I spent an entire work day trying to configure HYPER-V on Windows 2012 R2 Server to run Windows 8.1 in a virtual operating system. Gave up entirely on Windows 2012 R2 Server since no matter how I changed the memory configuration, it insisted there was
too little memory available to perform bootstrap and initialization of the Windows 2012 R2 Server / Windows 8.1 combination. In vivid contrast, getting Windows 8.1 installed and operational under HYPER-V running on Windows 2008 Server is a snap. No whining
from HYPER-V about a purported lack of memory. The machine has 2GB of main memory and nothing much running on it besides HYPER-V. This situation is, of course, all my fault.
MARK D ROCKMAN