Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is here!

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is a virtualisation suite specifically designed to optimise the
Windows Vista experience. It allows users to run multiple operating systems on the one
machine, which offers many advantages to developers and end-users alike. The most
obvious benefit of Virtual PC is that it allows developers to develop and test incompatible
and legacy applications in parallel while migrating to Vista, therefore creating a smooth
migration process and allowing mission critical operation to run as per normal. Virtual PC
2007 works by emulating a standard PC and its associated hardware resources,
therefore creating a virtualised environment which mirrors that of a genuine PC.

The new features that Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 offers include support for Intel and AMD
hardware virtualization, the ability to run Windows Vista as both a host operating system
and a guest operating system (however only Windows Aero Basic runs in the guest
operating system), support for 64-bit host operating systems and improved performance
overall. It eliminates the need for two machines as is required for the above solution and
minimises the cost and time involved in setting up a new development environment.

Note: At the time of writing this paper Microsoft Virtual PC Beta 1 was available.

Using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 for Development

Virtual PC 2007 offers a simple solution for many application development scenarios that
developers may encounter: 1
 Application Incompatibility – Virtual PC 2007 allows developers to run
incompatible applications alongside Windows Vista, therefore minimising the
delay in the migration to Windows Vista. Furthermore, Windows Vista itself can be
run in Virtual PC 2007, creating a safe environment to carry out all testing before
deployment.
 Problem diagnosis and testing – Virtual PC 2007 also allows users to diagnose
problems and bugs which may only occur in a specific operating system or
environment. Testing can also be carried out easily on different platforms without
the need for multiple machines, therefore significantly reducing cost and time
involved in testing and problem diagnosis.
 Support for end-users – Virtual PC 2007 also allows developers to duplicate
scenarios/problems which end-users encounter with specific applications.

Installing Virtual PC 2007

The first step, as outlined above, is to install Virtual PC 2007 on the Windows XP
machine. Virtual PC should be installed as a user that is part of the local Administrators
group. During the installation process, confirmation of the location to which Virtual PC is
installed needs to given (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Installing Virtual PC 2007

Part of Unit Standard 6871

 Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Creating and Configuring the Virtual Machine

The first time Virtual PC 2007 is run, the New Virtual Machine Wizard will open. If Virtual
PC has been run before, then this wizard can be accessed by opening the Virtual PC
Console and clicking New.
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Creating a new Virtual Machine

1. Open the Virtual PC Console and click “New”.
2. When the New Virtual Machine Wizard opens, click “Next”.
3. Select the “Create a Virtual Machine” option and click “Next”.
4. Type in the name with which you would like to identify the virtual machine and
click “Next”. To save the virtual machine in a different location than the specified
default, click the “Browse” button and navigate to the appropriate folder.
5. Select the guest operating system that you would like to install, which in this case
is Windows XP (Figure 3).

Part of Unit Standard 6871

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Figure 3 – Selecting Windows XP as the Operating System

6. Ensure
that
“Using
the

R
ecommended RAM” is selected and click “Next”. To modify the RAM allocated to
the virtual machine, select the “Adjusting the RAM” option and adjust the slider
to the appropriate amount. 3
7. Select the “New virtual hard disk” option and click “Next”.
8. Type in the name with which you would like to identify the virtual machine’s hard
disk and click “Next”. To save the virtual machine’s hard disk in a different
location than the specified default, click the “Browse” button and navigate to the
appropriate folder.
9. Verify that the options selected are correct and click “Finish”.

The Virtual machine that was just created should appear in the Virtual PC Console
(Figure 4). Many of the settings for the virtual machine can be configured and modified
using the Settings Panel.

