Contents

What's new in Virtual PC 2007 SP1

What's new in Virtual PC 2007

Support for Windows Vista as a host operating system

Support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system

Network-based installation of a guest operating system

Running virtual machines on multiple monitors

Support for 64-bit host operating systems

Support for hardware-assisted virtualization

No support for using a virtual hard disk linked to a physical hard disk

Installation notes

Upgrading in place

Performing a new installation

Installing Virtual PC 2007 SP1 from the command line

Known issues

Drag and drop between the host and guest does not work without restarting the host

Hotfix required on certain x64-based computers

Documentation corrections

Instructions for performing a PXE boot includes unnecessary step

Disregard references to DOS Virtual Machine Additions.vfd

Copyright

These release notes contain important information about the new features included with this release of Microsoft® Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1), installing the software, and known issues. We recommend that you review all of the information in this document before you install this version of Virtual PC.

Note

Information in this document might differ from some of the information that appears in the Virtual PC Help (Vpc.chm). If you find such differences, consider the information in this document to be correct.

What's new in Virtual PC 2007 SP1

This release of Virtual PC 2007 SP1 introduces support for the following:

  • Windows Vista® with Service Pack 1 (SP1) Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise operating systems as a host operating system
  • Windows Vista with SP1 Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise operating systems as a guest operating system
  • Windows Server® 2008 Standard as a guest operating system
  • Windows XP with SP3 as both a guest and host operating system

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What's new in Virtual PC 2007

The release of Virtual PC 2007 introduces support for the following:

  • 64-bit host operating systems
  • Hardware-assisted virtualization
  • Network-based installation of a guest operating system
  • Running virtual machines on multiple monitors

Support has been removed for the use of linked disks in a virtual machine.

Support for Windows Vista as a host operating system

The release of Virtual PC 2007 also supports the following host operating systems:

  • Windows Vista Business
  • Windows Vista Enterprise
  • Windows Vista Ultimate
  • Windows Server® 2003, Standard Edition
  • Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition
  • Windows® XP Professional
  • Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
  • Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system

The release of Virtual PC 2007 also supports the following guest operating systems:

  • Windows Vista Ultimate
  • Windows Vista Enterprise
  • Windows Vista Business
  • Windows XP Professional
  • Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
  • Windows 2000 Professional
  • Windows 98 Second Edition
  • IBM OS/2 Warp 4 Fixpack 15, OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 1, and OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 2

The following operating systems that were supported in Virtual PC 2004 SP1 are compatible with this release, but they are not supported:

  • MS-DOS® 6.22
  • Windows 95
  • Windows 98
  • Windows Millennium Edition
  • Windows NT 4.0 Workstation

Network-based installation of a guest operating system

The virtual machine network adapter includes support for performing a PXE boot. This means that when the appropriate network infrastructure is in place, you can perform a network installation of a guest operating system without using a PXE boot floppy disk.

Running virtual machines on multiple monitors

Virtual PC 2007 includes support for viewing virtual machines on multiple monitors of a physical computer. If you have more than one monitor attached to your physical computer, you can view a virtual machine on one of the monitors, in either window mode or full-screen mode.

Support for 64-bit host operating systems

This release of Virtual PC 2007 supports 64-bit host operating systems. However, there is no support for 64-bit guest operating systems.

Support for hardware-assisted virtualization

Virtual PC 2007 includes support for virtualization technology from Intel and AMD. By default, hardware-assisted virtualization is enabled if the feature is enabled on the physical computer. You can turn this assistance on or off for each virtual machine by modifying the virtual machine settings. For more information, see the Virtual PC Help.

No support for using a virtual hard disk linked to a physical hard disk

You can create a virtual hard disk that is linked to a physical hard disk by using Virtual PC. However, it is no longer possible to use a virtual hard disk that is linked to a physical hard disk in a virtual machine. A virtual hard disk linked to a physical hard disk allows the guest operating system to directly modify the contents of a linked physical hard disk. This means that the guest operating system can overwrite the contents of the physical hard disk and potentially corrupt the host operating system and other programs and data of the physical hard disk.

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Installation notes

This section provides information about installing Virtual PC 2007 SP1. There are two installation scenarios:

  • Upgrade in place. Install Virtual PC 2007 SP1 on a computer on which Virtual PC 2007 is currently installed.
  • New installation. Install Virtual PC 2007 SP1 on a computer on which Virtual PC 2007 is not currently installed.
Important

You must shut down all guest operating systems or turn off all virtual machines before performing the installation, including any virtual machines that are currently in a saved state. This is important because saved states are not compatible between Virtual PC 2007 SP1 and all previous versions of Virtual PC 2007.

Upgrading in place

On a computer that is running Virtual PC 2007, you can upgrade to this version of Virtual PC 2007 SP1 by using the following procedure.

Important

You cannot upgrade Virtual PC 2004. In this case, you must first remove Virtual PC 2004 as described under "Removing Virtual PC" in Virtual PC Help. Then you can perform a new installation, as described in "Performing a new installation."

