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Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Good news - the Virtual PC 2007 Beta is now available.  You can sign up for it here: https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=874.

Major changes include:

  • Support for hardware virtualization (Intel and AMD)
  • Support for Windows Vista as a host operating system
  • Support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system
    • Note: No support for Aero Glass though - just Aero Basic
  • Support for 64-bit host operating systems
    • Note: Virtual machines are 32-bit only
  • Improved performance

There are also a plethora of bug fixes.  Some notable ones include:

Plus there are some minor UI changes.

Cheers,
Ben

Published Wednesday, October 11, 2006 11:45 AM by Virtual PC Guy

Comments

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

We use VPC and VS for test and demo purposes. We recently switched to VS2005 because it allows for static MAC Addresses, a requirement for our Macrivision licensing software.

Any Idea if VPC 2007 will have the ability for Static MAC addresses?

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 3:08 PM by Larry Sanborn

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Larry, have you ever tried to edit the vmc file in notepad? it's an xml and it has an

ethernet_card_address

property in it.

Ben,

so there won't be any changes in emulated hardware? no usb and no aero glass in guest by rtm?

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 3:23 PM by ikszkom

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Is side by side installation on a host with VPC2004 and/or VS2005 supported?

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 3:44 PM by Justin Pitts

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Just downloaded it and starting to play.

Here are some bits from the info doc I was interested in:

"The following are supported host operating systems:

·Windows® XP Professional

·Windows XP Professional Tablet PC Edition

·Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition

·Windows Vista Business

·Windows Vista Enterprise

·Windows Vista Ultimate"

(comment:  No Windows 2000 Pro--not that I expected that..but no XP Home edition either. Bummer!)

"Installation notes

This section provides information about installing Virtual PC 2007. There are two installation scenarios:

·Upgrade in place. Install Virtual PC 2007 on a computer on which Virtual PC 2004 SP1 is currently installed.

·New installation. Install Virtual PC 2007 on a computer on which Virtual PC 2004 SP1 is not currently installed."

(comment: Doesn't seem to allow both VPC2004 and VPC2007 to co-exist on same machine...I did an upgrade and it wrote directly into the same VPC2004 program files folder...)

"Make sure that all virtual machines are turned off, including any virtual machines in a saved state. Saved states are not compatible between Virtual PC 2004 SP1 and Virtual PC 2007."

(comment:  Um. Yes.  Should have read this doc before installing ;)  Anyway, it allowed me to delete the saved state file and reboot. On reboot I got the Safe-mode boot menu and just continued with a normal boot. Worked fine from there.  I had to uninstall my original add-on's then reboot, then install the new add-on's package.)

Too soon to tell about performance/function.  Seems a little snappier...

Got to go play!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:02 PM by Claus

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Hm... I think I found a bug... If you have Virtual PC 2004 installed and then you install 2007, it will overwrite your 2004 regardless of where you tell it to install.  :X  I wanted to save 2004 for my XP install, grr.  Now I'll have to reinstall it.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:19 PM by Dan

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Hey, back in 2004 you gave us some DOS tweaking tips: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2004/10/21/246136.aspx

The last EMM386 one doesn't appear to work anymore (it hangs DOS)... :(

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:25 PM by Dan

# USB Support in Virtual PC 2007 Beta???

Does anyone know if USB support was added to Virtual PC 2007?  I really need USB dongle support and I am not ready to switch to VMWare.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:52 PM by Tim Cochran

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

No Home Edition? Man, what da hell?

Home Edition is an operating system too! Buu...(I am crying my eyes off)

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 5:00 PM by gebeleizis

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Can someone please explain what "hardware-assited virtualization" is?  All the documentation I've found simply says that its supported, but what the heck is it?

Thx

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 5:47 PM by John Schneider

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

MS-DOS 6.22 works fine for me, just install the Dos Additions from VPC2004 SP1 as they still appear to work, remember to have DEVICE=C:\VMADD\VMADD386.SYS as the first line in your config.sys

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 7:10 PM by Cwagle

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

On starting it, I get - VPC2007 has expired!

