Announcements

• Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode Release Candidate

  Nitin.GargMSFTTuesday, August 04, 2009 3:53 PM

  We are pleased to announce  the availability of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP mode Release Candidate. RC is an important milestone in our path to final delivery of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode.

   

  You can download the RC bits from Windows Virtual PC website.

   

  Note: Beta to RC upgrade is not supported. You need to uninstall the Beta version of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP mode before installing the RC bits. Please read the install and setup instructions carefully before you install the RC bits.

   

  The Release Notes contains important information for this release.

   

  Bookmark Windows Virtual PC Engineering Blogs for further information on Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode

   

  Thank you, for testing and giving us feedback during Windows Virtual PC Beta. Your inputs have helped us in achieving this important milestone. This release includes many fixes to improve functionality, reliability & robustness of the product some of the key changes made based on Beta feedback include:

   

  ·         Manage USB devices with virtual applications: You can attach and detach USB devices while running virtual applications. The USB device management UI can be easily accessed form the right click context menu of the Virtual Applications icon, on task bar.

  ·         Jump list for virtual applications: Right clicking on the virtual application icon, on Windows 7 taskbar, displays a jump list that allows one to easily launch virtual applications from the taskbar.

  ·         Drive share settings: You can select the host computer drives that you would like to share with the virtual machine; in the virtual machine settings.

  ·         Windows XP Mode tutorial: A tutorial that introduces the user to Windows XP Mode features is displayed during Windows XP Mode Setup.

  ·         Faster Windows XP Mode setup: Improvements have been done to reduce the setup time for Windows XP Mode.

  ·         Compact differencing disks: You can now compact the differencing virtual hard disk to reduce the size occupied on the disk.

  ·         Support for optional components install in XP Mode: Windows XP optional components can be installed in Windows XP Mode.

  ·         Choose destination location for XP Mode files: You can choose the destination folder to store all virtual machine files for Windows XP Mode during XP Mode setup.

   

• Release Notes for Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC

  Nitin.GargMSFTTuesday, August 04, 2009 4:15 PM

  These release notes summarize the improvements that have been made in Windows® Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, based on the beta feedback. They also address known issues in this release candidate.

  Download Windows Virtual PC Release Candidate (RC) and Windows XP Mode RC installers from the Windows Virtual PC Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=140344).

  Installing Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC

  For detailed instructions about how to install and set up Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC, see the Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC Installation Guide   (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159658).

  Upgrading from beta versions

  Upgrading from Windows Virtual PC Beta or Windows XP Mode Beta is not supported. You should uninstall Windows Virtual PC Beta and Windows XP Mode Beta before you install the RC versions.

  For detailed instructions about how to install and set up Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC, see the Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC Installation Guide   (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159658).

  Note: Running virtual machines that are created with Windows Virtual PC Beta will not work well with Windows Virtual PC RC. Functionality (for example, virtual applications and USB devices) may not work properly.

  Workaround: Update the Integration Components in the virtual machine. When the virtual machine is running, click Tools, and then click Update Integration Components. In the virtual machine, open Windows Explorer, click drive D, double-click Setup.exe, and then follow the instructions in the wizard that appears.

  Feature Improvements in Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC

  ·         Granular drive sharing

  In the settings on the virtual machine, you can select specific host computer drives to share with the virtual machine.

   

  ·         Manage USB devices with virtual applications

  While running virtual applications, you can manage USB devices by using the Virtual Applications icon on the task bar.

   

  ·         Windows XP Mode tutorial

  A Windows XP Mode RC tutorial, which introduces the product features, is displayed during Windows XP Mode Setup.

   

  ·         Jump list for virtual applications

  Right clicking on the virtual application icon for Windows XP Mode, on Windows 7 taskbar, displays a jump list that allows one to easily launch virtual applications from the taskbar.

   

  ·         Faster Windows XP Mode Setup

  Windows XP Mode Setup completes more quickly than in Windows XP Mode Beta.

