Virtual PC 2007 SP1

Using the search function for VPC 2007 SP1 digs up a lot of people's favorites, while Googling turns up a lot of sales-pitches (for Vista) and a very thin FAQ. Using VPC with Returnil is even harder to research. Trying to find answers to simple questions is tougher when everyone else seems to be light-years ahead in this technology, compared to me that is. The step-by-step installation is simple enough, but the configuring is what I want to find out about. For starters; I have 1G of ram using XP-Pro/SP3. The specs say 128MB of ram for host/guest OS. So how would one divide 1024MB Maybe 512 each or 768/256 favoring the host Another thing is that using Vista, you can use the same license for each host/guest, but what about XP Do I need a separate Product-key for each guest-OS Can one create the Virtual with Returnil protection "ON" and re-install each time when needed, or does it need to be saved to disk for quicker restore These may seem like simple questions for you pros, but by the sampling of questions that I have, you can just tell the margin of success (error) that I may enjoy if I jump in unprepared like I would with a scanner or firewall. Any advice for a noob before he takes the plunge Anyone using Virtual PC 2007 SP1, and possibly Returnil too, that is willing to share some advice Even links to info would be of great value.

 

19monty64,

Just started using VirtualPC 2007 again after having issues with VirtualBox. I can answer some of your questions, but will defer to other people for the questions I can't answer.

- With 1GB of RAM and running XP Pro as host and guest, I usually split up the RAM as follows:

Guest: 128-384 (depending on what I want to do in the VPC - usually 256 works well).

To reduce the RAM footprint of the virtual OS, you can download Fast XP on a VPC (I don't do everything in here but it definitely helps make a lighter and faster virtual OS). It will help reduce the RAM footprint of the virtual OS and you should be able to get by with 128-256 MB of RAM easily (depending on what you use the VPC for).

- Each copy of the OS (Win XP) has a unique serial. I don't know if this is necessary or not (you can always try it and delete the virtual OS if there are problems). Haven't tried with Vista yet.

- I would create and save the virtual OS with Returnil off, otherwise it's like reinstalling Windows each time. Plus, there is the option to enable Undo disks so you can save or not save changes to your guest OS.

- Couple of other things:

Turn on Undo Disks.

Turn on Mouse Integration (needs Virtual Machine Additions).

Turn on hardware virtualization (if it's available with your computer).

Once you have the guest OS installed, install the Virtual Machine Additions (from the Action menu and while running the virtual OS). This makes a huge difference in performance.

Important: Once you have the guest OS installed, tweaked, etc., create a copy of your virtual disk (.vhd file). This way if anything gets messed up, you can always replace the .vhd file with the original and you are back to a fresh installed OS.

Good luck. VPC 2007 works well (within it's limitations) and once you start playing around with it, it will make sense.

 

I was hoping 256 would be okay...

Thank you!!! I'm getting "blogged-down" with all the reading. Mostly over my head...

I almost went ahead and tried it out on Returnil, just in case I screwed-up something. (PHEW!!!)

This is where I started to get lost as I have no idea. (LOL)

Thank you very much!!! I "jumped-in" with Returnil before I understood it and didn't want to make that same mistake again. I mostly just want to trial security-software before installing to disk. My daughters use this pc mostly so I need to keep it light-yet-secure for them. They picked up on Returnil pretty quick so maybe we'll be lucky with VPC too!
So....about these limitations Is that a dig on M$-products or my limited RAM (LOL) Just kidding....

 

You can't burn CDs or DVDs in a virtual machine with VirtualPC. You can only read them.

Yes.

 

That's okay, I can't burn at all right now as my DVD-RW needs to be replaced...

 

I believe XP can run on as little as 64mb of ram so how much memory you allocate depends on what you want to do inside the vm.
If i remember correctly each XP license is only valid for one install so you can't legally use the same license for your host and guest. You can still install xp and use it for 30 days without a license. I wasn't aware of vista being able to be installed as host and guest i'll have to read up on it.

Theres minimal risk in trying to install windows in a vm, if anything goes wrong you can easily delete the vm and try again.

Personally i use virtualbox as i find it performs better than vpc and offers me better linux support. Although i haven't used this latest SP1 release so things may have improved.

EDIT: i found some info in regards to windows xp and virtual machines
"Under the current XP license, a virtual machine is a separate computer and needs a separate license, with a separate product key and product activation."

 

While digging up my old XP installation-disk & activation-code I stumbled upon a 98SE-disk & code which is unsupported but compatible I only managed to install XP, but tweaking went smoothly, thanks to the links from InfinityAz

Would running SandboxIE within VPC within Returnil be over-kill LOL Sure is "snappier" without scanners, or maybe IE6 is just that much "quicker" than IE7. Can't wait to see how much more of a difference it's going to be with Win98 and 256MB of ram...

 

It all depends what you're going to be doing on your host system. If you're going to be doing anything risky on the host then use returnil, if not you don't really need it. If you do use returnil i'd install your VM on another partition so the changes to it aren't wiped on reboot.
Whether you want to use sandboxie or not would really be a personal choice, vpc has the undo feature which works like returnil. The only advantage with using sandboxie is being able to clean up without needing a reboot.

If your host system has decent specs and 98 is fully supported then it should fly inside a vm. It'd be interesting to see if the win98 eula says anything about vm's, were they even invented back then? lol!

 

Virtual PC2007/SP1 always makes problems with soundcard driver, I soon will check how it works on my latest system. On my old sys when trying to run VPC I get a BSOD that points to soundcard driver.

CURRENT_IRQL: 2

FAULTING_IP:..+12c90
f6badc90 56 push esi

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: WRONG_SYMBOLS

BUGCHECK_STR: 0xD1

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from f6badc90 to 805444c0

FAILED_INSTRUCTION_ADDRESS:
..+12c90
f6badc90 56 push esi

STACK_TEXT:
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
f78a6ef8 f6badc90 badb0d00 00000000 f6b78bd9 nt!Kei386EoiHelper+0x2834
...
f78a6ff4 805457bb f409ea14 00000000 00000000 nt!KiDispatchInterrupt+0x4bf
f78a6ff8 f409ea14 00000000 00000000 00000000 nt!KiDispatchInterrupt+0x2b
805457bb 00000000 00000009 0081850f bb830000 0xf409ea14

I disable soundcard driver, reboot and Virtual PC works,
nothing changed with sp1 related to this.

 

Is this when trying to install win98 in vpc?

 

I'm using RVS to block any changes to the guest. The 2 virtuals are stripped & tweaked, so re-boot eliminates all fragmentation in files & registry. I'm leaning more towards performance than security. Other than hardening, Threat Fire is the only active security...

According to overview XP/SP3-guest needs a minimum of 256MB/ram and 1.0 GHz or faster, which is all I gave it. Well, that and 2.9 GHz. I can't wait to install '98 which requires only 64 MB/ram
but'll get the same specs as XP is right now. Heck with the eula...I'm worried about speed traps! LOL

 

no this bsod happens in real system not in virtual pc, when trying to start vpc

 

Well you can always try virtualbox if vpc doesn't wanna behave itself. I just installed vista ultimate in VB and it runs amazingly well, for some reason it boots a lot faster than my host system lol, go figure.

 

Hehe good idea, did you try to install vista 64 in vbox? Any problems when installing from 32 bit windows?

 

VB doesn't support 64bit guests from my experience. When i attempt to install vista 64bit it tells me i can't install it as there is no 64bit processor present. Not a big problem tho as i have no need to run 64bit guests at this point in time.