Windows 7: win7pro-x64, VirtualPC 2007 and win2000 - finally

Hi All,

This is more of a how-to than anything as I have been struggling to get some win2000 software running in any of the Virtual systems that win7pro would allow, but finally I have it all going.

I already had the win2000 .VHD from a previous computer that died.



I tried to use the Windows Virtual PC (different to VirtualPC 2007) provided with win7pro but it only supported guest OS back as far as XP.
I could create a new .VHD and install win2000 on it, but then I could not access the host drives etc.
OK, time to sratch Windows Virtual PC - so much for progress.

I downloaded and installed the 64-bit version of VirtualPC 2007 but when I ran it, I got a "Blocked b/s" message, thanks MSoft.

Thinking about it I first went to the BIOS (UEFI in this case) and disabled CPU Virtualization reasoning that when VPC-2007 software was written there was no such thing within the CPU.

Back to the pre-exisiting .VHD, I deleted the Saved State file .VSV.
I then went to the VPC-2007 installation folder and renamed the "VirtualPC 2007.exe" to "wobbly.exe" and ran it and lo and behold, up comes the familiar old VPC-2007. It seems the "Blocked" message was based soley on the launch name of VPC-2007.
I had to reinstall the VPC-2007 Virtual Machine Additions but when it was finished, the Shared Folders that had been assigned on the previous PC were all still assigned and active.
The win2000 within booted fine and is running as I type this.

I have had no problems in installing Windows 2000 Professional on a VirtualBox vm. Did you try it?

Kari

Thanks for the suggestion, but I did try both VBox and also VMware prior to persevering with VPC 2007 installation.

With VBox and the laptop I could not change the screen resolution for win2000 and it was stuck a 600 x 480 and 16-colors which was next to useless.

With VMware I could not get apps within win2000 to access the host drive Folders and it would crash regularly.

I would have preferred one of those alternatives as it would have been nice to have access to the host USB ports which VPC2007 does not do, but at least it allowed me True Color and decent resolution at 1280x1024.

I guess I will have to stick with what is working.

I have Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 2000 Server installed on Virtual Box with the latest VBox Additions installed.
The resolution is 1024 x 768 using True Color (32 bit) with the VBoxVideo.sys driver.

Thanks PJ, I am downloading a copy right now. The version I had tried was 4.2.4 or 4.2.2 can't remember but it certainly only gave me two options for screen resolutions and both were 16-bit and basic VGA only at that.

OK, that did not work. Using an existing VHD and win2000, I am getting a BSOD with KMode_exception_not_handled ntoskrn.exe Checking the Virtualbox forum and trying all the suggestions there it still crashes during booting win2000. I am about to uninstall VBox as it is not worth wasting any more time on it. It is just too much work to install w2000 fresh into a .VDI and then install all the programs I have running in the .VHD version. Actually, just tried the basic w2000 fresh install and still only get VGA res. VBox ain't gonna cut it.

I place a flash stick into a USB drive and make sure it has drive letter, then tell vpc2007 to share the drive letter.
That works for me.

TJG