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Virtualization

VPC7 - VPC - Virtual Server - Hyper-VVMWareVirtualBox - Parallel's 4 - VPC-Mac - Other/Misc.

Windows Virtual PC(WVPC or WinVPC)  includes Windows XP Mode (XPM)

Check your BIOS before you start the installation!

What works and doesn't work in Windows Virtual PC

VPC7 requires hardware virtualization support to run, Microsoft offers tools to check your system before you begin the installation: Windows Virtual PC: Configure BIOS

Installing unsupported OSes in Windows Virtual PC

Windows 98

Installation is similar once you get started and you can use my VPC2007 TechRef for the actual OS installation.  See this PDF for VPC7 Win98 installation startup.

VPC7 is missing a virtual floppy drive, to install Windows 98, you'll need a way to boot your VM, partition and format the VHD before you can install Win98.  I've made an ISO of my Win98 boot floppy. Download here: win98seboot.iso in ZIP format.

Windows NT

Installation is simpler than Win98 above, assuming you have a bootable Windows NT 4 CD.  Installation PDF

ISO for NTSP6 and IE6 for NT*  Rename from .zip to .iso. The file is not zipped, ISO extensions are blocked by my hosting provider. This ISO may be removed at any time at the request of Microsoft.

 

Virtual PC (legacy)
What works and doesn't work in VPC 2004( and generally in VPC 2007)

Virtual PC 2007 Tech Ref v0.5 (PDF)*  Includes Windows 98/NT/2K/XP installation instructions, CentOS install and other tips.

*Please right-click and select "Save As" to save a copy locally.

Virtual PC Version Numbering (About Screenshots 2004-2007 PDF ):

Connectix

VPC 4.x For Windows (4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.31, 4.32)

VPC 5.x For Windows (5.0, 5.1, 5.2)

CNTX/MS: VPC 5.2 (Rebranded for MS)

Microsoft

VPC 2004: Build 582

VPC 2004 SP1: 5.3.582.27

VPC 2007: 6.0.156.0

VPC 2007 SP1: 6.0.192.0

WinVPC: 6.1

Plan on using Windows 95 with VPC 2007?  Make sure you get or keep a copy of the VPC2004 Additions.  No Windows 95 VM Additions are included with VPC 2007.  See more details here: Why won't the Virtual PC 2007 Virtual Machine Additions load on Windows 95- -VPC Guy Ben Armstrong, VPC Program Manager, explains in his blog.

Extracting files from the Virtual PC installer-How to get the Win95 VMA if you've already uninstalled VPC2004

VPC2004SP1 Additions Download--If you can't get them anywhere else, here's a ZIP. This is a 12MB file, please don't download it more than once.

VPC 2007 SP1 Additions Download--if you can't get them from MS, here's a ZIP, 21.6MB download.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Additions Download--if you can't get them from MS, here is a ZIP, 23MB download.

Windows 98 ready VMC and VFD: Partitioned and formatted, includes a Win98 EBD Just add your Win98 ISO/CD-ROM, License key and go. (If you have VPC-Mac, use the one in the Mac section)

Instructions           

Win98 EBD, .VFD, .VMC, and .VFD zipped

Windows 98 Emergency Boot Disk (Win98EBD (ZIPped) - just the VFD

VPC-Win 5.2  Tech Ref v1.3 (ZIPped PDF)  Its full of relevant info for VPC, while I wrote it for 5.2, a huge amount of it is directly, or almost directly usable with VPC2004.  Please note that some modification necessary to use guides for VPC2004, for example, VPC2004 does not create pre-formatted disk images so you must pre-format a Win9x/DOS VHD before you can install the OS.

Compare my Differencing Disk diagram (p18 in the TechRef) to the one in the Virtual Server Admin's guide (under Using Diff. Disks).  (My original Word doc of this was created Dec 10, 2002 ;-) )

Emulated Intel 21140a Drivers (Intel 21143) --DOS Drivers are here! *Link to Intel's Website*

( DOS drivers == NDIS2 Unified 21xxx driver v3.0 )

Windows 3.11 S3 Video Drivers referenced in the Tech Ref(w3117004.zip)

Linux Additions for Virtual Server Now Available for download - these have been reported to work under Virtual PC for Windows as well.

Microsoft Virtual Server

Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition

Linux Additions for Virtual Server Now Available for download

Sample Scripts from previous releases of Virtual Server

HowTo: Enable VMRC/Disable 15 Minute Idle Disconnect ( PDF - text only - with screenshots )



 
Hyper-V

Windows 2008  with Hyper-V now available.

Hyper-V Server is now free as a stand-alone product

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) now available


VMWare
VM Ware Workstation- VPC's main competitor, the perfect choice if your host OS is Linux or BSD based, 7.1 now available.  I like it, especially when using Linux VMs.
VM Ware Server - Free full version 2.0 now available! 
VM Ware Fusion - Intel Mac VM offering


VirtualBox
VirtualBox 4.0 now available for download.  Lots of new features, x64 VM support, plus it's free!

 

Parallel's Desktop 4 for Windows and Linux

Parallel's has finally released an update to the Workstation 2.2, now it's Desktop 4.0.  Super-easy Linux VM Tools installs



VPC-Mac
MS has ended VPC-Mac's life...so long and thanks for the memories!

IMPORTANT!! VPC for Mac does not work on Intel Macs

Windows 98 Ready VM for VPC7, similar to the one for VPC200x above.  You need a Windows 98 CD and license to finish the install (The VM is configured to boot to C:, and has CD-ROM drivers already loaded for a pain-free Windows 98 install)  This won't work with the Win98 included with older versions of VPC.

Garmin and VPC Configuration Info-please don't email me or the author of this for tech support, as you won't receive it from either of us, this is provided as a reference ONLY.

VPC 6-Mac--OS Installation Guide (PDF)

VPC4 to VPC6 Info(Word DOC) Migrating from VPC 4 to VPC 6.

Windows 98 Emergency Boot Disk (Win98EBD) as referenced in the VPC6 PDF(Win98EBD.zip)

Virtual PC 5.0.4 Updater - (.sit format) this requires an earlier version of VPC5 installed.

Virtual PC 4.0.2 Updater - (.sit format) this updater requires an earlier version of VPC4 to be installed.

Using Windows from VPC6 with VPC7 (PDF)

VPC 200x Precompactor.exe to zero VHD before compacting (ZIP) --Use instead of Eraser, extract the zip file and run in Windows after you defragment and before you compact.



Other/Misc..
Parallels Desktop for Intel Macs


(The content in these *PDFs is mine or mostly mine, but is technically not owned by me, as I was employed by Connectix during their creation.)  All other content is created and owned by me and may not be modified, redistributed, etc. without prior consent from me.
(These files are provided with no warranty, guarantee or support.)

Please note, I do not work for Microsoft, while I am an MVP, my opinions, files offered, etc do not represent, are approved of, or paid for by Microsoft.

problem with or non-technical questions, comments about the website, etc?

If you want to ask me a question regarding VPC, please use one of the newsgroups above.  Unsolicited emails asking for tech support will not be answered.  Sorry.

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