Sep 1, 2016 - Each of the apps has an initial install and layers of updates, so “just reinstall what you had” could be a two- or three-day-long process that I'd rather avoid. I need something that will allow the old VPC to be used again, without reinstalling everything. Is there any way to take an existing XP VPC from Win7 and. Jan 21, 2014 Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 installed by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) using OEM versions of these products may not be transferred to a virtual hard drive in accordance with Microsoft licensing terms. Download Disk2vhd (879 KB) Run now from Sysinternals Live. On Windows 7 my Windows XP Mode if fouled up but I have alternate (backup).vmc, vhd files. However, I'm not sure where to copy them to or (even better) how to let Windows Virtual PC 'know' which.
Thanks again. For posterity I'm going to post some more information in this thread. After using WinRAR to extract the.ova files (they're tarballs) I was able to convert the.vmdk files to.vhd files using VirtualBox's command line tool 'VBoxManage.exe'. In case that link ever dies, here are the instructions:. Install VirtualBox and don't run it. Also, if you're only going to use it convert things, you only need to install the core program and can deselect everything else during setup. Run this command, adjusting the filenames as necessary.
C: 'c: Program Files Oracle VirtualBox VBoxManage.exe' clonehd -format vhd infile.vmdk outfile.vhd Also, using the Wayback Machine I figured out that Microsoft removed XP and Vista from the virtual machine list sometime between March 17, 2016 and April 4, 2016. If I had thought of using that site last month I wouldn't have created this thread. So for future reference, if you want to download one of these old VMs without having to convert them from another emulator, use to search for and view the site snapshot from March 17, 2016. Edit: Direct link to the snapshot. Won't they have expired by now?
Because these are trial versions of each OS, Microsoft recommends creating a snapshot of the virtual machine before booting it for the first time. Then everything can be reverted to that snapshot when the trial expires. The reversion process is a bit annoying, though.
The snapshot is from a never-booted state, and so every time you revert the machine the OS needs to install drivers for its (virtual) hardware. Plus I've always had problems getting XP and Vista to connect to the virtual network switch I create in Hyper-V, so I have to struggle through that process every time.
XP Mode (XPM) – a virtual XP machine to tackle legacy app issues Using machines in a virtual environment is really fun, being able to try out OSs without having to restart to change the OS is time saving, though there’s a compromise on performance. In this article I’ll talk about Windows Virtual PC, creating VHDs, native boot into VHDs & optical drive emulation.
Update: Microsoft has dropped the need to enable Hardware Virtualization, you can skip Part 1. However, having Hardware Virtualization will definitely improve performance. Part 1: Enabling Hardware Virtualization Before we begin, make use of this tool to check whether your processor supports hardware virtualization and if need be, enable it via BIOS. This is required for Windows XP Mode and better support for a virtual environment.
We’ll make use SecurAble to determine Hardware Virtualization. There’s a tool by Microsoft as well that tells you whether Hardware Virtualization is supported on your PC: Part 2: Windows Virtual PC Once all’s set, we’ll go on and download Windows Virtual PC (it still in RC for the public but has RTMed and the final bits are available for MSDN & TechNet subscribers.) Windows Virtual PC replaces. Not much has changed, it still works pretty much the same way but has tighter integration with Windows 7. Windows Virtual PC now has support for USB drives as well, which might I say is a #WIN! One can install Linux distros on it as well.
And though unsupported by Microsoft, Windows Virtual PC works well on Windows Home Premium. NOTE: Windows Virtual PC is required for XPM. Jumplists: Explorer: Start Menu: If you wish to launch an application from your host machine directly into your virtual machine you can use a utility created. The utility creates an entry in the Right Click menu for the applications that will allow you launch the application directly into the virtual machines setup on the host.
Screen shots: The utility has parts to it:. one is a standalone launcher for the host machine. two is an installer for the virtual machine Once downloaded do the following:.
Extract the contents to any folder, among other things there will be a file named VMLauncher.exe & a folder named Client. Start your virtual machine and navigate to the Client folder. Run the VMLauncher.exe in the folder named Client and install it. Now, on the host machine, run the VMLauncher.exe file (not the one in the Client folder.). You will see the virtual machine listed in this window.
Screen shot: You should now have the virtual machine in the right click context menu as well. NOTE: This works only for Windows based virtual machines. Tipped by the. Part 3: Setting up a Virtual Machine Windows Virtual PC works fine on Home Premium and above editions of Windows 7.
