@flakpyro Thanks for the feedback. Just tried the eval iso of Windows Server 2016 Datacenter and it spun up ok with latest xcp-ng patches.

So it looks like it's a problem specifically with the Windows Server 2016 Essentials edition and 8.2rc1 and later.

Unfortunately that's the edition that I'm licensed for and use. It's failed on both an Intel 12700k and a Xeon E3-1275v3 with the same blue screen message.

Somewhere between 8.3b2 and 8.3rc1 Windows 2016 was broken, where it immediately has a "kmode exception not handled" bluescreen on boot.

I had to downgrade back to 8.3b2 for an existing VM. I can reproduce the failure on a clean install from 2016 Server Essentials, using the Windows server 2016 template. It installs ok until it reboots and see the bluescreen immediately on each boot.

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=2195170&clcid=0x409&culture=en-us&country=US

It still fails even with latest patches, which I believe is 8.3rc2.

Any suggestions?