Register or Restore a Hyper-V VM?

When you import a Hyper-V VM, the import wizard will ask if you want to register, restore or copy the VM. I always need to refresh my memory on whether I need to register or restore. This blog post explains the difference:
 
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2012/06/26/registering-a-virtual-machine-with-hyper-v-in-windows-8-windows-server-2012.aspx

Since I make sure that the files are exactly where I want them, with the corresponding changes in the config.xml file, I usually go with the register option.

Fixing a Windows 8 network issue

Recently, OneNote 2013 on my Windows 8 VHD was refusing to sync with SkyDrive. It complained that I was not connected to the internet - even though I was able to access skydrive.com or any web site without any issues.

The problem seemed to related to my LAN connection showing an exclamation mark and also falsely indicating that I was not connected to the internet. Restarting did not fix the problem and I'm not sure how it got into this confused state.

Here is what I did to fix that:

1. Open CMD.exe as an Admin
2. Run the following command: netsh winsock reset
3. Restart the OS

Convert Boot-to-VHD image to Hyper-V

The following post is a useful guide on how to modify a Boot-to-VHD image to work in Hyper-V:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bramveen/archive/2009/10/27/swapping-between-native-vhd-boot-and-hyper-v.aspx

From the command prompt, enter the following commands:

DiskPart

select vdisk file=C:\<VHDFILENAME>.VHD

attach vdisk

select part 1

active

assign letter=Z

exit

Z:

cd Z:\Windows\System32

BCDboot.exe Z:\Windows /s Z:\

BCDedit /store Z:\boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} device boot

BCDedit /store Z:\boot\BCD /set {default} device boot

BCDedit /store Z:\boot\BCD /set {default} osdevice boot

C:

Diskpart

select vdisk file=C:\<VHDFILENAME>.VHD

detach vdisk

exit

Fixing a disk signature collision

I purchased two WD My Passport portable external hard drives recently. When I connected both of them to my computer, only one would show up as a drive.

Looking in Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management, the 2nd drive was shown as offline due to a signature collision. These are the steps I used to fix this problem.

1. Open DISKPART from the Windows Run command (WIN+R)
2. Enter the following commands:
3. list disk
4. select disk N
   Where N is the # of the offline disk
5. uniqueid disk
   This will display the unique ID of the disk
6. online disk
7. uniqueid disk
   This will display the new unique ID of the disk
8. exit
   

Problems with Windows 8 Store Apps stuck on pending?

I recently had a problem with updating apps from the Windows Store on a new laptop. They would end up stuck in a Pending state. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app but they still ended up in the same Pending state.

I resolved the problem using the following steps:

1. Open a Command Prompt as an Administrator
   (Go to the Start screen, type "cmd", right-click on Command Prompt and hit "Run as administrator")
   

2. Run the following four commands in the command prompt:
   
   net stop wuauserv
   cd %systemroot%
   ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
   net start wuauserv
   

3. Retry installing the Apps/Updates again.