Once you’ve downloaded Windows Virtual PC, you can install your own copy of Windows XP (and not necessarily use XPM), Vista, Server or a Linux distro as shown in the earlier article. To create Virtual Machines: Start – Run – c: Windows System32 VPCWizard.exe And you should get this screen: To boot from the physical drive: Tools – Settings If you’re installing a Windows machine, after installation you should install the Integration Components for seamless integration, the biggest advantage is the cursor movement between the VPC & desktop. To do this: Tools – Install Integration Components Once you’ve installed and all’s fine, you can configure your machines without having to start Virtual PC. This is possible due to Virtual PC’s shell integration with Windows 7. In order to do this: Use Windows Virtual PC Jumplist and click on Manage virtual machines alternately you navigate to C: Users Virtual Machines Here, simply select the VPC instance you want to configure and press Settings in the taskbar below the address bar. Screenshot: Part 4: Windows XP Mode & XP Mode Applications Windows XP Mode has been introduced with Windows 7 to enable better legacy compatibility support for corporate users and XP Mode Applications is its biggest advantage. XP Mode is a simple install that will create a virtual machine of Windows XP with Integration Components installed.
Officially Microsoft has made XPM as a free download for Windows 7 Professional & Ultimate/Enterprise users. However, it should work fine on Home Premium as well if the setup is run (I haven’t tried it.) XP Mode’s advantages for users are:. Run applications in XPM as if you’re running them natively on Windows 7 (this is not like setting compatibility mode for applications.) Once you’ve run the setup, start your XP machine and install your XP specific applications. Then on your XP instance create a shortcut of the application in: C: Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu Programs This will allow you to run that application without having to start the XP machine.
To run this application in Windows 7, navigate to: Start – Programs – Windows Virtual PC – Windows XP Mode Applications Here’s the golden oldie Windows Media Player Classic running as a XP Mode Application on Windows 7: Damn cool right! In case you have an application on the host machine that you directly want to launch in any one of the virtual PCs, there’s a utility that will provide that option in the Right Click context menu.
Virtual Pc 2007
Part 5: Creating VHDs & Converting to VHDs. Physical drive to vhd SysInternals recently released a tool that allows you to create VHDs of your physical drives. Which sounds pretty cool but I don’t really find much use besides being able to run your PC environment on another PC via Windows Virtual PC.
Virtualbox
If there was a way by which I could use it as a ghost image to restore systems that’d make this is a killer tool. NOTE: SysInternals’ team advises NOT to use VHDs created using disk2vhd for native boot on the same system as it can lead to apocalypse. Part 6: Native boot into virtual machines: Yes, now you can run virtual machines of some Windows versions like a native OS by adding it in your boot selection menu.
This is a Windows 7 (and Server 2008 R2) specific feature and do this, you need to keep in mind that the virtual machine you want to boot into should be setup on a.vhd virtual disk. Virtual instances created using Windows Virtual PC are stored in the VHD format.
There are two ways by which one can setup the VHD to be used: Without an OS, only the VHD. The same VHD CANNOT be used in Windows Virtual PC & for native boot. There are two of ways using this feature:.
Using a Windows Virtual PC VHD: Installing the OS is simpler using this method & allows you to continue working on your PC while the OS is installed. To do this, install Windows 7 on Windows Virtual PC, once setup and Windows starts then yes, take a minute here and then do this, else it won’t work and then: Go to C: Windows System32 Sysprep Sysprep.exe Here, check the box for Generalize and select Shutdown from the Shutdown Options dropdown. Screenshot: After doing the Sysprep, your virtual machine will shut down. Then you need to attach the VHD and make it a system drive so that Windows knows where to boot from. To do this you’ll need to do go into CMD and enter commands mentioned in under #1 (To attach the VHD and make it a OS drive) Upon successful execution, you can restart your PC and you shall see the new entry in your boot screen. Select and move forward:). One thing you should mention which I use for the safe keeping of my files is that in Windows 7 ultimate you can make a VHD using the above mentioned method, mount it as a Drive, save all the files you need in this VHD and then use BitLocker to encrypt the whole VHD.
This way, no can see your files and neither can they mount it without proper permission. You can also use Volume Shadow copy or file system permission to make sure no one can delete it.
Save the VHD in a pen drive or external hard disk, then you can go anywhere, use this VHD to save files and not be worried of data theft, because no one will have access to it if the external drive or laptop is stolen. Pingback:. Pingback:. If anyone still monitoring this I would like to ask a question. I would like to have my laptop operating system and hard drive run under virtual pc on my desktop.
My desktop is running windows 7 ultimate and my laptop is running windows 7 enterprise. I downloaded disk2vhd onto my laptop and created a vhd of the ‘c’ drive (about 45gb). I installed virtual pc (latest version) on my desktop and copied the vhd to my desktop.
When I try and create a virtual machine using the existing vhd I get an error “Cannot attach the virtual hard disk to the virtual machine. Check the values provided and try again”.
Somewhere I read that if the vhd is too big (like 100gb or more) this could be a problem. But mine is only 45gb or so. Can anyone tell me what I’m doing wrong and where I can get instructions to perform this?