bharry's WebLog

Visual Studio CTP (January) is available for download as a self-extracting install or Virtual PC image

Too bad you can't log in with the supplies userid and password.

# VPC Credentials:

Username: Administrator

Password: P2ssw0rd

I download VPC image and use P@ssw0rd can login. But next it require to activate the Windows 2003, but cannot activate. I think the main problem is our network don't use DHCP so I must set a valid IP information first, and any HTTP connection must go through the corporate proxy, but I cannot find any way to set network settings before the activate, so the online activate cannot pass. Then I cannot start trying it.

Yep, the base is useless. it is set to use an IP address which is hardwired to the MS network which don't work out here in the wild. :(:(

I'm trying creating a duplicate partition with a Technet ISO 60 day to activate W2K3 server enterprise and the same settings otherwise. will let you know if it works.

no luck. the install wants the VHD as the c drive and won't work without it. :( (I was trying to mount the VHD from the image as a secondary hard drive.)

oh well, i got the self install...

try Phone activation, at lease it works despite the time and hassle you had to deal with.

I have installed the VPC and added the image on my laptop and when I tried to authenticate Windows 2003 it didn't go through the first time as I was connected to the internet through my wireless network. I plugged in a cable from my router and the activation went through.

I can't login with the P2ssw0rd password, neither does the suggested P@ssw0rd work. Suggestions anyone?

Save yourself some grief, don't install this on your machine. Seriously. The credentials dont work, VPC is slooow. What a crock.

I'm also sorry about not to be able to log in. I tried every suggested password but no chance. Of course I'm running Virtual Server 2003 R2 SP1 but this should not be a problem or?

Capitel O small o, use 0 instead, With 2 or @... I give up

Try the P"ssw0rd. That worked for me. But I couldn't the Windows Server 2003 licence registered, so I'm no closer to a solution...

P"ssw0rd (0==zero) works also the activation after I changed the network setting to my NIC and entered my proxyserver settings.

THX

@Thore: could it be that you connected your virtual machine to the base and not to the VSCTP...vmc? If you do that you have to activate otherwise there is NO activation. This did it for me. First time I was wondering about that and also there was NO Visual Studio visible after login ;)

So at the end it could be a simple mistake by the user (us)...

I forgot to mention that then also the password is P2ssw0rd (2 instead of ") as mentioned be bharry ciao

So far, so good.  I followed the instructions and ran into the password problem mentioned above.  P2ssw0rd (zero instead of o) worked fine. We do have dhcp which worked right away.  It feels like the virtual machine extensions are loaded as mine is quite responsive.  Personally I love the idea of delivering beta's this way as it is painless to get in and look around with no risk to my existing config and registry.

Brian

Hello ,

I also run into password problems and P2ssw0rd (0 == zero) also worked for me .... after dicovering (finally) that you need to consider the qwerty keyboard. Mine is an azerty keyboard !!!!

Nevertheless great to give us Virtual images!

Regards,

Alexander

The image cannot be activated through Internet. I called the number to activate via  phone. It doesn't give the correct ID. The phone activate system sucks! I guess this CTP image is useless at best right now. MS should find better way to do this.

Alan, if you wouldn't mind, could you please email me as I'd like to work with you offline to understand your CTP challenges a bit better.  We haven't seen any issues such as the one you are describing before and I would like to help you.  My email is cscott@microsoft.com

Thank you, Carol

problems seem to be resolved by using the nat translation for net work to activate.. then use the machine as normal

None of the different password variations expressed here work at all for me.

I guess not many people are using this VM image, otherwise you guys at MS would be getting way more heat than we see here.

Hi

I am using virtual server 2005 R2

can anyone explain which vmc I should be using with which vhd?

I tried the base vmc with the base vhd which booted-up as a virtual machine but the JanCTP vmc and the JanCTP vhd would not work together but the base vmc and the JanCTP vhd did work together at least until it asked to be registered. but I'm not sure if they are supposed to. This very confusing.

regards Nigel s

This really sucks! After 2hrs of googling to past the logon, I get stuck at the windows activation! What a waste of time and band width downloading this CTP... shame on you MS!

