From time to time people have asked me how to install Virtual Server on Windows 7, and have even pointed me towards attempts made by other people with varying levels of success. But I have not looked into this until today – because it is unsupported.
Source : Virtual PC Guy's WebLog
This is small tool that adds Attach and Detach option to contextual (aka right-click) menu of Virtual disk (vhd) files. That enables those operations to be done without trip to Disk Management console. Detach option is available on hard drive contextual menu also.
Additionally program can be used as classic utility in order to see various information about virtual disk, even without attaching it.
Do notice that this program only works with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Older operating systems are not supported.
Source : Bink.nu
I have been wanting to come up with a workable solution for mounting virtual hard disks by double clicking on them in Windows 7 for a while now. The problem is that:
- There is no easily scriptable API for VHD mounting
- You need to be elevated (running “As Administrator”) in order to mount a virtual hard disk
The best idea I could think of for a simple solution was to try scripting the DISKPART tool. Unfortunately – once I got going I got a bit carried away. The result is this batch file …
Source : Virtual PC Guy's WebLog
Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion.
Source : Bink.nu
This is the VHD tool’s usage description:
VhdTool.exe /create <FileName> <Size> [/quiet]
VhdTool.exe /convert <FileName> [/quiet]
VhdTool.exe /extend <FileName> <NewSize> [/quiet]Create: Creates a new fixed format VHD of size <Size>.
Convert: Converts an existing file to a fixed-format VHD.
The existing file length, rounded up, will contain block data
A VHD footer is appended to the current end of file.Extend: Extends an existing fixed format VHD to a larger size <Size>.
VHD tool
Source : 4sysops
As its name indicates, VHD Resizer is a tool that allows you to resize a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk). VHD is Microsoft’s format for virtual disks, and is used by Virtual PC, Virtual Server, and Hyper-V.
Source : 4sysops
Fine citizens of the Virtualization Nation: I present to you the Windows® Image to Virtual Hard Disk Converter, or WIM2VHD as I like to call it.
WIM2VHD is a tool that will create a bootable VHD from a specified Windows 7 or 2008 R2 WIM image (like the INSTALL.WIM file that ships on the installation DVDs) without having to run Windows Setup. That means that you can a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine up and running much, much faster.
You can use these VHDs in Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Hyper-V, and … some other things, too. We’ll talk more about that later.
You can get WIM2VHD here.
Source : hypervoria.com/hyper-v
Matthijs ten Seldam has produced a very cool tool that enables you to import your existing virtual machines from Virtual PC and Virtual Server in Hyper-V
Source : blogs.technet.com/matthts
Michael Pietroforte has an excellent series of post on 4SYSOPS blog on Application Virtualization.
Sean has a great post on how to get this to work over here: http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/archive/2008/05/19/installing-fedora-9-sulphur-in-virtual-pc-2007.aspx
Great post by arcanecode ! This is a step by step guide to successfully install the new Ubuntu 8.04 on Virtual PC 2007.
Source : arcanecode.wordpress.com
Microsoft released an update for Virtual PC and Virtual Server to support Vista SP1, Windows 2008 and XP SP3.
You can download the updates at Microsoft.com/downloads :
Don't forget to upgrade the Virtual Machine Additions on each Virtual Machine to the new version 13.820
An update to VMRCplus 1.6.0 has been released and is now available here.
This release contains several fixes and minor enhancements.
It has been tested on Windows Server 2008 as well.
Matthijs
Source : blogs.technet.com/matthts
Ruben Spruijt wrote a comprehensive overview of Hyper-V over at Brian Madden’s site.
vOptimizer crushes a Virtual Machine's disk size by 20-60% and can increase performance dramatically - they have a freeware version now, but it's hard to find on their website...
I was able to take a minimally prepared XP SP2 VMWare virtual machine from 1.1 GB to 780MB and vOptimizer Freeware was FAST - did it in about 15 minutes. I had already taken pains to ensure I did not unnecessarily ballon the virtual disk (like running SP2 from uncompressed source from an ISO image. The new version runs OUTSIDE of the vm and operates directly on the disk files.
The information on the freeware version is not easy to find on Vizioncore's website and did not come up on the web searches I did. The download is also not provided at their site - but on the traditional freeware sites. The link below takes you to the page that compares the freeware version with their other versions.
Source : desktopengineer.com
Looks like there is a new version of VMRCplus available since November 2, sorry I missed it.
According to 4sysops the Snapshot feature is now working (didn't test it yet).
You can read about this new version on Aaron Tiensivu's Blog
Download : microsoft.com/downloads
The IE VPC v2 hard disk image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, and either IE6 or IE7 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit.
This VPC image will expire on December 7, 2007.
Source : bink.nu
Download : www.microsoft.com/downloads
This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Beta 3.
This is a pre-configured VHD image that requires Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed on your system. Please refer to the Virtual Server 2005 R2 System requirements page here.
In addition to the System Requirements for Virtual Server 2005 R2, you will need additional disk and memory resources for running the virtual machine. This VHD is pre-configured to use approximately 10GB of hard disk space and approximately 1024MB of memory.
Download : www.microsoft.com/downloads
VMRCplus is a free new Microsoft tool for Virtual Server 2005 R2. It allows you to configure Virtual Server and to manage virtual machines with a real (graphical) interface. Today, I had a quick look at this nifty tool.
Source : 4sysops.com
If you want a try Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, there is a new virtual machine available for download.
Download : www.microsoft.com/downloads