Figure 4 – The virtual machine in the Virtual PC Console

Configuring the Virtual Machine

1. In the Virtual PC Console
select the Virtual Machine
you would like to
configure and Click
“Setti ngs”.

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 Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

2. In the Settings Panel select and modify the appropriate settings (Figure 5).

Figure 5 – The Settings panel

Eac
h of the virtual devices and settings can be configured by selecting them and changing
the settings in the adjacent pane. For example, the amount of RAM allocated to4 the
virtual machine can be increased by selecting Memory and moving the slider to the
appropriate amount.

Note: The majority of the settings can only be modified after the Virtual PC has been
shut down. These settings take effect, the next time the Virtual PC starts up.

Installing the Guest operating System

After creating and configuring the virtual machine, the guest operating system needs to
be installed. The process of installing the guest operating system (in this case Windows
XP), is the same for both the virtual machine and any other physical machine. For
example, if the operating system would normally be installed on the physical machine
from a CD-ROM. To install the operating system on the virtual machine the following
steps would be taken:

1. Insert the CD-ROM into the physical machine.

2. Start the Virtual PC from the Virtual PC Console.
3. Click “Actions” on the Virtual PC Window and Select the appropriate drive to load
the CD-ROM from, for example Use Physical Drive D: (Figure 6).

Figure 6 – Selecting the drive to load the CD-ROM

Part of Unit Standard 6871

 Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

You may need to change the Boot Order in the BIOS settings in order to boot
from the CD-ROM. You can do this by pressing the Del key when the Virtual PC is
starting up (Figure 7).
Figure 7 – The Virtual PC’s boot screen

4. Follow the instructions on screen to complete the installation of the operating

system.

An ISO image can also be used to perform the installation, as Virtual PC allows you to
use ISO images as if it was a physical CD-ROM.

Installing Applications in the Guest operating System

Once the operating system has been installed, the virtual machine can be used exactly
like a physical machine. Hence, the process of installing applications mirrors that of any
physical machine. For example, if the application was to be installed from a CD-ROM,

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 Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

then the CD-ROM would be loaded into the physical machine and accessed through the
virtual machine’s virtual drive, similarly to when installing the guest operating machine.

In some cases you may need to access some network resources in order to install your
application. The process of connecting to the network is the same for both the virtual
machine and the physical machine. You can join the network by opening up the System
Properties in the virtual machine, selecting the Computer Name tab and clicking
“Change…”.

Licensing Information
While using virtual machines, you should ensure that each operating system and
application installed in the virtual machine environment is correctly licensed. In most
cases, you are required to purchase a licence key for each operating system and
application installed. Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Edition however gives users the
right to use a single license key within four additional virtual machines. For other
operating systems and applications please contact your software vendor.

Best Practices for Building Your VPC Environment

and Testing and Deploying Applications
 Turn on undo disks – Undo Disks is an innovative feature of Virtual PC’s which
allows users to rollback the Virtual PC to the last time changes were committed to
the Virtual PC’s hard disk. This is achieved by saving all the changes made to the
Virtual PC separately and only committing those changes during shutdown.6 This
allows the user to select the option of not committing the changes at all. Undo Disks
are particularly useful when testing in volatile situations or when critical changes are
being applied, as it creates a fail-safe environment where all changes can simply be
reversed. However in some cases such as keeping undo disks that haven’t been
committed to the virtual hard disk can create a large amount of disk-related
overhead and therefore it is recommended that developers store the undo disks and
a separate physical disk to the virtual hard disk.

Turn on Undo Disks, by following these steps:

1. In the Virtual PC Console, select the Virtual Machine you would like to
configure and Click “Settings”.
2. In the Setting Panel, select “Undo Disks” and select “Enable Undo Disks”
(Figure 15).