What the heck?

Any pointers?

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 8:51 PM by Alpesh nakar

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

It's working great for me, but unfortunately my laptop's BIOS doesn't allow for enabling Intel Virtualization Technology support so I can't take advantage of the hardware acceleration! :(

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 10:41 PM by sfiorito

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Ben,

I downloaded VPC 2007 and I am very pleased! It addresses all the (many) problems I had with VPC 2004 with Vista as the host OS!

However I have some questions..

Is there any support planned for USB in the guest OS?

Are there any major new bits of functionality, or is 2007 mostly a performance/compatibility refresh?

Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:17 AM by Jeff Atwood

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

It is a real shame that Microsoft won't "officially" support VPC on the XP and Vista Home Editions.

There is *zero* technological reason.  VPC doesn't use any APIs that are only present on XP Pro/Vista Business.  (Those APIs are essentially just those related to domain-based neworking.)

The only reason is trying to scare people into thinking they need XP Pro, and getting them to pay for it.  (With VPC now free, they need to make up the difference in money somehow, eh?)  When the truth is, VPC works 100% in XP Home.  (I use it myself.)

VPC is perfect for home users who still want to be able to play old DOS and Win3.x/9x games, as Ben highlights quite often on this very blog.

I would love to see an official MS response on this issue.

Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:47 AM by PatriotB

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

ooh, I forgot a question:

Should we re-install the 2007 version of the Virtual Machine Additions when running a VM originally set up in VPC 2004?

It works as-is but I am wondering if there are improvements that would merit a re-install of the additions in the guest OS?

Thursday, October 12, 2006 2:09 AM by Jeff Atwood

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Is the infamous AltGR-bug fixed ???

Thursday, October 12, 2006 4:22 AM by Zid

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Ben,

Can this run alongside Virtual Server 2005 R2?

And if so, can I share virtual machines between the two?

Thanks,

Gurbhajan.

Thursday, October 12, 2006 4:49 AM by Gurbhajan

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

What is up with support for a wireless NIC as a networking option when the host is running Vista (RC1 or RC2)? It but me with VPC04 and I was hoping it would be fixed in VPC07. Am I missing a tweak or something to get it to work?

Thursday, October 12, 2006 8:34 AM by Chris Haaker

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Is there a way to add USB support to VPC 2007?

Thursday, October 12, 2006 9:06 AM by compugab

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I was wondering about the VM Additions also.  Can the additions for VPC 2007 be installed on top of the ones from VPC 2004?  In other words, if I have a VM running under VPC 2004, with the Additions from VPC 2004, do I just install the Additions from VPC 2007, or should I uninstall the VPC2004 Additions first?

Thursday, October 12, 2006 10:17 AM by John Schneider

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

What about UI enhancement? multiple snapshot (diffencing HDD in VPC terms) support?

Thursday, October 12, 2006 10:32 AM by James Yip

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

That's it?

Improved performance, Vista support, and bug fixes? That makes this a major release???

VMWare has 64bit support. I'm running Vista x64 client in a Windows XP (32bit) host with VMWare. Its an awesome way to test run the 64 bit OS's without sacrificing a machine.

VMWare has USB support...

Imagine if Office 2007 had the same "features"... who would go out and buy a new copy if only for Vista support & improved performance...

VMWare is going to eat Virtual PCs lunch...

Good luck...

Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:04 PM by Johan Ericsson

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Whoops, disregard my previous comment.  EMM386 loads fine, but it just doesn't play well with VMADD.  I forgot to get the latest VMADD stuff.

Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:43 PM by Dan

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Figured it out... I was loading EMM386 BEFORE VMADD386.... oops D:

Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:51 PM by Dan

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Larry -

We do not expose UI for this in VPC, but if you configure a VM under VS to have a static MAC address VPC 07 should honor that setting (VPC 04 did not).

ikszkom -

Correct, no changes to emulated hardware sorry.

