Virtual Server: Now More Accessible Than Ever

I’ve always been a big fan of Microsoft Virtual Server on the desktop. A few weeks back I noted how VS was a powerful, free alternative to Virtual PC and even VMware, especially for users who need more robust CPU scheduling than the anemic, single-threaded VPC provides. However, VS has been plagued by a rather quirky, web-based management UI that forces you to run IIS in order to create and manage VMs. From a pure usability standpoint, Virtual PC always won hands down – until now.

Enter VMRC Plus. The Virtual Machine Remote Control Client Plus utility is a rogue internal applications that Microsoft developers cooked-up to circumvent the very UI issues I was lamenting above. Featuring a simple, if somewhat cluttered, user interface, VMRC Plus lets you do everything you could with the web UI but implemented as a native Windows application. That means real menus, real dialog boxes (for selecting local files, like ISO images), and all of the richness of a “fat client” GUI.

Thinking that their customer base might appreciate what had become a hot item internally, one of Microsoft’s consultants decided to polish up the tool so that the company could make it available for external consumption. The result is now avilable as a free download from Microsoft’s web site. Click here to grab your copy of VMRC Plus.

Some of the more useful VMRC Plus exclusives include:

1. Direct control of local or remote instances of the Virtual Server service. IIS and IE browser are no longer required!

2. Tabbed interface to quickly jump between Virtual Server hosts and guest VMRC sessions.

3. Reusable saved states: this feature allows users to preserve a particular saved state and return to that state at any time.

4. Multiple guest selection supported for startup, shutdown, save and display operations.

5. Browse button navigation for media, hard disk images, ISO images, .VMC files, etc.

6. Drag and Drop support for .VMC files, ISOs images, VHD and VFD files.

7. Resizable desktop support for guests running Virtual Machine Additions (maximize VMRC window supported).

8. Limited cut and paste of text from host to guest (only).

9. A built-in utility to take JPG screenshots of running guests. Useful when filing bugs.

10. Built-in error notification with Virtual Server eventlog viewer.

11. A Virtual Networks Manager and Virtual Disks Manager that cover all features.

12. Keyboard shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl-S to save state a guest).

13. Create multiple guests at once.

14. Create guest from parent (or multiple guests)!

15. Automatic reconnect to a designated Virtual Server host.

16. Toolbars in both Guest and Console Manager for quick access.

17. Unlimited number of guests.

18. Maximum of 32 Virtual Server hosts.

19. Sorting on columns of guests so you can sort based on status and multi-select.

20. Automatic detection of Virtual Machine Additions and notification.

21. Detection of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1.

In practice, the only thing I found missing from VMRC Plus is support for drag & drop between host/guest. And since this is a limitation of the VMRC client (which works more like an RDP session than a Virtual PC window), I can’t really fault them for omitting something that was technically very difficult, if not impossible, to implement.

Bottom Line: VMRC Plus is a welcome new option for managing Microsoft Virtual Server environments. And while casual users will still find Virtual PC to be the “friendlier” way to VM under desktop Windows, hard core power users and developers will relish the chance to leverage Virtual Server’s robust multithreading from within a more palatable UI.