Run XP in Vista and vice-versa
Recently, Microsoft has just released a free piece of software that allows you to run two operating systems (later than Windows 98) at the same time on your PC. The program is called Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. It’s great that you can now do more with your computer, but with new software comes new questions. Here, we have written for you a quick-start guide to Virtual PC 2007.
These are just some of the neat things you can do: - Easily port applications from one OS to the other - Quickly switch between operating systems with a mouse-click - Use Virtual PC for educational purposes But before you start, there are several things you will need:
- Find out which operating systems can work with Virtual PC 2007.
Microsoft has put together a nice chart to outline this kind of info here. - The Virtual PC software itself
Microsoft’s Virtual PC Web Page Download Virtual PC 32-bit Download Virtual PC 64-bit - A copy of the version of Windows you wish to run in addition to the one you are using now, either in CD, DVD, or .iso form.
Now that you have all those items, we are set and ready to install and get Virtual PC running.
Installation Process: Installing Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is a very straight-forward process. The step-by-step wizard should help you get the program installed fairly quickly. There will be no need to restart.
Adding a New Virtual Machine:
- After you install Virtual PC you’ll be prompted to add a New Virtual Machine Wizard. If you don’t get prompted,select New on the right to get started.
A new screen will pop-up, welcoming you to the Virtual PC - Add a new Virtual Machine Wizard. Click Next and you will be taken to a screen as shown below.
Create a Virtual Machine: If this is your first time setting-up, select this option. Use default settings to create a virtual machine: If you want to set this up the fast way, or are/were unsure what to select during the installation process, this button will quickly set up your virtual machine using default settings.
Add an existing virtual machine: Self-explanatory. Do not select this if it is your first time using Virtual PC
- Name your Virtual Machine
Give your Virtual Machine a distinguishable name so you can recognize it later on should you decide to install more than one.
- Pick the OS you wish to install
- Choose how much RAM you want to allocate for your OS
Unless you really know what you are doing, it is best to select Using the recommended RAM.
- Virtual Hard Disk Options
Here you can choose whether to add a new virtual drive or use an existing one. If this is your first time setting up Virtual PC , A new Virtual Hard Disk
- Pick where you want to save your Virtual Disk
A virtual disk is basically a virtual hard-drive for your OS to run in. Here you can change the location of where your Virtual Hard Drive is as well as define the maximum size for the Virtual HD. By default, the Virtual Disk is saved to F:\Users\YourName\Documents\My Virtual Machines\YourVirtualMachine
- Finishing off the process
After you click next, you will arrive at the completion screen. You have just created your first Virtual Machine and Disk!
- Load up your copy of the operating system you want to run
- If you have the CD or DVD of your operating system, simply insert the CD or DVD now
- If you have an ISO you downloaded, hold on for just a sec. - Start your Virtual Machine
- Load your CD or ISO image
Now you have to load your OS cd or CD Image. Do so by selecting CD at the top and clicking on the corresponding action. - Restart your Virtual Machine
You’ll have to reboot your virtual machine so it can read the newly inputted discs you have just assigned. You can do so by clicking Action > Ctrl + Alt + Delete - Install your operating system
When you get to the installation screen for your OS, install as you would normally do. Creating a partition, formatting the partition, and so on… - Mouse pointer capture
The first time you click within the OS’ Virtual Machine window, Virtual PC will attempt to do a mouse capture. This means that from now on, you must press Right-Alt to move your mouse outside of the Virtual PC screen. Luckily, you can later run an addon that won’t require you to press Right-Alt each time. - Running your operating system
By now, you have finished your installation of the OS. You have made it this far, but it’s still not over yet. You still want to get rid of that annoying Mouse Capture and as well, install addons to fully take advantage of your Virtual PC experience. - Learning how to install Virtual Machine additions
Installing add-ons is actually extremely easy. Once you start your Virtual Machine, head to Actions > Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions (Right-Alt + I) Once you have installed addons, you can now truly take advantage of Virtual PC. You can move your mouse between XP and Vista without pressing Right-Alt and you can directly move files between the two operating systems.
For virtualization software made free, Microsoft has done a very good job. Surely it isn’t as good as VMware or Parallels for Mac, but at least now, you can work with two Windows opearting systems without rebooting for free.
Still need help? Check out our new forums where you can get an even faster and better response!
April 28th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I installed Vista on a new hard drive (cleam install). My old XP set up resides on another drive untouched during installation. I can boot to that drive and XP at start up. Is there any way to use that drive and OS within the virtual PC set up so that the PC I see in the virtual machine window is my old XP drive and all the settings/programs I have installed there? Is dual boot my only option?
April 28th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
You can use dual boot or Virtual PC. I was mistaken that the virtual drive could also be the physical hard drive that you have, because I am in the same situation as you. However I was wrong. The only way is to dual boot. Although I think there are other third-party programs, which you have to pay for, that can help you. Try googling Parallel or VMWare.