Justin Pitts -

VPC 2007 can be installed side by side with Virtual Server 2005.  It cannot be installed with VPC 2004.

Dan -

I will pass the installation issue along to the appropriate people

John Schneider -

Check out http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2006/05/01/587992.aspx

Alpesh nakar -

Please report this issue through the beta feedback page

sfiorito -

Out of curiosity, what sort of laptop do you have?

Jeff Atwood -

Sadly no USB.  It is mostly just performance and compatibility (which is not a bad thing in and of itself)

PatriotB -

There are a number of reasons behind this decision (buisness, technical, man hours for supporting more platforms, etc...).  However the reality is that Virtual PC is not designed or intended from home users.  If you check the very first post on my blog (about 400 back ;-) you will see that I state that we do not design VPC for gaming - it is just something that I do with it ont the side.

Jeff Atwood -

Yes - please update the Additions.  There are bug fixes for most platforms in the latest version.

Zid -

I do not know off the top of my head, but I sure hope it is.

Gurbhajan -

Yes and yes

Chris Haaker -

This should be working.  Have you made sure that the Virtual Machine Network Service is enabled on your wireless NIC?

compugab -

No

John Schneider -

Hmm...  We only test installing the 07 Additions on VPC 07, it should work the other way around by this is not guaranteed.

James Yip -

There are only minor UI changes.

Cheers,

Ben

Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:56 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Ben,

I've got a Sony VAIO SZ260P. After doing some research it looks like other laptops from different manufacturers have the same problem. Really dissapointing. No response from Sony about adding this simple option to the BIOS.

Any chance you could use some of that Microsoft muscle to make these manufacturers an offer they can't refuse??? ;)

Thanks!

Thursday, October 12, 2006 2:22 PM by sfiorito

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Hi,

I've been trying to work with Virtual PC 2004 and SuSe. I really liked the Virtual PC concept. I am looking forward for the 2007 trial. I found a few links that helped me with several OS's on Virtual PC 2004. I have those links on my blog.

AI

http://aiinc.blogspot.com

Thursday, October 12, 2006 4:34 PM by AI

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

@Ben -- Thanks for the response.  I'm still curious what the "technical" reasons are, because I can think of zero.  I've been programming Windows for 10+ years and can't think of anything.  Plus I've been using VPC flawlessly on my XP Home for a while.

@Johan Ericsson -- Since VPC is free, you can't really argue "who would buy a new copy"...

Friday, October 13, 2006 1:57 AM by PatriotB

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I just saw some screenshots of VPC 2007 Beta1 at http://activewin.com/articles/2006/19.shtml and I was saddened to see the same XP-style icons and wizards.  Hopefully the final version will have Vista-style icons and use the new Aero wizard style.

Friday, October 13, 2006 1:58 AM by PatriotB

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Has VPC2007 any posiblility to run OpenGl or D3D Software?

Bye!!!

Friday, October 13, 2006 8:10 AM by Nemo

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Ben,

do you plan any major changes by rtm?

I want PXE, it is boring to mount my risdisk.vfd :-)

Friday, October 13, 2006 10:56 AM by ikszkom

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Well I installed it on my IBM ThinkPad T41 and it now blue screens whenever I try to use my wireless connection. I load up IE and try to go to a web page and it blue screens and reboots. I uninstalled VPC 2007 BETA and the problem has gone away. I think you need to do some more work on this...

Friday, October 13, 2006 11:05 AM by Jimmy

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

USB??

What is it gonna take to get USB support added?

I do a ton of work with Windows Mobile and w/o USB support the only VPC option is to run the Device Emulator which performs horribly (as one would expect) w/in a VPC image.

Microsoft regularly states and invests in mobile devices as a major platform. Why can't we get a reasonable way to work w/ Windows Mobile devices w/in VPC?

Could you just explain why it seems to be a lower priority then many of these other features. I may be in a minority (but I don't think so) but I'd certainly waited one more VPC release for 64 bit support if I could have USB now.

