Windows XP Mode Questions

Two clarifications on Windows XP Mode

1. When I first start a virtual application, I get a box that says something like "Preparing to start the virtual application," which morphs into a box that says "Starting the virtual application." Then, the box usually (not always) disappears, and I get a box that says something like "The Virtual Environment has been closed. Retart the Virtual Application." If I start it a second time, it starts fairly quickly, and with no problem. I can then start other virtual applications with no problem. It looks to me like something in the Virtual Machine is timing out before the application can get started. But I've looked for any timeout settings in the Virtual Machine Settings, and didn't find any. This is really nothing more than a minor annoyanc, but wondering if anyone else experiences this, or if anyone knows of any timeout settings that might improved this situation.

2. The other problem is one I sort of stumbled onto while looking at the options for settings. I noticed that apparently the default memory allocation for Windows XP Mode settings is only 512 MB, so though about changing it to 1 GB, since I have 12 GB of memory on my system. But there was a note there that said, that to change the setting, the virtual machine had to be closed. Now, I know how to close the virtual machine. But my qestion is, assuming that I want to change the memory allocation, and the virtual machine is closed, how now do I access the settings, without starting the virtual machine again. Probably a simple answer to this question, but it strikes me as a sort of Catch 22 situation.

Night Hawk said:

Welcome to the Se7en Forums! RP McIntosh

When click on the help link seen in the right window of "settings" once you have right clicked on the "Start>All Programs>Windows Virtual PC" item found there you then right click on the name of the virtual machine seen in the folder window that comes which in the screens here is for the XP Mode itself.

This is the instructions from the help window on Configuring a virtual machine that will come up while in the XP Mode for memory and other changes in settings.

Configuring a virtual machine refers to modifications that you can make to a virtual machine, such as changing the amount of memory or adding and removing virtual devices, such as network adapters. For most of these changes, you modify a virtual machine setting. In some cases, you can modify the setting only when the virtual machine is shut down or turned off.
Note For instructions on shutting down a virtual machine, see Shut down a virtual machine manually.
For simple configuration changes, use the following steps. For configuration changes that require more explanation, see the links to specific procedures.

To modify a virtual machine setting

1. Open the Virtual Machines folder. From the Start menu, click Windows Virtual PC. If the menu item is not visible, click All Programs, click the Windows Virtual PC folder, and then click Windows Virtual PC.
2. From the Virtual Machines folder, right-click the name of the virtual machine and then click Settings. The Windows Virtual PC Settings page opens.
3. In the left pane, click the name of the setting you want to modify. In the right pane, message text will inform you if the virtual machine must be shut down first.
4. In the right pane, make the change, and click OK.

See Also

• Install or upgrade the Integration Components package
• Close a virtual machine
• Configure virtual machine memory
• Configure networking for virtual machines
• Configure a COM port for a virtual machine
• Share host drives with a virtual machine
• Use a USB device in a virtual machine
• Use Undo Disks

If you look over the screens here however noting that up until now the right window for memory settings has been greyed out that is due to the XP Mode being kept in a higernated stated by default. You first need to change the shutdown option to "powered off" and see that is shutdown completely before the memory and other settings then see an active window for making changes.

By following these steps you can then simply right click on the shortcut seen in the folder noticing the powered down status there rather then seeing "hibernating".

Thanks. I had read the HELP, but took a wrong turn by clicking on the WINDOWS XP MODE listed in the START menu, rather than clicking on the Virtual Machine entry, THEN on the Windows XP Mode entry in that folder. Your screen shots pointed me in the right direction.

Night Hawk said:

The first place is always the Windows Virtual PC as you found out rather fast. But you'll get the hang of things once you have spent a bit more time with settings things in the XP Mode and may end up working on other VHD projects where you will doing this again for those too!

At least you found your way! The main reason for making sure you have any VM shut down completely is that when in hibernation that simply preserves any work you were doing during a previous session but leaves something loaded into memory at the time making memory setting changes unavailable.

With 12gb of ram you won't be running into the same problem when going to run more then on VM however. I ran into the "out of resources" error for things like that when running other OSs along side the VPC and XP Mode with another VM ware. Once I boost the ram up from 4gb to 8gb on the system here I wouldn't expect running 4 VMs at once to be any problem however if I decide to run another similar setup as seen in the screen here.

