We have a demo virtual machine for CRM 2015. Today, when I tried to create new organization in our demo virtual machine, I got below strange error message saying “The specified SQL Server instance must run on 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2” which does not make any sense to me.

Then I tried to troubleshoot this error by checking SQL server services, and found SQL Server Browser service in stopped state under SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Then when I tried to start it using right click on the SQL Server Browser, I found all the options disabled, so now way to start it. Finally I was able to start this service from Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services and it worked. After that I was able to create my organization.

Hope it will help someone !!