Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

So it will interest you to know that running Virtual PC 2004 under the February CTP release of Windows Vista is a much nicer experience than it has been in prior builds of Windows Vista.  For one thing - networking is now completely functional.  In fact there are only two issues with running Virtual PC under the February CTP release of Windows Vista:

  1. Desktop composition will be disabled while running virtual machines

    Desktop composition (also known as 'Glass') is what gives you all the cool 3D desktop stuff under Windows Vista.  Unfortunately desktop composition requires that all video data be written to an offscreen buffer and then composited through its 3D engine.  Virtual PC uses DirectDraw - which locks the physical display and draws directly to it.  When this happens - desktop composition is disabled.  Normally this is not a problem - as most DirectDraw applications run in fullscreen mode - so you do not notice.  This is something that we are going to need to change in Virtual PC in order to be fully compatible with Windows Vista.

  2. With desktop composition disabled, moving an active virtual machine will result in corrupted graphics until the virtual machine updates its display

    This is a bug in Windows Vista - but it is fairly easy to deal with.

Cheers,
Ben

Published Monday, February 27, 2006 11:08 PM by Virtual PC Guy

Comments

Tuesday, February 28, 2006 4:30 AM by Stefano Demiliani

# re: Running Virtual PC under Feburary CTP of Vista

Nice infos... and what about the opposite side? Is the last Vista CTP supported by Virtual PC? I've listened rumours about problems and I'd like to know something before doing the test by myself.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 4:51 AM by Richard Gadsden

# re: Running Virtual PC under Feburary CTP of Vista

February CTP of Vista is pretty well-behaved (if Glass-less) under Virtual PC, especially if you install the Virtual Server R2 VMAdditions.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 11:52 AM by Peter Stanton

# re: Running Virtual PC under Feburary CTP of Vista

Stefano,

I've run Vista Feb CTP on the VPC successfully for the most part. My only problem has been setting up NAT.

I just won't work for me, I've tried setting the DNS server to 192.168.131.254 but as soon as I open IE7 the virtual system hangs (altogether with the VPC application).

If you run it without NAT it works fine.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 3:21 PM by Stefano Demiliani

# re: Running Virtual PC under Feburary CTP of Vista

Thanks for the infos Peter, 'll try to install it under VPC too.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 4:01 PM by Kirk

# re: Running Virtual PC under Feburary CTP of Vista

I realize this is unrelated, but I figure you might know something I don't.. hehhe

I have a Virtual PC system set up and I would like to make it "real".  I figure I can do this using Ghost or something ???  Any experience with this?  Guess I'll check back to see if you comment on it.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 4:41 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Stefano -

Works great here.  Checkout the link in todays post for detils.

Peter -

Yes the NAT issue is a known problem

Kirk -

This is possible, but you should uninstall the VM Additions first.  You will also have to do the neccesary work to deal with the fact that Virtual PC has different hardware to that of your physical computer (though this is no difference than imaging one physical computer on to another).

Cheers,
Ben
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 5:09 PM by Johnny

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Kirk - there are a number of posts on this topic in the Virtual PC newsgroup.  Check it out.
Thursday, March 02, 2006 4:41 AM by Dave English

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Can I be cheeky here (better here than somewhere more public) and say that "This is something that we are going to need to change in Virtual PC in order to be fully compatible with Windows Vista." is the first time that I, for one, have noticed anyone imply that there is a future for Virtual PC.
Thursday, March 02, 2006 8:51 AM by Richard Brightwell

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Virtual PC Guy,
My experience was that the ISO download from MSDN  (en_windows_vista_ctp_february_2006_32bit.iso) doesn't seem to be recognized as a valid ISO when you try to "capture" it through VPC.  It mounts fine under Daemon Tools and can be installed that way.

Also, I was wondering about installation under VPC... can we now skip those command prompt commands you recommended during install of the Dec CTP Vista?

Thanks!

Thursday, March 02, 2006 8:54 AM by Richard Brightwell

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Virtual PC Guy,
My experience was that the ISO download from MSDN  (en_windows_vista_ctp_february_2006_32bit.iso) doesn't seem to be recognized as a valid ISO when you try to "capture" it through VPC.  It mounts fine under Daemon Tools and can be installed that way.

Also, I was wondering about installation of Vista under VPC... do we still need those command prompt commands you recommended during install of the Dec CTP Vista?

Thanks!

Thursday, March 02, 2006 2:24 PM by Sandu

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Virtual PC Guy Help me
I've installed Vista on Virtual Server 2005 R2
My problem is I don't know how to set network on host and guest because I have only one IP and I need to connect to internet for activating Vista.
Thank's
Sandu
Friday, March 03, 2006 6:48 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Dave -

Yes - that is cheeky - but yes there is a definite future for Virtual PC.

Richard -

Yes this is a known issue (not being able to use the ISO).  And yes - you still need to do the command prompt commands that were recommend for the Dec CTP Vista.

Sandu -

Checkout my post on using ICS with the loopback adapter: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/04/477195.aspx

Cheers,
Ben
Saturday, March 04, 2006 4:02 AM by Sandu

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Virtual PC Guy
I've done what you said in  http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/04/477195.aspx but now what settings shoul I have to made to my virtual machine
Please help me
Sunday, March 05, 2006 2:03 PM by Nicolas

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

I get this error a minute after clicking Install Now:

Windows Setup: setup.exe - Application Error

The exception unknown software exception (0xe0000100)
occurred in the application at location 0x77e4028b.

And if I click OK it takes me back to the first screen. Any ideas?
Sunday, March 05, 2006 9:20 PM by Alps N

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Hi Nicolas

Got the same error. Did increase memory for VPC to 512 and i got past that error. However I am stuck with install on a partition..dont get next, its greyed out!

Help! ;-)

-AN
Wednesday, March 08, 2006 1:25 PM by Nicolas

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

ohh so needs 512MB of ram..... :(

I have 512MB physical memory so I won't be able to test it :'(
Thursday, March 09, 2006 10:11 AM by Tim Stubbs

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

grey out partition - create a new one, format it (it still says it's unusable) then reset the vpc - go through the install again and, hey presto, you can use the partition.
Thursday, March 09, 2006 10:13 AM by Tim Stubbs

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Oh - i should mention - with 600+ of ram it still crashes as soon as the cd key screen comes up :(
Thursday, March 09, 2006 9:54 PM by KET

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

I had just installed the Beta when the Feb CTP was release. Based on the information here about setting up the drive first, everything went great. I downloaded the Feb CTP and have tried numerous times to install. It gets into step 2 of installing goes just a little way on the progress bar, looks like it is working, runs the DVD drive the whole time, shows disk activity every once in awhile, but I have let it run for many hours and it never does anything. Any ideas?
Monday, March 13, 2006 6:09 PM by Mr. Sir

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

I have the same problem as Nicholas -

I get this error 30 secs after clicking Install Now (BOOTING only off dvd not from windows -  works if I 'upgrade' from XP):

Windows Setup: setup.exe - Application Error

The exception unknown software exception (0xe0000100)
occurred in the application at location 0x77e4028b.

And if I click OK it takes me back to the first screen ('install now', 'release notes', etc.). Any ideas?

Thanks!
Monday, March 13, 2006 6:26 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Hi All,

If you are talking about Vista under Virtual PC - please checkout http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2006/02/28/540822.aspx.  This post is about Virtual PC under Vista.

Cheers,
Ben
Monday, March 13, 2006 7:41 PM by Mr. Sir

# re: Running Virtual PC under February CTP of Vista

Whoops didn't read the whole thing... its working now
*sorry*
New Comments to this post are disabled
 
Page view tracker