My excellent friend, Aidan Finn, just posted on his blog the official list of supported guest operating systems for Hyper-V 2012.

I couldn’t help but notice that Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 were still on that list.  Question:  Will this be the last Hyper-V they will be supported on?  I haven’t got a clue.  I’m not a virtualization expert.  There is the fact that we are about to see support for XP and Server 2003 expire, but then there’s the fact that if MS doesn’t support them, they might be handing market share over to VMWare.  Of course, let us not forget that Windows Server 2012 isn’t here yet and even when it does get here, that means 10 years of support for virtualizing XP and Server 2003 from Microsoft.

Interesting points to ponder.  My company has one app that requires XP/Server 2003 and we are working hard to replace it.  I’m hoping that in two years, XP/Server 2003 will have fallen off my radar.  I recommend your making similar plans if you can.

James