So I was encountered into this problem when trying to install Virtual PC 2007 on my notebook running Windows Vista Ultimate. The installation program finished without problems, but when trying to open Virtual PC console, it will show you warning about that it is not able to use the Virtual Machine Network Services and VPC may not have network support, like this:

vpc2007q1.jpg

after you click yes and let it install the network service, it will happen like this:

vpc2007q2.jpg

When trying to look up if the virtual machine network service exist in your network NIC properties, you'll find nothing there. even if you uninstall and install many times, the problem still exists.

Although I did manually install the network service driver located at "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Utility\VMNetSrv" , it was still not working, and the property page of the service, the Provider, Date, and Version were all blank.

spent hours searching on Google, found Virtual PC Guy's post describing this issue also the way to solve it. I'll also put the steps here for backup.

[via Virtual PC Guy]

Number 1: The Virtual Machine Network Services driver is installed but not enabled.  To fix this:

On a Windows XP system you’ll need to:

  1. Open the Start menu and click on Control Panel.
  2. Click on Network and Internet Connections and then Network Connections.
    If you are using classic mode you just need to double click on Network Connections.
  3. Locate your network adapter, right click on it and select Properties.
  4. Check the Virtual Machine Network Services entry and click OK.

On a Windows Vista system you’ll need to:

  1. Open the Start menu and click on Control Panel.
  2. Click on the Network and Internet and then Network and Sharing Center.
    If you are using classic mode you just need to double click on Network and Sharing Center.
  3. Click on Manage network connections, in the task list on the left side of the window.
  4. Locate your network adapter, right click on it and select Properties.
    You’ll need to approve this action.
  5. Check the Virtual Machine Network Services entry and click OK.

Number 2: The Virtual Machine Network Services driver is installed and enabled, but does not seem to be working.  To fix this you'll need to:

  1. Follow the steps for the first solution to get to the properties display for your network adapter.
  2. Select the Virtual Machine Network Services entry, and click Uninstall.
  3. Reboot the physical computer (this step is critical)
  4. Return to the properties display for your network adapter.
  5. Click Install…
  6. Select Service and click Add…
  7. Select the Virtual Machine Network Services entry and click OK.

A 90% of cases these two processes will get virtual networking up and running.

[End of quote]

I do fixed my problem using Number 2 step. although I did try step 2 for many times and fail, just like what Ben said, the "Reboot physical computer" step is very important. I didn't reboot while my fault trials...

If you still failed by doing those 2 steps, read the comments of Ben's post, got some other good point of references to try out.

I am personally thinking that the cause of this problem maybe that there are some other installed network programs that block something and then caused Virtual PC installation failing to install the network service driver. to avoid happening of this problem, it's better to install Virtual PC 2007 right after a clean install of Windows Vista (or other OSes)...

FYI.

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