My post on how to configure the default virtual machine location for Windows Virtual PC has raised a number of questions.  One of which is: what is the default default virtual machine location for Windows Virtual PC?  This question is almost always then followed by the question – why is it that?

Before getting into the answers to these questions – I would like to start by stating that this has been a surprisingly contentious issue; both with our users and inside the development team itself.  With that acknowledged – I am not trying to argue that one choice is better than an other – but rather to explain the logic behind our current choice.

Now – on to the answers:

What is the default default virtual machine location for Windows Virtual PC?

%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\

Why is that the default default location?

Virtual PC 2004 / 2007 defaulted to storing virtual machines in the users “My Documents” folder – and there are many people who like to have their virtual machines stored there.  There were a couple of reasons that drove us to change this default in Windows Virtual PC:

• Many users now have their “Documents” folder redirected to a network location.  It is preferable to run virtual machines off of local storage – so we wanted to find a location that was guaranteed to be local where we could also guarantee that the current user would have the ability to read / write.  %LocalAppData% is pretty much the only location that provides these guarantees.
• Many users who are using Windows Virtual PC just for Windows XP mode do not want to see the virtual machine – and do not care where the files for it are.  For these users the Windows XP virtual hard disk is truly more like application data than one of their documents.

Of course – if you want to store your virtual machines in a different location – the original blog post that sparked this discussion (linked at the top of this post) tells you everything you need to know about changing the default virtual machine location for Windows Virtual PC.

Cheers,
Ben

Continuing in my theme of running Windows Virtual PC everywhere – I think it is time to provide an update on my Virtual PC on Hyper-V post from just over 2 years ago.  So here is the updated Windows XP Mode on Windows Virtual PC on Windows 7 on Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 screenshot:

The the same caveats from two years ago still apply:

• Booting through the BIOS of Virtual PC is quite slow.  Expect to wait for ~1 minute before the guest OS gets up and running.
• Get the Integration Components installed as quickly as possible - it really makes things much faster (for fairly obvious reasons Virtual PC cannot use hardware virtualization in this configuration).
• This is in no way supported! If you try this an find an interesting bug - feel free to send me a message but please do not call Microsoft Product Support!

Cheers,
Ben

A couple of people have contacted me and reported performance issues with Windows XP Mode on systems without hardware virtualization support.  One thing that I did not mention in my post last week was that you will need to upgrade the integration components on the Windows XP virtual machine after applying the update to the physical computer.

You can do this by:

1. Boot the Windows XP virtual machine
2. Login to the virtual machine with an administrative account
3. Open the Tools menu on the virtual machine window
4. Select Upgrade Integration Components

At this stage the integration components installer should start automatically – and will require a reboot when it is finished.

You can check to make sure you have the right version of the integration components installed by:

1. Boot the Windows XP virtual machine
2. Login to the virtual machine with an administrative account
3. Open the Start menu
4. Open the Control Panel
5. Open Add or Remove Programs
6. Click on the entry for Virtual PC Integration Components
7. Click on the Click here for support information. link

The version number is displayed on the dialog that is now opened.  Windows XP Mode ships with version 14.0.7600.16392 of the integration components.  After the upgrade you should have version 14.1.7600.16403 – like this:

Cheers,
Ben

The update to Windows Virtual PC to support running on systems without hardware virtualization is now available for download.  You can grab it here:

• For 32-bit host operating systems: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=837f12aa-1d37-464e-ae59-20c9ecbebaf6
• For 64-bit host operating systems: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e70dd043-e262-43c0-a002-446567f1e2b4

You can also read the full KB article here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977206

One thing to note: While Microsoft supports the use of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 on Windows Virtual PC – when running on systems without hardware virtualization support we only support the use of Windows XP.

So what does this mean?  Well, if you have used Virtual PC before you know that it is capable of running many operating systems that are not officially supported – and this is still true for Windows Virtual PC (both with and without hardware virtualization support).  But we will not be releasing updated integration components for Windows 7 / Windows Vista to enable optimum performance when running without hardware virtualization.

The key take away here is: If you need to run Windows XP mode on systems without hardware virtualization, you now can.  If you want to run other operating systems – you need hardware virtualization support for best performance (and official support from Microsoft).

Cheers,
Ben

Today we have made a slew of announcements around work we have been doing for desktop virtualization.  Once of which is that Windows Virtual PC will be updated to be able to run on systems without hardware virtualization support.  The update is not currently available – but should go live later today (I will come back and update this post with the details when it does). Update: Download details are in this blog post.

So some questions that you might have:

1. Why is Microsoft making this change to Virtual PC now?
   
   Because of you :-)  We have heard loud and clear from customers that they need to be able to run Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode on systems that do not have hardware virtualization support.  So we are going to enable this.
   
   
2. Why did Microsoft release Windows Virtual PC without this in the first place?
   
   There are two main reasons here. 
   
   The first is that we believe that customers will get the best virtualization experience on computers with hardware virtualization support.  This has not changed – and even though we are releasing this update I would strongly encourage anyone who is looking at buying a new computer, and intends to use virtualization, to make sure that they get a system that is capable of supporting hardware virtualization.
   
