Having run my my main home PC as a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine for a while, primarily so that I could make use of it's Hyper-V capabilities to run various other OS's; I was really pleased to see that Windows 8 was going to have Hyper-V built in.
However, having nuked the installation, (yes I have an image saved away should I want to go back!), and installed Win 8 I was surprised to find out I can't in fact run Hyper-V because my processor lacks SLAT.
Apparently SLAT is "Second Level Address Translation", and is only supported in Intel's Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, and guess what I don't have!
I expressed my annoyance on Twitter, and to my surprise Carmen Crincoli, who is a Microsoft employee entered into discussion with me about it:-
Gary Quigley @quiggles
Narked that my PC that would run Hyper-V in Server 2008 R2 is deemed incapable of running same in #Win8 because of lack of SLAT #Fail
Carmen Crincoli @CarmenCrincoli
@quiggles Win8 is a desktop OS, and performance in typical desktop scenarios is terrible w/o SLAT, hence the req. http://j.mp/MzZNu9
Gary Quigley @quiggles
@CarmenCrincoli still annoyed that the same machine that ran server 2008 r2 with 2 concurrent hyper-v sessions, can't run the same in Win8
Carmen Crincoli @CarmenCrincoli
@quiggles It will still run Server 2012 too. Servers are not interactive creatures though, so there is no perf hit. Win8 needs desktop perf
Gary Quigley @quiggles
@CarmenCrincoli just wanted to try out stuff, it all just seems so frustrating
Carmen Crincoli @CarmenCrincoli
@quiggles Understand, honest! I'd *love* for everyone to try HV. The experience is so terrible w/o SLAT that it'd make them hate it tho.
Gary Quigley @quiggles
@CarmenCrincoli means that I've got at least one VM I can't use now, and also a shame as it gives VMWare an 'in'...
Carmen Crincoli @CarmenCrincoli
@quiggles Yup. USB pass-thru is another gap. One of the challenges in bringing server tech (Type-1 Hypervisor) to the desktop.
Gary Quigley @quiggles
@CarmenCrincoli okeydoke, thanks for your input, but still narked ;)
Carmen Crincoli @CarmenCrincoli
@quiggles Understandably! Just want folks to know it's not capricious or random and we have a good reason. :)
Gary Quigley @quiggles
@CarmenCrincoli you should allow non SLAT HV, but just have warnings about performance. Still I suppose you're damned if you do or don't!
So credit to Carmen for addressing my tweet and I guess an understandable response, question is do I nuke the Win 8 installation and install Server 2012?