Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer, Ruby on Rails Enthusiast, COBOL Extraordinaire!

One of the more annoying things is that you constantly have to hit “CTRL” to exit your mouse out of the virtual machine. We can fix that by installing the Guest Additions provided by Virtual Box. The Additions are built directly into the image.

Click Devices -> Install Guest Additions

Click Run VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe

Once the Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions Setup Wizard opens, click Next all the way through, and click install when it asks you to. Then Reboot.

Before we start setting up Server 2008 R2, the default way to break out of the VM back into windows is “CTRL”

Fire up the virtual machine by clicking start.

At the first Run Wizard -> Click Next

Pick the installation media you want to use (I have an MSDN ISO, so I picked my MSDN ISO). You can use the actual Server 2008 R2 CD/DVD also if you’d like -> Click Next

Click Finish on the First Run Wizard Summary.

Picked Windows Server 2008 R2 (Full Installation), then Next.

Accept the Terms and Conditions

Click Custom (advanced).

Click Next on Disk 0.

Windows Server 2008 R2 will now install!

You will get prompted to change the admin password for the first time. I stick with the good ole “pass@word1”.

Server 2008 is installed and ready to rock.

Let’s do some quick maintenance. Click the Server Manager on the task bar (the picture is a toolbox + server). Click “Configure IE ESC”.

Click off for both Administrators and Users. This will stop you from getting blocked when trying to access the web.

Let’s get updated! Click Start -> Run Windows update. (I closed the other configuration screens at this point).

Turn on Automatic updates (we’re not worried about security fixes as it’s just a dev box, but some of the fixes can fix compatibility between software).

Update the machine until no more updates are found.

Let’s head over to To get our guest additions installed.

Here’s how we can setup the base image for the CRM installation.

Download and install virtual box from here: VirtualBox

Click New -> Click Next on the Terms and Conditions -> Give the image a name (MS Server 2008 R2 w/CRM 2011 – 64 bit)

Since you’re running Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2 and CRM 2011 you’re going to need a substantial amount of ram. I use about 4 gigs. Click Next after picking the amount of RAM.

Create new Hard Disk (leave Boot Hard Disk checked) -> Click Next

Click Next on the New Virtual Disk Wizard Info Screen

We want dynamically expanding storage -> Click Next

20 gigs is the default choice, but that’s cutting it close. I choose about 50 gigs for some extra space -> Click Next

Click Finish on Summary

Click Finish on the Create new Virtual Machine Summary

The virtual machine is ready for use!

Let’s go set up Server 2008 R2.

Here’s all the information needed for CRM 2011 RTM!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3f82c6f-c123-4e80-b9b2-ee422a16b91d&displaylang=en

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Software Development Kit (SDK):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=420f0f05-c226-4194-b7e1-f23ceaa83b69

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Implementation Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9886ab96-3571-420f-83ad-246899482fb4

As I was cleaning up some old depreciated code in one of my works Smalltalk images I came across this method:

isToasterOven
"---------------------------------------------
Description:
        Answer true if I am.
---------------------------------------------"
        ^(OS getSystemMetrics: SmSlowmachine) = 1

isToasterOven? isBestMethodEver?

Let me explain what this little ditty does. We have an object of OS which receives the message of getSystemMetrics: SmSlowmachine. SmSlowmachine is declared as 73. So basically the OS object goes out to the Windows API and calls GetSystemMetrics with a value of 73. This in turn then returns a value of 0(false)/1(true).

Now you may ask, “why 73 Ryan?” and to which I’ll respond “I have no idea”. My very first google search came up with the page GetSystemMetrics. Success! I did a quick search on 73 and found this:

SM_SLOWMACHINE 73 – Nonzero if the computer has a low-end (slow) processor; otherwise, 0.

Hurrah! isToasterOven is actually checking if the machines IS a toaster oven! However, if you’re like me, you’re asking “what determines a nonzero value? How crappy does a machine have to be to return that?” and to which I’ll respond “Hell if I know! Off to the internet!”.

And to the internet I went. I searched high and low, but all I could find was this saying that it returns “True if machine is too slow to run Windows 95″. I’m not sure if this was one of those things that someone updated somewhere, and then everyone copied it all over the place, or if it’s the actual real deal. And if it’s the real deal, why wouldn’t Microsoft have it on their site?

If anyone can find out the exact specifics on this call please leave a comment on my blog! I’d love to find out what determines isToasterOven?.

In case you’re curious of the Windows 95 minimum requirements:

• Personal computer with a 386DX or higher processor (486 recommended)
• 4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended)
• Typical hard disk space required to upgrade to Windows 95: 35-40 MB
• Typical hard disk space required to install Windows 95 on a clean system: 50-55 MB
• One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive
• VGA or higher resolution (256-color SVGA recommended)

Back in the good ole days, they must have needed to know if the machine had the ability to run certain functions. Alas, this code wasn’t called from anywhere else in the system and was in line to be purged. This little piece of code had survived the years untouched. I just couldn’t bring myself to delete isToasterOven?.

May isToasterOven? live on forever.