Automatically Start Virtual PC on Logon

Hello all. Great site. I am kinda addicted to it for the last few day

I a machine with Win 7 (Utlimate) with several users (lets call them A,BC..) .
I have installed MS Virtual PC on it and have 3 Virtual Machines (all Win 7s - lets call them X,Y and Z).

I want to know is it possible that if User A logons on, VPC X gets fired automatically, if User B logons, VPC Z gets fired?

Thank You

For a setup like your wanting I will have to recommend one of two thing, adding it to the users start up folder, or using vmware server (its free too). With vmware server there is a setting for launch on startup.

I'm looking for something similar. I want to have a VM running at all times and not have to log in after a reboot to kick it off. Something I was able to do in Vista.

I now have a vbscript that launches the VM headless. The scripts runs fine when launched manually.

I've tried running the VBscript from a windows service, but get a security error about dcom Local activation permissions. I would fix this in component services, but vpc settings are grayed out.

I thought going to 7 would make life easier.

Does vmware run Windows Virtual Machines?

Hi there
The BEST way for running VM's (Please note here I'm not talking about XP MODE HERE) is to use something like VMWARE server (FREE).

You can then have the VM's start automatically in the Background at boot (and shutdown).

The nice thing about this is that a USER can log directly on to a VM WITHOUT having to have an account on the HOST machine. (Needs an account on the VM of course). -- This is a great way of say running a Webserver - on the Virtual machine.

What's even better if your VM's are SEVERS as well then your users can log directly on to the application (for example ORACLE / SAP (etc etc) without even needing an account on the VM either.

If there's enough people who are interested I'll try and make a tutorial on how to set this up.

Cheers
jimbo

Will VMWARE run WVPC VMs? Or will i have to go through the entire install and configuration process for a new VM.. cause that would be a deal breaker for me now.

Here's where I'm at. I have a Windows Service set to start automatic delayed that now runs my VM if I kick it off the service or I happen to be on when the Service is run (playing with delays etc.)

But If I reboot the desktop and don't log on, the service and vbscript never get passed the Startup step. No event log errors (service reports it started), just never completes the script. Where might I find any logs on WVPC. Looking into error handling/reporting in VBS now. Suspect the Script just hangs trying to find the VM.

Does this make any sense?

On my Vista Machine and the prior release of MS Virtual PC I had a web service starting the VM from a command line script that never gave me problems. BTW, in that environment the VM would load in the background (headless) and I would only access it with RDP, from the host box or external client.

I've now pumped about 6 hours into this interesting change of events.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 pro.

Thank you.

WVPC???
I have to ask what does that stand for?
Google pulls up a church.

If your asking if it will run VM's created in Virtual PC yes. May take a little reconfiguration but it will run them. (To the best of my knowledge it will at least)

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
The BEST way for running VM's (Please note here I'm not talking about XP MODE HERE) is to use something like VMWARE server (FREE).

You can then have the VM's start automatically in the Background at boot (and shutdown).

The nice thing about this is that a USER can log directly on to a VM WITHOUT having to have an account on the HOST machine. (Needs an account on the VM of course). -- This is a great way of say running a Webserver - on the Virtual machine.

What's even better if your VM's are SEVERS as well then your users can log directly on to the application (for example ORACLE / SAP (etc etc) without even needing an account on the VM either.

If there's enough people who are interested I'll try and make a tutorial on how to set this up.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

I know this topic is quite a few months old, but i've been searching for a while and can't find how to log into a guest virtual machine before logging into the host machine. How do you log directly into a VM without having an account on the host machine?

Basically what I want to do is have vmware server start at boot up and have a user log directly into a virtual machine without ever having to log into the host. Is this possible and how do I do this. I've seen where you can mount a vhd at boot up so you boot directly to that, but that's not exactly what i'm looking for.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks. : )

What you could do is within the Virtual Machine, set it up to login automatically to Windows. You can go to Start --> Run (within the Virtual Machine's guest OS) and type in "control userpasswords2" and click "OK". After that, uncheck the box that says "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" and then click OK again and it will have you enter an account name and password to use for automatic logon to that Virtual Machine.

