If you don’t have an extra machine or are an early adopter who wants to test out Vail, creating a VM is a good choice. To complete our series of installing WHS “Vail” Beta virtually, we look at installing it on Oracle’s VirtualBox.

Note: You will need to install VirtualBox on a 64-bit Windows System that supports hardware virtualization. We’ve read some articles that you can install it on a system without Hardware Virtualization, but haven’t been able to confirm that. For best results make sure the Host computer supports Hardware Virtualization.

To check if you’re system is capable of Hardware Virtualization you can use either SecurAble or the MS Virtualization Detection Tool…both are free and easy to use utilities.

Download and Install VirtualBox

If you don’t already have the latest version of VirtualBox installed on your PC, go to the VirtualBox site and download it (link below). Installation is straight-forward choosing the defaults. During the installation select Yes to the warning about Network Interfaces.

You’ll be prompted to approve the install of the device software, click Install.

Setup Your New VM

Now that we have VirtualBox installed it’s time to create our VM for Vail. From the main interface click on New to begin the New Machine Wizard.

When you come to the screen to pick the OS type, select Windows 2008 (64-bit) and give your machine a name.

Select the amount of memory you want to use. The minimum is 1GB but here we’re bumping it up to 2GB.

Now we need to create a new Virtual Hard Disk…

You can select Fixed size or Dynamically expanding storage. We chose Dynamically expanding storage versus Fixed, as the minimum requirement is 160GB and creating it as Fixed storage takes quite a while. We actually tried it both ways and they worked equally.

Again you can create a Fixed size hard drive if you want, but it can take quite a while, and can slow down other running tasks you’re using while waiting for it to complete.

Select the size of your disk where the minimum is 160GB. Since we picked Dynamically Expanding storage, it won’t take up the full 160GB on the disk.

Review your new machine summary and click on Finish.

VirtualBox Hardware Settings

Now that the machine is ready to go, we need to make a few adjustments to the hardware settings for the VM.

We adjusted the Display and maxed the video memory and you can enable 2D/3D Acceleration if you want, but there is no benefit from it. It’s a server and not meant to be fancy.

The Network settings are probably the most important as they are in the VMware installs. Check Enable Network Adapter and change it to Bridged Adapter. This will make the Vail VM appear as a separate machine on your network.

Under Storage for the CD/DVD Device browse to your VailInstallDVD.iso image.

Also, make sure to move the CD/DVD-ROM up to first in the Boot Order.

Now startup your new Vail VM and go through the Vail Installation Process.

Install Guest Additions

After the Vail installation process is complete, we need to install Guest Additions to make the VM experience more fluid. Click on Devices \ Install Guest Additions.

When AutoPlay starts in the VM select Run VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe.

Then navigate through the VirtualBox Guest Additions Setup Wizard.

After working through the Guest Additions Install Wizard, a reboot of your Vail VM will be required.

When it comes back from reboot, at the CTRL+ALT+DEL logon screen go to Machine \ Insert Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Now you can log into Vail.

That is all there is to it! You can now start using your Virtual Vail machine in VirtualBox.

Conclusion

While we had no problem installing Vail on VirtualBox, but it didn’t run as smoothly as it did on VMware products in our tests. However, if you’re a fan of VirtualBox and want to try out Windows Home Server Beta “Vail” without the need for another machine, this will do the trick. No matter if you want to use VMware Player, VMware Server, or VirtualBox…they’re all free and the Vail Beta is free right now too.

Download VirtualBox

Download Windows Home Server Vail Beta from Microsoft Connect – Registration Required.

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I admit it. I am hooked to this game. I loved the old title, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I thought it was the best game ever. Although i never got to play the multi-player version on the last game, now however i am all about going multi for this game. Unlocking Weapons, getting those ranks, trying to level up to the Prestige Mode, you name it.

And now for the technical stuff, it was the most awaited title since Infinity announced it back in the February 2009. The game was launched with much hype as a movie would have been. No kidding, I was there when it was launched in London, full with a red carpet and people lining up for the game. Many mistook it for a movie premiere. The game hit the two major consoles and PC on the November 10, 2009. And since then it has sky rocketed through it sales racing up millions of dollars for its parent company. But is it really worth it? The attention and glamour it has been getting.It sold 5 million copies on the first day itself, breaking records. But that was the first day. What about now? Is it still up to the mark it set?

Story line too short ?
Apart from many controversies surrounding the game, there have been a few other let downs as well. Many people complained the game story line was too short. I too thought that the story line was a bit short as well but i wouldn’t complain about it because the story line itself was amazing. People are still complaining to this date that there are no Dedicated servers for PC version of the game. This frankly, by my experience, sucks big time.

Dedicated Server Explained. Are they important ?
I have been playing Counter Strike 1.6 for years and i know how important the dedicated servers are. Most of my steam account friends, i barely know any of them. Never met them, let alone even know their names. But we were tight. Counter Strike buddies playing matches together on a private server. We all met each other on different CS Servers. Dedicated Servers where you know who else plays in that server. Not a connect to some random server with random people, play for some time and again end up connecting of to a random server. I have not met a Single person through Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2.
A funny fact. My flat mate bought Call of duty for the first time with me. It was his first online game. And he currently has just one Steam buddy, me. Sad.
The fact is you need dedicated servers for a game to last. People are not just going to play randomly. They will want to make clans. Not just friends getting along and making clans but people they play with on servers.

End Result.
Well was the game really up to it? Well as far as i am concerned, it is. But for the time being, I have this feeling this game won’t last long. There are many other games out there, with good multiplayer options. Sooner or later the people will just move on to them. If Infinity wants to keep people loyal to the game, they will have to try a bit harder, starting with the dedicated servers.

As for now, i will get back to enjoy the game. Multi player of course, till i get bored. And trust me i will, sooner or later because i have no way to meet people. No clans, No scrim and i can’t be really bothered to find forums and organize into teams.

As for now, you can enjoy these trailers.

Reveal Trailer

Trailer

Regards,

Kaiser2011

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