MVUG Blog

Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode RTM now available for download

Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode RTM are now available to download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx. Windows Virtual PC is the latest Microsoft virtualization technology for Windows, and is a feature of Windows 7.

The primary focus for Windows Virtual PC in Windows 7 is for use by small and medium businesses as an application compatibility tool. If the user has an application that does not function in Windows 7, that application can be installed in a virtual machine running a down level operating system, such as what is provided by Windows XP Mode. If the application is supported running in that down level operating system, it will continue to function. As far as the application is concerned, it is running in that down level operating system, and has no awareness that it is actually running in a virtualized operating system.

With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft has introduced a number of new features in Windows Virtual PC designed to make it easier for customer to run legacy applications in a virtual machine environment like Windows XP Mode:

·            Seamless applications – applications running in the Windows Virtual PC guest environment can be made to appear as if they are running directly on the Windows 7 host desktop. Seamless applications can be launched from the Windows 7 host taskbar, Start Menu, or desktop.

·         USB Support – Physical USB devices plugged into the Windows 7 host can also be used by any virtual machines.

·         Printer sharing - Physical printers can be accessed directly from Windows Virtual PC guests.

·         Drive sharing –Drives are shared between the host and guests automatically.

·         Integration with Windows XP Mode setup

·         Folder integration between operating environments

Hardware requirements for Windows Virtual PC

·         CPU w/ AMD-V or Intel VT features turned on.

·         1 GHz 32bit or 64bit processor or better

·         2 GB of memory recommended

·         Additional 15GB of hard disk space per virtual Windows environment recommended

 Supported host operating system for Windows Virtual PC

·         Home Basic

·         Home Preium

·         Professional

·         Ultimate

Guest operating system support for Windows Virtual PC

·         Windows 7 (all editions except for Starter)

·         Windows XP SP3 Professional

·         Windows Vista SP1 and higher (Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions only)

Patrick Lownds

Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

Microsoft has released a new fix when running Hyper-V R2 on Nehalem processors http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975530

Patrick Lownds

Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V Blue Screens on HP Servers - Core Parking

I have been reading a number of threads recently about disabling Intel’s Core C3 State option in the BIOS to overcome an issue with HP servers blue screening when running Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V (here is one such example http://web2.minasi.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32281).

Firstly it should be noted that this is not HP specific. Any hardware vendor that implements c-states for power management has the potential of seeing this issue. The advice provided is really a workaround and I would recommend that customers who have worked around this issue by disabling c-states on their server test and apply the associated hot fix and UNDO these configuration changes in the BIOS.

See the following Microsoft KB for more details on the hot fix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974598

Patrick Lownds