With that set, just set VMware Server to start-up automatically and the VM should be logged in automatically.

cyberpine said:

I'm looking for something similar. I want to have a VM running at all times and not have to log in after a reboot to kick it off. Something I was able to do in Vista.

I now have a vbscript that launches the VM headless. The scripts runs fine when launched manually.

I've tried running the VBscript from a windows service, but get a security error about dcom Local activation permissions. I would fix this in component services, but vpc settings are grayed out.

I thought going to 7 would make life easier.

Does vmware run Windows Virtual Machines?

Click to expand...

cyberpine, the only two best options to run a VM automatically and in the background is through using VMWare Server or Microsoft Hyper-V. There are others, but those two are the two most widely used products. I recommend Hyper-V, but it is not currently available to install on a Windows client OS. Hyper-V will be made available to Windows 8 when it releases sometime next year, so if you wanted to sit tight with 7 and VMWare, I'd recommend it. If you ever decide to purchase a Windows 8 upgrade for the specific edition that supports allowing Hyper-V to be installed - which will most likely be Professional, Ultimate, or Business only (however they choose to name the editions, if any), I recommend using something like CloneZilla to clone the VM to a file, and then restore to a new VM in Hyper-V.

VM server

Jimbo45 did you ever start a tutorial on how to set up the VM Server you mentioned?

Psycs said:

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
The BEST way for running VM's (Please note here I'm not talking about XP MODE HERE) is to use something like VMWARE server (FREE).

You can then have the VM's start automatically in the Background at boot (and shutdown).

The nice thing about this is that a USER can log directly on to a VM WITHOUT having to have an account on the HOST machine. (Needs an account on the VM of course). -- This is a great way of say running a Webserver - on the Virtual machine.

What's even better if your VM's are SEVERS as well then your users can log directly on to the application (for example ORACLE / SAP (etc etc) without even needing an account on the VM either.

If there's enough people who are interested I'll try and make a tutorial on how to set this up.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

I know this topic is quite a few months old, but i've been searching for a while and can't find how to log into a guest virtual machine before logging into the host machine. How do you log directly into a VM without having an account on the host machine?

Basically what I want to do is have vmware server start at boot up and have a user log directly into a virtual machine without ever having to log into the host. Is this possible and how do I do this. I've seen where you can mount a vhd at boot up so you boot directly to that, but that's not exactly what i'm looking for.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks. : )

Click to expand...

Hi there

Sorry if my post was a bit misleading -- what I meant was that you can log on to a VM running say on a W7 HOST without having an account on that HOST -- but your VM will need to be accessible via a Network so the user can logon from a CLIENT machine by using something like RDP. (Remote Desktop).

For example say your host is called CAT, your VM is called DOG and the remote user who wants to connect to your VM has a machine called FOX.

What you have to do is to ensure remote user can to RDP to DOG FROM HIS OWN MACHINE so you need to make DOG available on the network.

What using vmserver does is allow a number of virtual machines to be started IN THE BACKGROUND when the HOST is booted up.

With normal vm's on a workstation a user needs to be logged on to the HOST, then he / she starts the VM software as a user application and then logs on to the VM.

By using vmware server you are running your workstation as a sort of server.

(Note that if these VM's are XP / W7 etc then the normal restriction still applies in that only one user can login to the vm at a time. -- Running something like W2K3 or W2008 servers as a virtual machine is a much better proposition but more complex and expensive .

3 VM's for example can be running with a different SINGLE user on them of course.


BTW I'm not sure but I think currently vmware workstation rel 8 will also allow you to run VM's in the background -- however I think (although I could be wrong) someone has to start the vmware application at initial boot.

Read this

https://www.vmware.com/support/ws80/doc/releasenotes_workstation_80.html


Cheers
and Happy Hols

Jimbo