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

Doing an upgrade of Vista to Windows 7

Having tested Windows 7 installation using clean install method previously, now I decided to do an upgrade of my daily work notebook to Windows 7. I decided that my Dell VOSTRO 1400 with 4GB of memory is good enough for the upgrade path. And choosing the upgrade path will saved me the efforts to reinstall most of my applications and migration of my documents.

So let me share with you my experience in upgrading my Vista to Windows 7 Ultimate! A few key points in my opinion would be Antivirus programs, hardware, existing applications on your computer and drivers for your hardware.

So on 6 August 2009, I downloaded the RTM copy of Windows 7 and immediately started working on the upgrade which I have been planning. :)

The Windows 7 setup wizard will greet you when you load the DVD into your DVD drive. Now, do not hit the Install now button immediately. I would suggest your backup your important data first as a good habit. Once backup is done, you still can’t click on the Install now button. haha.

I would suggest your check your hardware, drivers, applications and antivrus program before your start installing Windows 7. Please click on Check compatibility online to do a check on your system first.

This will bring you to a page to download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta. The upgrade advisor will check your hardware (disk space, memory, etc) and the applications on your system.

If you have antivirus programs, please uninstall them now to avoid any problems during setup. There might be programs that might not function well on Windows 7, you might want to check for the latest version.

The Upgrade Advisor will also check that all your device drivers are available. Do a search on the manufacturer’s support site for any unsupported drivers.

Please download and install Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor beta.

Accept the license agreement and start installation.

Once installation completes, click on Start Check to begin checking your system.

When the compatibility checks are completed, you will be presented with a report. If you see warnings or errors, then tackle them before you proceed with the installation of Windows 7.

Only when the report are clear of any warnings or errors, then you are good to go ahead with your Windows 7 installation. Good luck and have fun!