I spent some time last week deploying VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 3. As I mentioned previously, some things have improved. And some things haven’t. I don’t know how long Windows 2008 has been out, although I’m sure the Exchange Guy could help me out there. In any case, it’s been more than a few weeks. So I had to build a few Windows 2008 templates last week. But, hey, guess what? When you deploy from template you get this gem:

Cool. Very helpful. If you were using RIS or WDS or whatever Microsofties are calling it today, this wouldn’t be a problem. But we weren’t. There is a workaround that has been documented here. It basically involves telling VirtualCenter the guest is Vista rather than Windows 2008. It then runs through and lets you customise the guest before deploying. I can here MCSEs crying in anguish already … but it _does_ work. But it’s messy. And this was after I’d shown the customer how “streamlined” the VC installation process was. So, maybe there’s a bit more to do before it’s pretty enough.