Enable new metro boot loader when dual booting with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7

When I configured a dual boot system with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, I was given the old school black and white boot loader menu. This does the job but I really liked the new metro boot loader menu. So, to enable it back, I executed the following steps:

• Open cmd
• Type in 'bcdedit /set {default] bootmenupolicy standard'
• Insert the Windows 8 cd and boot into advanced options
• Open cmd and identify which drive letter partition your Win 8 OS lives (I could tell easily due to certain applications installed in Prog Files)
• Type in the following command 'bcdboot E:\windows" ('E was where my Win 8 OS was, D was my Win 7)
• Reboot and your done!

Done! If you want the old school, replace the word 'standard' with 'legacy' and if your system does not change the boot loader, redo the Windows 8 boot cd process and use the Win 7 drive letter.

Screen frozen on "Starting Windows" when building Server 2008 on Server 2012 Hyper-V

Symptom:

When trying to build a Windows Server 2008 (R2 in my case) on Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V, the VM would not get past the 'Starting Windows' screen.

Fix:

Recreate the VM in Hyper-V and ensure 'Gen 1' is selected ('Gen 2' will only work for Server 2012 +)

Server 2012 R2 update hanging on 'Getting devices ready 13%' on HP Microserver N40L

This is a simple one. Turns out you need to update the BIOS on the HP N40L. If you want, you can disable the NIC and continue with the install, however, it kills all your settings and was (yes, I did this) annoying to reconfigure.

Jump on the HP site (http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/psi/swdHome/?lang=en&cc=au&sp4ts.oid=5153252), select Server 2012 R2, download and run the BIOS exe (you'll need a spare usb thumb drive through out this process). Once the program has formatted and installed the files on the thumb drive, place it in your N40L, reboot and it should automatically execute. Unplug the thumb drive and update to Server 2012 R2!