Microsoft Virtual PC & Windows 7

Hi DeaconFrost,

Just a tip, if you haven't already tried this:

'On some of my Vista boxes, VirtualBox's networking played havoc on my existing networking, and I couldn't connect at all.'

I had the same problem when I installed VBox on my W7 RC1 system. Prior to installing VBox everything could see everything else, all shares worked between all machines, etc etc. After doing a W2k install on Vbox the W7 system wouldn't recognize any of the other systems as members of my workgroup, and the others wouldn't recognize the W7 system, although they would each see the rest of 'the others'. There are/were a couple of other weird ramifications, but some of it has been cleared up by changing the setup of the network adapter in the W2k VM by changing from NAT to Bridged (I'm not at the system at the moment, and I can't remember the exact wording, but you'll see it easily enough in the VM 'settings'.) After changing that the VM now gets a 'normal' IP from my Linksys router (like 192.168.1.104) instead of the previous 192.168.56.x. The W7 system now recognizes the VM and the other attached systems, although *they* still don't list the W7 (or its VM) in their 'My Network Places'. On them I can, however, Search for Computer and immediately find and explore the W7 shares.

I'm sure there's a lot to be learned from all this, but I'm only a network dabbler, so ...

Roger

I know on any of my Vista systems, I had to make the switch to Bridged as well. It would temporarily disconnect my network connection, and then I'd be up and running just fine. Each VM would grab an IP right from my router. However, under W7, anytime I've enabled the bridged adapter, I lose my network connection completely. I have to reboot, and then remove VitualBox to get it back. I could duplicate this on three systems. I'm hoping it was an early glitch with VirtualBox, and that it's been resolved, because it is a great product. For now, I'll use Virtual PC 2007, but when I get some free time, I'll play around with VirtualBox again.

Windows 7 working fine(very well) on Virtual PC, tested 2/3 times....

DeaconFrost,

'However, under W7, anytime I've enabled the bridged adapter, I lose my network connection completely. I have to reboot, and then remove VitualBox to get it back'

I don't see any problems like that at all. I can stop and start VMs as much as I like, and the network (both inside the VM and on the W7 host) keeps working witthout a hiccup. I don't remember the exact version of VBox that I'm using, but I only downloaded it (the binary for x86/amd64) from the virtualbox website about 7 or 8 days ago.

Roger