go to the Control panel, and browse to Programs and Features. 
   
2. Choose "Turn Windows features on or off"

 

3. Check the box in front of Hyper-V, and klik OK. Navigate through all the questions, and reboot your computer at the end when asked.







4. Once booted back up, you can find the Hyper-V applications in your Start Menu, when looking for "Hyper". Here is what you will see:

 

With the Hyper-V Manager you can create and manage new VM's!