For dual-booting, check out this site. http://www.vistabootpro.org/
Thanks for asking the question, I just realized that I’m missing a dual boot article on Vista Rewired
April 28th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Can you make a virtual pc of OSX with this?
April 28th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Not with the free Virtual PC software Microsoft released. I think VMWare or Parallels lets you do this, I’m really not sure. I know for sure it’s possible to have OSX and run Vista virtually.
It’s also possible to dual boot Vista and OSX … http://www.osx86project.org
April 28th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Thanks for the response.
Ideally, I’d like to run virtual pc on XP, make a virtual of Vista and OSX and test them both.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:55 am
hi i bought software that is not supported by vista will loading xp on virtual pc allow me to load this software
June 19th, 2007 at 5:10 am
thank
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:32 am
this is really cool… i think more ppl would put a reply if u don’t ask for mail or websites…
June 26th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
1. Let’s say that my Windows Vista is installed in Swedish. Do I then have to install Windows XP in the same language (so Swedish) or can it be another one?
2. More or less the same question as bessie: Will a game that isn’t supported by Vista then work on XP?
June 26th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I forgot one thing:
3. How do you remove this function, so everything turns to how it was in the beginning?
December 15th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Virtual PC 2007 is Microsoft’s answer to allowing those who hate Vista to use a decent OS without removing and reinstall it again, because removing Vista is a nightmare, its a kind of hope thing!
Virtual PC works fine, fantastic piece of software, no idea why it’s free, because it is brilliant, i definitely recommend it.
Really easy install, i had problems using WIN95 though with the video drivers after exiting back to Vista, OK now.
Aaron
http://www.veliko.co.uk
January 21st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
hiya i got a 40 gig hard drive (ide) with windows xp on it and a pc with windows vista running on SATA how do dual boot it with out goint to the bios to pick wich drive to boot first
January 21st, 2008 at 6:48 pm
hiya i got a 40 gig hard drive (ide) with windows xp on it and a pc with windows vista running on SATA how do dual boot it with out goint to the bios to pick wich drive to boot first
First, what is your default OS and on which drive is your main partition on? It also depends on the order you’ve installed the OSes.
Let’s assume Vista is on your primary partition and was installed first. You can go into the BIOS and change the drive booting order, so it will boot into Vista first.
Once on Vista, you might want to go back to XP once in a while. The boot loader should let you choose. You can modify it in the way you desire by following this guide:
http://vistarewired.com/2007/03/20/boot-into-vista-without-encountering-the-boot-selection-screen
The guide explains how to skip the boot screen, but you can also control the default OS to boot in as well. Good luck. And if you have more questions, please give me more details =)
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:21 am
hey i have hp laptop and its running vista on it
but i need xp in that ,how do i install xp on it .. is vista supports dual booting,i have 3partion 1is vista(100gb)2nd is hp recovery and 3rd one is 40gb (primary partion)how do i do that pls help me..
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:34 am
Hi, i got 3 hard drives my 40 gig (ide) with running OS windows xp media center 2005 on it which is my default OS without partition, the 250 gig has the same windows xp media center 2005 on SATA without partition,the third 160 gig has no OS on it(empty).I have only limited kowledge on pc, can you please help me guide to install vitual pc on my computer?Thanks and more power!
July 13th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Guys.I came to the point,when XP asking me for product key. I used XP from the other pc and key doesn’t work.Do I need to buy a brand new XP .Thanks
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 am
i wanna run a game that works much better in XP (it’s called tiberium wars)than vista… so i need a dvdrom emulator that can run the program
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
There’s a couple DVDROM emus that I know of:
Power ISO
Magic ISO
Daemontools
November 26th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
If I want to install XP within Virtual PC, with a 64bit version of Vista running as the host OS, am I correct that the XP version must also be a 64bit version? Or might it be possible to run a 32bit version of XP within Virtual PC?
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Hi There
I have Vista installed on a laptop that was built for Vista.
i need XP so i installed Virtual Machine 2007 - No problem.
then i installed XP in Virtual machine - No Problem
After the installation, when logging in, windows XP wants to be avivated - No Problem
Click yes, activate windows, goes back to the login screen, i log in again, asks me once again to activate windows, i click no, takes me back to the login screen, login again, back to activation screen, click yes to activate, tells me that windows is already activated, back to login screen, whether i click yes or no it doesn’t allow me to login. Please Help!!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 pm
If i dop this will it format my hard drive or delete all my previous files?
February 10th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
[...] According to the Windows 7 Team Blog, only 2.5 million downloads for the beta will be issued for a limited time. It will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit edition and available for download as an .ISO file. Most DVD burning software can burn the ISO image onto a DVD, but if you don’t have those ImgBurn is a good alternative. You can also just mount the ISO using PowerISO so you can install Windows 7 Beta without even burning a single DVD. Another alternative is to run it as a virtual machine. You can find more info about how to do that here. [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 3:38 am
[...] at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 3:42 am
[...] at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 6:02 am
[...] at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista [...]
May 19th, 2009 at 7:58 am
[...] at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista [...]