Figure 15 – Turning on Undo Disks

Part of Unit Standard 6871

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

 Optimise memory usage – Virtual PC’s are heavily dependant on the memory
resources available on the host machine running them. Therefore, to optimise
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memory usage, the memory footprint should be set to two-thirds of that available on
the machine on which it is run, if it is the only Virtual PC being run on the host
machine. Furthermore, all non-essential services and applications running on the
host machine should be shut down.
 Use Virtual PC to test betas – Betas are perfect candidates for running on Virtual
PCs, as their fundamental function is to provide a baseline application that can be
tested for bugs and possible improvements. Betas can also be unpredictable and can
cause instability if they encounter a problem. Virtual PCs can be utilised for this
scenario, as they offer a secure and protected environment for carrying out testing
on betas without affecting the host machine.
 Store the virtual hard disk on a separate physical disk to the operating
system – by storing the virtual hard disk on a separate physical disk or hardware
that offers better performance and fast access, you can significantly improve the
performance of the Virtual PC, as it will utilise the resources of the physical disk while
freeing up resources for the host operating system. For optimum performance, SCSI
hard disks, redundant array of independent disks (RAID) or a SAN should be used to
store the virtual hard disks.
 Protect your virtual environment – the virtual environment mirrors any physical
operating system and is therefore vulnerable to the same viruses and malware that
affects any other operating system. Hence it is necessary to protect the Virtual PC
environment in the same fashion as the host operating system. This means installing
anti-virus protection on each virtual machine, enabling a firewall to block unwanted
incoming and outgoing traffic and installing the latest security patches and updates
to ensure that the virtual machine is protected against the latest security threats.
 Backup the virtual machine – the virtual machine acts like any data storage
device and the associated virtual machine files should be backed up to save all of the

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Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

data and configuration settings of that particular virtual machine. The easiest method
for backing up the virtual machine is to simply backup the virtual hard disk onto a
secondary storage device. The process of restoring the image is just as simple.
 Correct shut down procedure – before shutting down the host operating system,
it is vital that the virtual machine be shut down first. This is to ensure that no data
has been lost. Similarly when suspending the host operating system, the virtual
machine must be suspended first to avoid data loss.
 Installing Virtual Machine Additions - Virtual Machine Additions are a set of
features that improve the integration of the host and guest operating systems. It also
improves the performance and manageability of the guest operating system. Some of
the special features included are mouse pointer integration, time synchronization and
overall improvement in the performance of the guest operating system.

Install the virtual machine additions by following these steps (Figure 16):
1. Start the Virtual machine by selecting the appropriate virtual machine in the
virtual machine console and clicking “Start”.
2. When the virtual machine window opens, click “File” and select “Install
virtual machine additions”.
3. You will be prompted for confirmation, click “yes”.

Figure 16 – Installing Virtual Machine Additions

Configu
re performance settings for the virtual machine – Performance improvements
can also be experienced if the following settings are applied (Figure 17):
1. In the Virtual PC Console, click “File” and then “Options”.
2. In the Options window, click “Performance”.
3. Select both “All running virtual machines get equal CPU time” in the
right pane and “Run Virtual PC at maximum speed” and click “OK”.

Part of Unit Standard 6871

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Figure 17 – Configuring Performance Settings

To

e
nable hardware acceleration the following steps should be followed (Figure918):
1. Click “Start”, then “Run”, type desk.cpl and click “OK”.
2. Click “Advanced Settings”.
3. Open the “Troubleshoot” tab.
4. Click “Change Settings” and move the hardware acceleration slider to full.

Figure 18 – Enabling Hardware Acceleration

Part of Unit Standard 6871

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

 Defragment your virtual machine – virtual machines should be defragmented

regularly for optimum performance. This includes both the physical drive on
which the Virtual hard drive is located as well as the virtual drives within the
Virtual PC. By doing this you can experience a significant improvement in the
speed of the Virtual PC. The built in Windows defragging tool or any other 3rd
party tool can be utilised.
 Exclude your virtual machine from anti-virus scans – exclude your virtual
machine files from being scanned by your host anti-virus software. This includes
files such as .vmc, .vhd and .vud. Scanning these files slows down the host
operating system and is unnecessary as the anti-virus software installed in your
Virtual PC performs the same task.

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Part of Unit Standard 6871