I was able to install and run the CTP with the credentials supplied on the download page and with no activation problems.

The problem I'm having is that the image does not appear to include the correct CPT.

I was following an example as presented in: http://blogs.msdn.com/charlie/archive/2007/02/16/linq-farm-connecting-to-a-database-with-linq-to-sql.aspx and found that none of the features were available to me.  It includes a great version of VS Team addition though (cool Test feature).

Is anyone else seeing this?  I have seen a few posts on this but no follow-up. (see: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=254594)

Thanks in advance.

Darren.

The password that worked for me was P@ssw0rd

I'm stuck at Activation though so this CTP is useless.

Just downloaded the March ctp and its still a bit crap the password is _still_ not corrrect -its P"ssword, and the activation won't let me log on until I can activate.

The networking seems to be turned off in the vm settings, I have set it to my network card but it still won't work. I just get a message saying activation was unable to activate online.

After trawling around eventvwr it appears that my antivirus - symantec - is blocking the the activation with something called "Tamper Protection". if I turn this off and try the activation a second time it works.

Guys, I have just used the March CTP and it works. Some issues and solutions I want to share: 1) the password that worked was P@ssw0rd (P is uppercase, @ is the character found in emails, and the 0 is the Zero character, not O/o). 2) the keyboard is US, so make sure you're typing the good password. You can exercise in the first texbox (the login one), aside the 'administrator' text. 3) to activate successfully you need internet connectivity (phone sucks :-). But if you just installed VPC 2004/SP1 or VCP2007, make sure the VPC shares your real host network card. For this, you may have to change the parameters of the VPC in VPC console app, 'network' bullet, and chose the name of your network card (wireless or LAN). By default, your host network card is *not* mapped on VPCs.

HTH!

Why do they have to put a freakin password on it if they publish it anyeays?????!!!!

I have downloaded the 1.2gig file and cannot login. I have tried every freakin combination of P@ssw0rd - P@sswOrd - P"ssw0rd - P"sswOrd and others.

M$ -- WHAT IS THE PASSWORD FOR THE MARCH CTP????? I am using a US layout keyboard?!?!

March CTP, Virtual PC 2007, downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=B533619A-0008-4DD6-9ED1-47D482683C78&displaylang=en.

Absolutely NO combination of any passwords mentioned on this page, or on Microsoft "big lie" page work.

PLEASE someone have Microsoft post the correct password for the March CTP!  Are they TRYING to keep us from using this stuff?

How activate this f***ing virtual windows?

Followed the instructions from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=B533619A-0008-4DD6-9ED1-47D482683C78&displaylang=en. Everything is OK until step 8 but I never get a prompt to locate the base image. (using VPC 2004 on WXP). When I start the image, I get an empty W2K3 environment. No VSTS or TFS installed. I used P@assw0rd and had to activate.

In this blog you say "1. Download both the Orcas base image and all eight files of the differencing image.

2. Launch the differencing image on your Virtual PC or Virtual Server and logon using the following credential:"

What do you mean with "launch" ? How do I do that ?

Other blogs ( ) and also this one report that the password should actually be P2ssw0rd and that it should not be necessary to activate. So I guess I'm running a wrong image.

Sorry to say this Brian, but this may have been one of the items to add to the list of TFS stuff you are NOT proud of (http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=285627)

Can someone please provide "working" instructions to get this thing started without having to spend another 'ton' of hours looking for solutions after the exhausting download ?

Thanks!

