Hosting Windows 7 VHD on Virtual PC

Follow up to my earlier post to convert your Windows 7 physical computer to virtual. Let’s create a Virtual Machine on Virtual PC to run your Windows 7 VHD.

First, you need to have your Windows Virtual PC installed. And get ready your Windows 7 DVD or ISO image.

1. Open Windows Virtual PC and click on Create Virtual Machine.

2. Give your Virtual Machine a meaningful name and specify the location to save the virtual machine file.

3. Specify the memory to allocate to this VM and specify whether you want to enable network connectivity to this VM.

4. Attached the Windows 7 VHD that you create from Disk2VHD earlier. Specify if you want to enable Undo Disk. Undo disk allows you to delete any changes you made to the VHD and recover it to its initial state.

5. Open your new VM.

6. You will encounter boot error. Attach your Windows 7 DVD or ISO to your VM and configure your VM BIOS to first boot to CDROM.

7. Reboot your VM to Windows 7 DVD and select to Repair your computer.

8. On System Recovery Options, select Repair and restart.

9. You should be able to login to your system after restart. The final step is to install Integration Components.

10. You are done after installing Integration Components!!

Converting your Windows 7 computer to VHD

Here I am working on a project to convert my Windows 7 laptop to a VHD. With this VHD I can keep my workspace regardless of hardware as long as I am able to boot from a VPC.

It also proves to be a good way to backup your computer while keeping your programs and files the way they are. You can always use a cloning tool to restore the VHD to your hard disk.

There are a few tools we need:

1. Disk2vhd – Windows Sysinternals tools http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

2. VHD Resizer – VMToolKit http://vmtoolkit.com/files/folders/converters/entry87.aspx

3. Windows Virtual PC http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/virtual-pc/default.aspx

Let’s start to convert your Windows 7 computer to VHD.

1. Run Disk2vhd, select the disk to convert to VHD. Then enter a VHD file name. Once done, click on Create to start the conversion.

2. One of the limitations of Windows Virtual PC is IDE hard disk and disk size limit of 127 GB. For those of you who’s hard disk are bigger than 127GB, you have to shrink it. To shrink the VHD, open Computer Management Console and Attach VHD.

3. Right click and bring the VHD Online.

4. Shrink the OS volume.

5. Now shrink the VHD volume to less than 127GB. Detach the VHD when shrinking completes.

6. Open VHD Resizer to resize the VHD to less than 127GB.

This completes how to convert your physical Windows 7 computer to a VHD. I will be posting an article on running this Windows 7 VHD on a Windows Virtual PC soon.

Windows XP Mode no longer requires Hardware Virtualization Technology

This must be a great piece of news for users who’s computer does not supports Hardware Virtualization Technology. This is also good news for small and medium enterprise. Now you can migrate to Windows 7 and still able to support Windows XP-based applications in Windows XP Mode.

You have to install this update package KB977206 to enable Windows XP mode on non HAV machines.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977206

Windows XP mode for Windows 7

Windows XP Mode is one cool piece that you must have on Windows7. I download and installed it on my Windows 7 notebook and likes what I see.

What is Windows XP Mode?

Windows XP Mode provides a virtual Windows XP environment for Windows 7. It works with Windows Virtual PC and loads up an intelligently pre-configured Windows XP machine that runs on your Windows 7 so perfectly that you would thought that you are running on Windows XP.

This screenshot shows my Windows XP mode, Internet Explorer is running fine and my local and mapped network drives are there too.

Features

Windows XP mode was the easiest virtual machine setup I ever did. Setup was simply to download Windows XP mode and start it!!

Direct access to USB and other plug and play devices, and files on your host is possible now. Plus you also get folder integration between host and guest, clipboard sharing and Printer redirection.

The best part that I like is Windows XP Mode allows you to publish and launch applications installed on virtual Windows XP directly from Windows 7 Desktop as if they were installed on Windows 7.

I installed Putty on Windows XP Mode virtual machine and it appears on Windows 7 as a Windows XP Mode Applications. It runs like it was installed on Windows 7 too.

So Windows XP Mode will allow more people to upgrade to Windows 7 because it allows them to run Windows XP applications.

Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC

Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC installers are available on http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=140344.

There are numerous feature improvements and I strongly believe you will be interested in these improvements.

Feature Improvements in Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC

· Granular drive sharing

In the settings on the virtual machine, you can select specific host computer drives to share with the virtual machine.

· Manage USB devices with virtual applications

While running virtual applications, you can manage USB devices by using the Virtual Applications icon on the task bar.

· Windows XP Mode tutorial

A Windows XP Mode RC tutorial, which introduces the product features, is displayed during Windows XP Mode Setup.

· Jump list for virtual applications

Right clicking on the virtual application icon for Windows XP Mode, on Windows 7 taskbar, displays a jump list that allows one to easily launch virtual applications from the taskbar.

· Faster Windows XP Mode Setup

Windows XP Mode Setup completes more quickly than in Windows XP Mode Beta.

· Compact differencing disks

You can compact the differencing disks to decrease the file size.

· Ability to install Windows XP optional components

Windows XP optional components can be installed in Windows XP Mode RC without prompting for Windows XP media.

· Ability to choose a location to store virtual machine files for Window XP Mode RC

When you are setting up Windows XP Mode RC, you can choose where to store all virtual machine files for Windows XP Mode RC. The default path is: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\.

· Option to turn off and discard changes when Undo disk is enabled for a virtual machine

An additional option is available when you are turning off a virtual machine: Turn off and discard changes. This option will delete the current Undo disk, and turn off the virtual machine.