Interesting. I'm clearly still learning. One virtual machine is enough for me at the moment <g>. Does the initial startup situation I described (what I call for want of a better term, a virtual machine time out) seem normal. Or could it be the specific application I am running first? Since I have antivirus installed in XP Mode, the first application I run to start the virtual session is a Live Update of the antivirus software. Figure if I update it once a day, at the beginning of each virtual session, that should give me reasonably good protection. But I end up with three boxes. The first one says Preparing to Start the Virtual Application (which I assume means, starting the virtual machine). Then that message turns to "Starting Virtual Application. Then that box disappears, and I get a message box that says something like, "The Virtual Enviornment has been closed. Please start the virtual application again." If I then start the Live Updat again, I don't get the box that says Preparing to start the virtual application--just the one that says "Starting Virtual Application, and that is fairly quickly replaced by the application itself. After that, if I start a virtual application, I get no message at all, just the application apparing open. I've looked through the settings for anything that looks like a timeout setting, but didn't find one. It's more of an annoyance than a problem, since it only happens with the first application I open.

Have you seen anything like that?

Kari said:

Is this the message you get:



This means that XP Mode is hibernated (closed with a user logged on). Before a virtual XP Mode application can start, it must first log the user of. Just click Continue, it logs the user off before starting the virtual application.

Notice that by doing this you lose any possible unsaved data on XP Mode. If you had hibernated XP Mode with purpose and you have there open apps with unsaved data, click Cancel, boot to XP Mode, save your data and shut XP Mode down before starting virtual application.

Kari

Kari--

No, that's not the message I get. I've gotten that one before. Normally, I don't actually open the XP Mode, I just open the virtual applications. However, when I DO open XP Mode, to change appearance settings for instance, and then exit XP Mode, then later start an XP Mode application, then I DO get the message you posted a screen shot of. And, as you said, I just click the CONTINUE button, and it goes ahead and loads the application.

The message I get (I'll take a screen shot of it the next time I get it) happens like this:

1. I click the Live Update item under the XP Mode Applications on the START menu.

2. I get a wide, narrow box with what I call an activity bar (a green blob, travelling right to left repeatedly in a progress bar) with a message that says Preparing to Launch (I think that's the wording).

3. After several seconds, the same box remains, but the wording in it changes to Starting Virtual Application.

4. Then that box disappears, and a few seconds later, I get a message box similar in size to the one you posted a screen shot of, that says (not exact wording--I'll get that next time it shows up), The Virtual Environment has been closed. Start the Virtual application again, with nothing there but an OK button.

5. I then restart the Live Update, and this time, I get the narrow box that says Starting Virtual Application (don't get the Preparing to Launch thing), and a few seconds later, the application opens.

6. So far, at least, this only happens with the first application I open. Presumably, once the virtual machine has been hibernated, what I'm referring to as the timeout doesn't occur.

I appreciate the help, and I will get both the exact wording of the message, and a screen shot the next time it happens.

Night Hawk said:

Having just performed a clean install of 7 here and installing the VPC and XP Mode the screen here is from the first run for updates selecting the "Custom" option at the update site. As you can see the results were seen instantly without any problem.

You may need to remove and perform a full reinstall in order to see the problems corrected if the initial install was incomplete and why you are running into the problems you are describing. Another thing to look at would be checking to see if any virtualization option in the bios is enabled.

First however run the tool MS provides in case something is lacking support. The main download page is seen at Download details: HAV Detection Tool

I'm probably not describing my situation adequately. So I'll try to get screen shots, but it may be a few days, since I have surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Once I get the initial application open, everything runs fine. And I have run the Windows Update from XP Mode, and it worked fine. In fact, it is probably an exaggeration to call what I've been experiencing a "problem." A "quirk" might be a better description. And it doesn't always do it. This evening, when I booted up and went to XP Mode, I got the first two boxes I described above, but not the third one that told me to start the application again. Maybe the simple fact that I increased the memory for XP Mode lets it load faster, and thus avoid the timeout.

I appreciate your patience. And I'll be back to either post screen shots, or declare the matter resolved once I get my surgery out of the way.