- Jim

http://pluralsight.com/blogs/jimw

Friday, October 13, 2006 11:49 AM by Jim Wilson

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I could probably answer these questions myself by downloading it, but if it's posted here that will help more people.

.

Any change to the emulated hardware?  Is it still a BX chipset, S3 Trio video, SB16 sound and Intel NIC?  Any improvements in low-level compatibility that would...say... improve DOS gaming further?

Friday, October 13, 2006 4:22 PM by RobertH

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Still the same emulated hardware. If you are worried about DOS gaming, then use DosBox http://dosbox.sourceforge.net VPC is not designed for playing games.

Friday, October 13, 2006 4:44 PM by DosFreak

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

It may not be designed for DOS games, but I use it that way all the time.  So does Ben, as it appears from his posts.

Friday, October 13, 2006 5:27 PM by RobertH

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Is OS/2 still a supported guest OS ?

Saturday, October 14, 2006 10:45 PM by Anax

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Anax: at least os2 listed in the wizard...

Monday, October 16, 2006 8:38 AM by ikszkom

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Are there any plans to add USB Support for VPC ?? Any reason why it wasn't added as part of VPC 2007 ??

Monday, October 16, 2006 12:35 PM by Ravi

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I've about given up on getting USB support in VPC or VS.  MS just doesn't seem to think this is important, in spite of how many times this issue has been raised.  Also, I don't see what the big issue is for them to come right out and say why it is so difficult to get this done.

Monday, October 16, 2006 1:00 PM by John Schneider

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I aspire to comment like JimW. How about some USB support?? You'd think USB support would be a given by now.

I also mimic Johan's feelings... it's been ~3 years since VPC2k4... and the added features are

64bit support (which was pretty much already completed in Virtual Server 2k5SP1)

Vista support (is it that hard?)

Hardware Virtualization (This one came out of left field... what hardware actually does this, and isn't this more geared for the server space?)

Bug fixes + Perf (I guess that's a Yay.. I notice IO being noticibly faster in 2007)

and... and that's it.. Does the VPC team consist of one person?

It's sad too that compatability between VPC2004/VS2k5 doesn't seem to be tested.. that would seem to be a big draw: the ability to take an image from VPC from anyone of the virtual platforms and use it on another.

Monday, October 16, 2006 5:15 PM by Sean

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I guess as an internal tool to support development, VPC is good... (if you don't do any development with USB devices) But VPC hasn't kept up with the Jones' *VMWare, Cough*

You'd think that the additional man hours freed up by not having a VPC for the Mac anymore would allow for the features that alot of people are asking for...

Monday, October 16, 2006 5:28 PM by Tim

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I'll second JimW and Sean's comments about USB.  Raw performance aside (another reason I use VMWare), USB support is the primary reason I use VMWare Workstation. As a mobile solutions developer, having the ability to connect to USB devices is a must.

I'd love to hear more about the reasons USB is low priority.

So why not just do device dev on my host and forget about a VM?  As a consultant, I am frequently in a number of different customer environments and some of the tools/configurations required I don't want on my host or may not play together nicely.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 5:02 PM by Nino Benvenuti

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I am setting up a new notebook and decided to try the beta. I started the first VM and installed the Additions. Everything went OK. I started the second VM and installed the additions but got the following error message:

The feature you are trying to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk that is not available. Insert the 'Virtual Machine Additions' disk and click OK.

The Use source dropdown contains "1". The VM Additions CD is mounted. I tried running setup.exe off the mounted CD and got the same message.

Any idea what is going on here?

Thank you,

Mark

Thursday, October 19, 2006 4:44 AM by Mark

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Sfiorito --

Yes, we have been trying to work with manufacturers on this.

Nemo –

Unfortunately no.

Ikszkom –

No.

Jimmy –

Please file a bug.

RobertH –

No the emulated hardware has not changed significantly.

Anax –

Yes OS/2 is still supported.

