#Run windows 7 virtual pc how to
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Version “Microsoft Virtual PC 6.0.192.0” is Virtual PC 2007 sp1, which is the one expected by the rest of this post. You can run Virtual PC 2007 and look in Help > About to see which version you are running.

Go to your trusty Add or Remove Programs applet and remove any remnants of old Virtual PC installs and proceed. If you are upgrading to Virtual PC 2007 sp1 from Virtual PC 2007, the installer will handle it for you. If you already have an earlier version of Virtual PC installed, you will likely see this self-explanatory message to uninstall the older version.

#Run windows 7 virtual pc download

Visit the download page for Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 download page for Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 sp1 and then select the appropriate version for your system (that is, 32- or 64-bit version). Unfortunately, the specific instructions will vary by computer manufacturer, so you’ll need to search the web for steps to enable Hardware Assisted Virtualization. If you have this, you want to enable it for better performance. The newer your PC, the more likely it is that it supports hardware acceleration for Virtualization. Ready to Get Started? Enable Hardware Virtualization in your Computer

#Run windows 7 virtual pc how to

Microsoft has many virtualization solutions, some with different purposes, such as App-V which is more for enterprise roll-out of apps (get it? App-V) to minimize incompatibilities due to other apps or environmental changes.įor developers, let’s assume (for reasons stated above in prior section) that you want a parallel universe to run other software within – safely – like an early beta… Virtual Machine images make these scenarios possible and easy! Let’s get down to business and walk through how to install & configure these virtual images.

#Run windows 7 virtual pc license

Though, consider that Virtual PC 2007 does not cost anything beyond the Windows license you (presumably) already have. Only one of Virtual PC -or- Virtual PC 2007 can be installed concurrently on any given machine.įrom Microsoft, other vendors, and open source, there are other sources of virtualization technology, and some might even be compatible with Virtual PC or VHD. Unlike Virtual PC 2007, Virtual PC is for Windows 7 will not work on XP (but will work on the Windows 7 beta, sometimes known as Vista :-). Does my PC support hardware virtualization (or XP Mode)?

Unlike Virtual PC 2007 which will work regardless of whether you have hardware virtualization, Virtual PC will work ONLY WHEN your computer supports hardware virtualization. If you are running Windows 7, you can look into Virtual PC (sometimes seen as Virtual PC 7) (which includes XP Mode). If you are a developer running XP -or- are running Win 7 on hardware that does not support hardware virtualization, Virtual PC 2007 is very likely what you want. You go through a lot of trouble to get your configuration “just so” and now want to share that with colleagues – or with yourself (on your home machine). You want to set up a machine configuration and reuse it. You can run Windows 7 within a Windows XP host. You may want to run Windows 7 to make sure your apps run fine on it – but you also don’t want to give up XP quite yet. You want to run multiple operating systems.

Or you to keep testing something that changes your machine – and need to “start from scratch” frequently. You may want to try out some testing with 4 GB or RAM, then maybe with 1/2 GB or RAM – so you know what to expect. A virtual machine environment makes it easy to manage these without risking your real machine. You don’t want to install Pre-Release software (like a CTP – Community Technology Preview, which means “very rough”) or beta software directly on your development machine. There are several reasons to use a Virtual PC-managed virtual machine for development: This post does not cover use of (related) virtualization techniques which are very popular today on the server-side. Note this post deals with concerns for Developers. In this post I concentrate on creating a Virtual PC image for Windows 7, but the steps for the other operating systems are similar. This post describes how to install Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, followed by a detailed walk-through of how to create a virtual machine image of a fresh Windows 7 installation using Virtual PC 2007.