   

  ·         Compact differencing disks

  You can compact the differencing disks to decrease the file size.

   

  ·         Ability to install Windows XP optional components

  Windows XP optional components can be installed in Windows XP Mode RC without prompting for Windows XP media.

   

  ·         Ability to choose a location to store virtual machine files for Window  XP Mode RC

  When you are setting up Windows XP Mode RC, you can choose where to store all virtual machine files for Windows XP Mode RC. The default path is: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\.

   

  ·         Option to turn off and discard changes when Undo disk is enabled for a virtual machine

  An additional option is available when you are turning off a virtual machine: Turn off and discard changes. This option will delete the current Undo disk, and turn off the virtual machine.

  Known Issues

  The following issues have been identified in the Windows Virtual PC Release Candidate:

  Using USB devices

  ·         A USB device that is attached to a virtual machine is automatically removed from the virtual machine if the device reboots or reconfigures itself.

  Workaround: Use the USB menu to attach the USB device to the virtual machine. (In the virtual machine window, the USB menu is on the toolbar. In virtual applications, the USB menu appears on the virtual applications’ icon on the Task bar.)

  ·         USB devices that are attached to the computer may not appear in the USB menu of the virtual machine.

  Workaround: Remove the USB device from the computer, reconnect it to the computer, and try again.

  Virtual applications

  ·         When you restart (or log off and log on) a host computer that is running Windows 7 while one or more virtual applications are running, the next time you start a virtual application, all the applications that were running before Windows 7 restarted or logged off will start.
  
  

  ·         Removing the Windows Virtual PC RC update does not remove the links to virtual applications on the Start menu of Windows 7.

  Workaround: Delete these links manually.

  ·         Windows XP Mode RC is designed to help small businesses that are using Windows XP move to Windows 7.  Some graphic or resource-intensive applications (such as 3-D games) or applications that have hardware dependencies are not suitable to run in Windows XP Mode RC.

  ·         When you upgrade an application that is running as a virtual application and the application upgrade requires that you reboot the operating system in the virtual machine, at times the Reboot window may not appear. In scenarios where the Reboot window does appear, and you click Reboot, the reboot may fail.

  Workaround: After choosing to upgrade the virtual application, start the virtual machine in full desktop mode and restart the computer. Then log off the virtual machine, close it, and start the virtual application again.

  Integration features

  ·          It may take a long time to access hard disk drives that are connected to the computer running Windows 7 from within a virtual machine.

  ·         Sometimes, right-clicking inside a virtual machine starts a file copy on a host computer running Windows 7. This occurs if the clipboard has a large amount of data.

  Workaround: Clear the data from the clipboard. For example, you can copy a file or text to a folder on the computer running Windows 7 to clear the clipboard.

  Video and graphics performance

  ·         Running graphics intensive applications in a virtual machine may result in a relatively sluggish performance, especially if the virtual machine is running a version of Windows Vista®.

• Issue faced while running Windows Virtual PC on Windows 7 RC with ESET family of antivirus

  Nitin.GargMSFTThursday, August 06, 2009 11:42 AM

  If you are running Windows 7 Release Candidate (“RC”) and you use antivirus solutions from ESET in virtual machines running on Windows Virtual PC, accessing files on shared host drives, from the virtual machine can result in deletion of some files in that folder. Executable files and image files are the currently known file types that may be deleted in this scenario.       

   

  Workaround: Disable shared drives for the virtual machine in the virtual machine settings. This issue will be fixed in Windows 7 RTM.

• Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC Setup and Installation Guide

  Nitin.GargMSFTTuesday, August 04, 2009 4:15 PM

  Download instructions

   

  Download the Windows® Virtual PC release candidate RC and Windows XP Mode RC installers from the Windows Virtual PC Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=140344).

   

  Note:

  ·         Windows Virtual PC RC is not supported on the Windows 7 Beta build.  

  ·         Windows Virtual PC requires that you enable processor virtualization extensions for Intel-VT and AMD-V in the BIOS. 
  For details, see the Windows Virtual PC Support: Configure BIOS Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159059).