Mark –

What operating system are you running in the second virtual machine?

Cheers,

Ben

Thursday, October 19, 2006 5:17 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

I have yet to read anything regarding compatibility w/ VPC 2004 vis-a-vis additions. My laptop is dual boot w/ Vista RC2. I can open my VPC 2004 images just fine in Vista/VPC 2007 but what happens if I then upgrade the additions? Will I be able to boot back to XP and run VPC 2004 with the upgraded additions? There was a "trick" btwn VPC 2004 / VSrv 2005 where you copy over the 05 additions and use them in 04. Does that still work?

Friday, October 20, 2006 8:45 AM by John Watson

# Additions as MSIs?

Hey - can you please not do the additions as MSIs?  We like to do testing with systems as close to 'pristine' as possible, and installing the MSI runtime just to get the additions seems wrong somehow.

Friday, October 20, 2006 2:34 PM by Steve Poele

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Two questions:

- why isn't the VHDMount tool part of Virtual PC 2007?

- I know that it is not a "supported" host OS, but why block installation? I've now used the Orca tool from the Windows SDK to remove the CA_CheckIfWeCanInstall row from the CustomAction table in Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi, and then Virtual PC 2007 installs and runs fine in Windows Server 2003.

Sunday, October 22, 2006 9:43 AM by Gerard

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Gerard,

blocking unsupported OSes is a known bug in this beta.

Monday, October 23, 2006 1:19 AM by sj

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

It was somewhat dissapointing to find that VPC 2007 still doesn't support screen resolution higher then 1600x1200. This does not allow running a guest OS in full-screen mode on wide screen displays like 1680x1050 and 1920x1200. This is the main reason why several people I know use VMWare and not VPC. Any idea on when these larger screen resolutions will be supported?

Monday, October 23, 2006 11:57 AM by Oleg Sych

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

is there any way i can get this to run on XP Home, i don't have a xp pro pc and don't intend to get one because theres little difference. if microsoft doesn't get this workin on XP Home i'm givin up on VPC :(

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 5:55 PM by elfandor964

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

[quote]is there any way i can get this to run on XP Home, i don't have a xp pro pc and don't intend to get one because theres little difference. if microsoft doesn't get this workin on XP Home i'm givin up on VPC :([/quote]

yes, you can use ORCA and remove the installer's restriction.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 9:34 AM by gebeleizis

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Hardware virtualization is virtualization built into the CPU.

Search...

AMD Pacifica

or

Intel Vanderpool (VT)

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 9:50 AM by me

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

NO USB?  No use for VPC without it...  

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 5:48 PM by SWinchester

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

which part of the .msi do i edit with Orca

Thursday, October 26, 2006 9:45 AM by elfandor964

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Ive installed win95 although it appears to run ok Its not listed in the supported microsoft window versions,also it refuses to install vm additons giving the error message setup.exe linked to kernel 32dll:is dubbing present.Is this a bug or is wind 95 not meant to be supported?

Thursday, October 26, 2006 11:47 AM by pat

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

probally cause win95 not supported. somethin it needs is probally not in the kernel32.dll in win95

Thursday, October 26, 2006 12:30 PM by elfandor964

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Tried it, Runs great with xp64 as host OS and various others as guest, even FreeBSD. Sadly I can't use any devices with it due to the ridiculous lack of USB support. I would really rather have USB support than any other feature, like sound emulation.

Sunday, October 29, 2006 8:21 PM by dcargol

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

Virtual PC Guy,

1.  Does Microsft have any plans to support USB in the future?  If so, when?

2.  If they do not, whom do we contact to get this functionality?

Specifically, I would like to have USB Scanner support in a VM.

Thank you,

Ryan M. Hager

Friday, November 03, 2006 3:02 PM by Ryan M. Hager

# Wireless nic not available

Just wondering if anyone knows why my wireless Nic is not an option when i assign a nic to my virtual computer?

Thanks in advance.

Thursday, November 09, 2006 6:16 PM by Nathan
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