   The second is that we had hoped that by the time Windows Virtual PC released – hardware virtualization support would be prevalent enough that this would not be an issue.  We were wrong on that.  Bummer.

Cheers,
Ben

I have been asked this one a lot of times now, so I thought I would pen a quick blog post on this.  A lot of people are looking at using Windows XP Mode to allow them to access websites that still need Internet Explorer 6 / 7.  Unfortunately Internet Explorer is not published by default.

The reason for this is that Windows does not create an Internet Explorer shortcut in the “All Users” start menu by default (and as I discussed here – we only publish applications that are in the “All Users” start menu).

The solution is quite simple:

1. Open the Windows XP Mode virtual machine
2. Right click on the start menu and select Open
3. Double click on Programs
4. Right click on the start menu (again) and select Open All Users
5. Double click on Programs
6. Drag and drop the Internet Explorer icon from your personal start menu to the all users start menu

Here is a handy screen shot of what the folders should look like:

And then Internet Explorer will magically appear on your Windows 7 start menu.

Cheers,
Ben

• Secure the virtual machine just like you would a physical computer.  This means installing antivirus / anti-malware software, configuring firewalls, regularly installing updates, etc…
  
  
• Reduce the potential paths for the virtual machine to access your physical computer.

In the latter category there are three common paths:

• Standard networking.  Here the risk is no greater (or lesser) than if you had a separate computer connected to the same network.
  
  
• Clipboard sharing.  When integration components are enabled, any data that is put into the virtual machines clipboard is automatically copied to the physical computers clipboard (and vice versa).  The potential for risk here is relatively low – but if it is a concern for you – you can easily disable this feature under the virtual machine settings.
  
  
• Shared Drives.  Shared drives allow the virtual machine to access the drives of the physical computer – without needing a network connection to be present.  This functionality is critical for most people who use Virtual PC – but it is also an obvious path for malicious software to get to data on the physical computer from inside the virtual machine.  As such I would like to spend some time talking about how to restrict this functionality appropriately.

The first thing to know is that you can configure drive sharing so that only specific drives are shared:

You should always make sure that this setting is configured appropriately for your environment. 

But what if you do not want to share and entire drive?  What if you just want to share a single folder? 

Well, I have found a handy method to do just this.  It is a little cheesy, but it allows you to drastically reduce the surface area that is exposed.  Basically – what you need to do is to create the folder that you want to share, open a command prompt, and run the following command:

subst j: c:\MySharedFolder

This creates a “virtual” drive that points to the folder you created (in this case I am mapping “C:\MySharedFolder” to J: – but obviously you can use any drive letter or folder that you want to use).  You can then map this drive into the virtual machine:

Cheers,
Ben

These shortcuts get created through a process that we call Auto-Publishing.  What happens is that we monitor the guest operating system while it is running, and when we detect that a new application has been installed, we create a shortcut for the application in the host start menu.

Most of the time this “just works”.  When it does not work there are a couple of areas that you can look:

1. Does the guest operating system support auto-publishing?
   
   Auto-publishing is only supported for virtual machines running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1 (or later) or Windows 7.  Windows 7 virtual machines are ready to go when it comes to auto-publishing.  But Windows XP and Windows Vista virtual machines need to have an extra update installed in them in order for auto-publishing to work.  You can download the Windows XP update here and the Windows Vista update here.
   
   No matter which guest operating system you are running you will also need to ensure that the Windows Virtual PC Integration Components have been installed, and that integration features are enabled.
   
   
2. Is auto-publishing enabled?
   
   Auto-publishing is enabled by default, but we allow you to turn it off if you want to.  It is always worth double-checking this option in the virtual machine settings, to make sure you have not disabled it accidentally:
   
   
   
3. Was a shortcut for the application created in the “All Users” start menu in the guest operating system?
   
   Windows Virtual PC detects that an application has been installed in the virtual machine by looking for shortcuts that have been created in the All Users start menu.  If the application installer did not create a shortcut in the start menu, or created one in the local user start menu, Windows Virtual PC will not auto-publish the application.  You can check this by looking in the All Users start menu in the guest operating system.  Here are the locations to check under each guest operating system:
   
   Windows XP: %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs
   Windows Vista: %SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
   Windows 7: %SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
   
   If you cannot find a shortcut in these locations – create one there and you should be good to go.
   
   
4. Is the application being blocked by policy settings?
   
   In order to stop a blank Windows virtual machine from spamming your start menu with a bunch of shortcuts when you first bring it up – we block a bunch of applications by default.  The list of blocked applications is stored in the registry inside the virtual machine at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtual Machine\VPCVAppExcludeList.  You can go here to check to see if the application you are trying to get published is on this list:
   
   
   
   If it is, you can delete the registry key for that application, and it should appear in the host start menu.

Cheers,
Ben

The first thing to look at is the deployment video – available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f0ef9c63-2d2d-4f18-be39-57f8e794fe07

Then you can go and grab the associated white paper / scripts from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f142a1a-a7b7-4d0b-bd56-d9627f39c14f

This will give you the necessary tools to do such things as:

• Automate installation of Windows XP Mode
• Customize Windows XP Mode for your environment
• Build your own template Windows XP virtual machine for deployment in your own environment

Good stuff.

Cheers,
Ben