   

   

   

  Installation instructions

   

  Important:
  Uninstall the Beta versions of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC before you install the RC versions.

   

  To uninstall Windows XP Mode Beta and Windows Virtual PC Beta

   

  1.       Shut down all running virtual machines.

  2.       Uninstall Windows XP Mode Beta:
  Click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, click Programs and Features, and then click Virtual Windows XP.
  Note:
  Before you uninstall Windows XP Mode Beta, back up all data in Windows XP Mode. Files related to Windows XP Mode Beta cannot be used after you install Windows XP Mode RC.

  3.        Uninstall Windows Virtual PC Beta:
  Click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, click Programs and Features, click View Installed Updates, and then click Windows Virtual PC (KB958559).

  4.       Delete the Virtual Windows XP differencing disk and settings file from the following location:
  %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\.

  5.       Reboot Windows 7 to complete the uninstallation.

  6.       Proceed with the installation of the RC versions of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode.

   

  
  

   

  To install Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode RC

   

  1.       Install Windows XP Mode RC:
  Double-click WindowsXPMode_nn-NN.exe (where nn-NN is the locale, for example: WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe) and follow the instructions in the wizard to extract and install Windows XP Mode RC.

  2.       Install Windows Virtual PC RC:
  Double-click Windows6.1-KB958559-x86.msu or Windows6.1-KB958559-x64.msu (depending on your architecture). 

  3.       Reboot Windows 7 to complete the installation.

  4.       To start Windows XP Mode RC Setup:
  Click Start, click All Programs, click Windows Virtual PC, and then click Windows XP Mode.

  5.       Follow the instructions in the wizard to complete Windows XP Mode RC Setup and Configuration. Record the password that is provided during the Setup because it is required to log on to your virtual machine.

   

   

   

  RemoteApp Updates for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 virtual machines

  This section is applicable only if you used Windows Virtual PC Beta with virtual machines running Windows Vista® SP1 or Windows XP SP3. These steps are not required for virtual machines that are running Windows XP Mode RC.

  1.       After you install Windows Virtual PC RC, launch the virtual machine that is running Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1. 

  2.       Uninstall the Integration Components in the virtual machine as follows:

  a.       For a virtual machine running Windows XP SP3:
  Click Start, click Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs, and then click Virtual PC Integration Components.

  b.      For a virtual machine running Windows Vista SP1:
  Click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, click Programs and Features, and then click Virtual PC Integration Components.

  3.       Uninstall the RemoteApp™ update in the virtual machine as follows:

  a.       For a virtual machine running Windows XP SP3:
  Click Start, click Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs, and then click Hotfix for Windows XP (KB961742-v3). 

  b.      For a virtual machine running Windows Vista SP1:
  Click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, click Programs and Features, click View Installed updated, and then select KB961741.

  4.       Reboot the virtual machine.

  5.       Install the latest Integration Components on the virtual machine: Click Tools, and then click Install Integration Components.

  6.       Based on the guest operating system, use the instructions that follow to download the RemoteApp update.

  
  

   

  On a virtual machine that is running Windows XP SP3

   

  This package lets you run many Windows XP productivity applications from a Windows 7-based computer by using Windows Virtual PC RC.

   

  Note:
  The following procedure is not required on a virtual machine running Windows XP Mode RC. 

   

  1.       Download the RemoteApp update from the Microsoft Download Center
  (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140339).

  2.       Install the package on your virtual machine that is running Windows XP SP3. 

  3.       Reboot the virtual machine to complete the installation.

   

   

  On a virtual machine that is running Windows Vista SP1

   

  This package lets you run many Windows Vista productivity applications from a Windows 7-based computer by using Windows Virtual PC RC.

   

  1.       Download the RemoteApp update from the Microsoft Download Center (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140340). 

  2.        Install the package on your virtual machine that is running Windows Vista SP1. 

  3.       Reboot the virtual machine to complete installation.