To upgrade to Virtual PC 2007 SP1 on a computer running Virtual PC 2007:

  1. 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 2007 and Virtual PC 2007 SP1.
  2. Back up all of your Virtual PC files. In the unlikely event that your installation becomes corrupted, you can restore the files from these backups. The files to back up include:
    • Virtual PC configuration file (Options.xml)
    • Virtual machine configuration (.vmc) files
    • Virtual hard disk (.vhd) files
    • Undo disk (.vud) files
    By default, Virtual PC creates the virtual machine configuration (.vmc) files, virtual hard disk (.vhd) files and undo disk (.vud) files in My Documents\My Virtual Machines. Virtual PC stores Virtual PC configuration files (Options.xml) in %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Virtual PC.
  3. Double-click Setup.exe to start the Setup wizard. Proceed through the wizard.
  4. After completing the installation, reinstall Virtual Machine Additions in each guest operating system. For more information, see “Installing Virtual Machine Additions” in the Virtual PC Help.

Performing a new installation

You can install Virtual PC 2007 SP1 on a computer that is not currently running Virtual PC 2007 using the following procedure.

To install Virtual PC 2007 SP1 on a computer that is not currently running Virtual PC 2007:

  1. Double-click Setup.exe to start the Setup wizard.
  2. After completing the installation, we recommend that you install Virtual Machine Additions in each guest operating system for enhanced performance. Installing Virtual Machine Additions is described in the Virtual PC Help.

Installing Virtual PC 2007 SP1 from the command line

This section provides information about installing Virtual PC 2007 SP1 from the command line.

Syntax

Setup.exe [{/v "parameter_string_for_MSIEXEC" | /c }] /t [path]

Parameters

/v
Calls Msiexec.exe and passes it parameters through a string.
/c
Does not call Msiexec.exe but extracts the Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi file to %temp%.
/t
Extracts the Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi file to path supplied by the user.

Syntax

msiexec.exe {/i|/a} "msifile" [ALLUSERS=value] [{INSTALLDIR=value|TARGETDIR=value}] [ALLUSERS=value] [/qb | /qn | /qr | /qf] [/l logfile]

Parameters

/i
Installs Virtual PC. You can use /x to uninstall Virtual PC.
/a
Applies the administrative installation option. Installs Virtual PC on the network.
/q
Sets the user interface level as follows:
  • q or qn: No user interface
  • qb: Basic user interface
  • qr: Reduced user interface
  • qf: Full user interface
For more information about the user interface levels, see Command-Line Options (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=26682).
/l logfile
Specifies the path to the log file.
INSTALLDIR=value
Specifies a custom folder in which to install the program. If you do not include this parameter, the program is installed in \Program files.
TARGETDIR=value
Specifies where to install the Virtual PC installation package when you are using the administrative installation (/a) option. The package's data files are uncompressed in this location.
ALLUSERS=value
Determines what users see in the Start menu and in Add or Remove Programs. If ALLUSERS is not set, the installer does a per-machine installation. If ALLUSERS is set to an empty string (ALLUSERS=""), the installer does a per-user installation. In all cases, the installer uses folders in the "All Users" profile.

Examples

The following example shows how to perform an unattended installation and make the program accessible to all users on the computer. During an unattended installation, the Setup program runs without prompting you for input.

Msiexec.exe /i " Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi " /qn

If you want to use Group Policy to deploy Virtual PC 2007 SP1, you must use the administrative installation option (/a) along with the TARGETDIR option. This is shown in the following example:

Msiexec.exe /a " Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi " TARGETDIR=Installation folder's network path /qn

The following table provides a formatting legend for the command-line information.

Format Meaning

Italic

Information that the user must supply

Bold

Elements that the user must type exactly as shown

Ellipsis (...)

Parameter that can be repeated several times in a command line

Between brackets ([])

Optional items

Between braces ({}); choices separated by pipe (|). Example: {even|odd}

Set of choices from which the user must choose only one

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Known issues

The following are known issues that you might encounter after you install this product.

Drag and drop between the host and guest does not work without restarting the host

After installing Virtual PC 2007 SP1, when you run a virtual machine for the first time, drag and drop between the host and guest does not work. You can resolve this issue by restarting the host operating system.

Hotfix required on certain x64-based computers

Installing Virtual PC on a computer that has AMD hardware-assisted virtualization support and uses a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP as the host operating system generates a bug check and shuts down the operating system. This occurs because 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system protect a critical system register that Virtual PC modifies to enable hardware-assisted virtualization. You can resolve this issue by installing a hotfix. For information about this hotfix, see article 924131 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81489).

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Documentation corrections

This section provides additions and corrections to the Virtual PC Help.

Instructions for performing a PXE boot includes unnecessary step

The topics "To use a startup CD or ISO file to install an operating system" and "To use a system disk to install an operating system from a CD" include the following instruction: "Start the virtual machine, and then select Network as the boot device during startup." However, it is not necessary to select Network as the boot device because it will be selected automatically when there is no bootable image on the virtual hard disk and the network infrastructure is in place.

Disregard references to DOS Virtual Machine Additions.vfd

The virtual floppy drive “DOS Virtual Machine Additions.vfd” is not supplied with this version of Virtual PC 2007 SP1. Disregard all references to this virtual floppy drive in the Virtual PC Help.

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Copyright

Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. Unless otherwise noted, the companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted in examples herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, Windows Server, and Windows Vista are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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