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Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Gah... I have just realized that as I was away on holidays during December I missed the December Customer Technology Preview release of Windows Vista.  Thankfully this build is quite easy to install inside of Virtual PC.  Before we get started - you will need two things:

  • The December CTP install media (build 5270)
  • Virtual Machine Additions from Virtual Server 2005 R2

For the latter - if you are using Virtual PC you can download the Virtual Server 2005 R2 trial (from http://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver) and use the Virtual Machine Additions from there.  This version is supported on both Virtual Server and Virtual PC - and has a number of Vista optimizations.

Once you have this - you should follow these steps:

  1. Create a new virtual machine with a 16GB (or larger) virtual hard disk and at least 512mb RAM
  2. Boot off of the install media (note: most ISOs for the December CTP are under 2.2GB in size - which means that you can boot off the ISO directly under Virtual PC)
  3. On the first page select 'Install now'
  4. On the next page, hit 'Shift-F10' - this will bring up a command prompt window
  5. Type in:
       - DISKPART
       - SELECT DISK 0
       - CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
       - EXIT
       - EXIT
  6. Now you will need to reset the virtual machine (hit host-key + 'R') and boot off of the install media again
  7. You should now be able to go through with the default installation of Windows Vista
  8. When you are finished you should be able to log in and install the Virtual Machine Additions

It runs quite well under Virtual PC:

Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC   Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC   Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Cheers,
Ben

Published Tuesday, February 07, 2006 9:59 PM by Virtual PC Guy

Comments

Wednesday, February 08, 2006 11:16 AM by Russ

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Hello:

I was wondering how I would get Virtual PC to emulate another card other than the crappy one it does now?

Thnx,
Wednesday, February 08, 2006 3:37 PM by Jimmi

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Are you aware that the MSDN download page for Vista states:

"This build is not compatible with Virtual PC or Virtual Server. "

You might want to have them update this...
Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:07 AM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Russ -

I am not entirely sure what you are talking about there (you have not given very much detail)

Jimmi -

Thanks for the heads up - I will look into that

Cheers,
Ben
Thursday, February 09, 2006 10:39 AM by morgan

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Ben,

I gave this a go today and while everything went ok I can't login because it says my CTP key has expired :-/

Bit of a shame as everything seemed to be running fine once the additions were installed.
Thursday, February 09, 2006 12:52 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Morgan -

Bummer.

Cheers,
Ben
Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:28 PM by Spiv

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Thanks for the heads-up on installing the R2 additions!

I installed Vista on VPC and it was running really slowly so I gave up on it but since we also use R2 on our servers, I'll give it another go.
Friday, February 10, 2006 4:28 PM by Joseph

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Any chance that the Feb CTP of Vista will support Virtual PC networking so that we can use Vista as our main machine and use virtual machines for the apps that need XP?
Saturday, February 11, 2006 11:38 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Joseph -

I beleive that it will.

Cheers,
Ben
Sunday, February 12, 2006 8:56 AM by Soulhuntre

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

No go. I did the diskpart and reset, and it keeps looping at the "starting installation page. It says "collecting information" then dies right back to "Install Windows"
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 11:41 PM by sdfasdafsdfsdfa

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

dsfasdfasdfasdfsdfasd
Thursday, February 16, 2006 4:24 AM by Gawein Heymans

# Works very good!

I installed it precisely as you stated, and it works perfectly! Especially after installing the additions from Virtual Server R2. Bofore I installed the additions Vista was very slow. Thanks!
Monday, February 20, 2006 6:23 AM by Florian

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

I installed Vista Dec. CTP on a virtual machine, but it always freezes after a few minutes. Safe mode works, but there I cannot install the VM Additions because Windows Installer does not work in Safe mode. I have already disabled all autostarting programs, but no change.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 5:07 PM by Emmet.Gray

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Huh?

Have you guys actually tried to use Vista under Virtual PC?

Sure, I can install it using your instructions, but the CPU is pegged at 100%, making it rather painful to use.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:57 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Hi Emmet,

Did you install the Virtual Server R2 Additions?  These help with performance significantly.

Cheers,
Ben
Thursday, February 23, 2006 8:22 PM by Zman

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Any ideas on CTP 5308? (February)

I follwed the instructions as above. Pressed 'Install now', the next screen that appears asks me for the product key but before I get a chanceI get 'the instuction at 0x1fee7acd referenced memory at.....' OK/Cancel. Either button just takes you back to the Install now screen and you can repeat forever.

When you say install the VS2005 VM additions - you have to do that AFTER the OS is loaded right? I don't see any way to install them before.
Saturday, February 25, 2006 1:01 PM by graye

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Feb CTP installed without issue (other than the fact that it took practically all night)

I had an install failure early on, but it was because I kept the default RAM size at 256...  After changing to 1Gb, it installed fine.

This CTP actually runs for me... the previous Dec CTP ran, but at a constant 100% CPU.  

However, neither CTP had sound...  I tried to copy over the *.sys and *.inf files, but that didn't work (but that trick works for Win2003)

Anybody working on getting the emulated SB16 working on Vista?
Saturday, February 25, 2006 1:36 PM by Pino

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

Hi guys,

I have also the 0x1fee7a6d setup.exe - Application Error after the install screen. Just like Zman. I tried it with 512MB and 1024MB. But no luck, the error stays the same. Virtual PC version is 5.3.582.27.

Why does it works for graye?

Pino
Saturday, February 25, 2006 5:19 PM by LarryA

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

I was having a problem nearly identical to Pino with the error when the screen for the CD key comes up. I got around the problem by changing the Virtual CD program I was using to mount the ISO file.
Sunday, February 26, 2006 3:42 PM by Simon

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

I got the "0x1fee7a6d setup.exe - Application Error" too, when DVD in 2nd drive on 2nd IDE channel - putting it in 1st drive & it seems OK.
Monday, February 27, 2006 6:01 AM by Pino

# re: Windows Vista December CTP under Virtual PC

After I switched from a physical cdrom to daemon tools 3.47 the problem with the "0x1fee7a6d setup.exe - Application Error" is solved. I can enter the product key. Thanks for the help.
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