These are the steps I followed to get it working in Virtual PC 2004 environment.

download the base image and extract it to a folder on your computer

--> a Base01.vhd and a Base02.vmc file are created.

download all parts of the Visual Studio March CTP and double click the first part (..part01.exe) to start extraction.

extract to the same folder as the base image

--> a VSMarch2007CTP_VSTSTFS.vhd and a VSMarch2007CTP_VSTSTFS.vmc file are created

(create a copy of all files in case something goes wrong)

start Virtual PC (2004), click on the New button and then select Next

select "Add an existing virtual machine" and click Next

Browse to the folder containing the Base01.vmc file and select it. Click Next

uncheck the "When I click Finish, open Settings" checkbox and click Finish

--> a new Virtual Machine is now visible in the Virtual PC Console

from the Virtual PC Console, select File | Virtual Disk Wizard and then click Next

select "Edit an existing virtual disk" in the Disk Options dialog and click Next

Browse to the location of the VSMar2007CTP_VSTSTFS.vhd file and select it. Click the Open button.

--> You are prompted for the location of the parent virtual hard disk. (Suggested location is E:\VPC\TimeBombedBase\Base01.vhd)

select the Change button and browse to the location of the Base01.vhd file

select it and press Open

press OK in the "Select File" dialog

--> an Error dialog pops up

I guess its safe to press the OK button but I'm not really sure what this error is trying to say.

select "A new file" in the "Virtual Disk Information and Options" dialog and then click Next

select " Dynamically expanding" in the "Virtual Hard Disk Merge" dialog

browse to a folder on your hard disk where you want to save the new merged virtual disk (e.g.: same location as Base01.vhd)

enter a name (e.g.: MarchCTP) in the "Merged Virtual Hard Disk" dialog and press the Save button

click Next in the "Virtual Hard Disk Merge" dialog and Finish in the next dialog

--> the virtual hard disks are now merged. This may take some time (several minutes)

click Close when the merging has finished.

--> you should see a new virtual disk in the folder you specified (e.g.: MarchCTP.vhd ; see above)

This is the second part (putting it all in 1 long post didn't seem to work).

in the Virtual PC Console, select the Base01 image and click the Settings button

select Hard Disk 1, which points to Base01.vhd

change the location of Virtual hard disk file by clicking on the Browse button in the Settings window

browse to the new merged virtual disk (e.g.: MarchCTP.vhd) and press Open.

press OK in the Settings window

in the Virtual PC Console, select the Base01 image (if not already selected) and press the Start button

--> Windows Server 2003 R2 is started and you can login using the "P2ssw0rd" password (Papa TWO Sierra Sierra Whisky ZERO Romeo Delta) and NOT P@ssw0rd

(P@ssw0rd was used in the TFSRTM image and is also the password used for the base image. Very confusing !)

once logged in you are presented with a Logon Message that forces you to change your password immediately.

--> You DO NOT have to activate !

(Activation is required when you start the Base01.vmc with the original Base01.vhd)

--> Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0 is now listed in the Programs list on the Start menu.

(With the original Base01.vhd, this and other programs are NOT available)

I have not yet played with VS9.0 or VSTS and I get a Blue Screen when shutting down the W2K3R2 VPC, but I hope this is related to my host configuration.

hello everybody!

Now listen up: paso is the man. everybody follow his instructions and you will be happy.

Now microsoft, it has taken 3 hours to get VS9 running. Not too Good!!!

I installed the MS Virtual PC 2004 Windows Server 2003 and it worked very well, except evenually it was taking way too many gigabytes (30 something GBs) so I deleted the huge .vhd files and tried to get it to work again and it didn't like my password; the first time when it worked the un: Administrator with the pw: P2ssw0rd (with a zero) worded but the second time it did not and it may have been that I did not follow the exact instructions as I did the first time when installing the virtual machinge (instructions: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=36B6609E-6F3D-40F4-8C7D-AD111679D8DC&displaylang=en#Instructions). I had deleted the 8 files I downoladed, so I tried downloading them again and they were corrupt (there's no check sum but it would not have helped much), and then I downloaded them again and they were good.  This time around, the P2ssw0rd password did not worked so I googled it and I came to this site that listed the P@ssw0rd and this one worked.  I activated it without registering and that went fine and virtual server 2003 is working.  I did not have to activate it when the P2ssw0rd password worked for my first installation, but it works with this way also

Jim