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Sorry for some Virtual PC & XP Mode noob questions but...
Hello all
Sorry for some probably very redundant Virtual PC and XP Mode noob questions and for not finding these on my one via a search but with several to ask and probably ones common enough to get a million results, I was just hoping I could put them all into one post.
As well, sorry that there is a lot here but I figured I'd get all I could think of in one post and for any questions that can be answered, it would be very helpful.
1: Protection:
So in XP mode, should I install my Firewall program? I have it running already in Win7 but I was just wondering if in full XP mode, does this override that and open up some of my ports?
As well, should I install my defrag program? The one I already have works full time in the background and is already on the Win7 machine doing that, but I just thought I would ask if anyone thinks that would still be beneficial to install and run it for the virtual C: Drive of XP Mode.
As well I would assume any web usage could pick up stuff so I would also assume a antivirus and things like Malwarebytes should be used?
2: Hardware:
So how do things like Hardware drivers work?
In looking in device manager most seem to be using special XP mode ones but I was just wondering if I might get any better operation from installing ones made for the specific hardware and for XP 32bit?
Also there seem to be a few listed with question marks called "Virtual PC Integration Device". So are these some kind of hardware that doesn't have a driver working for them that I should figure out what they are an install one, or is this normal part of things working as it should in this mode?
As well, can anyone tell me why I only seem to have 512mb of memory allocated when I have 3,712 available? As well there seems to be some options to increase via the tool menu that but they are grayed out for me. Is there any thing I can do about that?
In regards to this, in the XP Mode help it reads this can be increase but that I need to shut down the virtual machine, so I am assuming this explanation means it is not done in XP Mode, then it reads:
To configure virtual machine memory
1: Open the settings for the virtual machine. In the Virtual Machines folder, right-click the name of the virtual machine, and then click Settings.
2: In the left pane of the Windows Virtual PC Settings page, click Memory.
3: In the right pane, specify the new amount of memory.
4: Click OK to save the change.
At this point I don't quite understand this, does this mean I should navigate to C:\Users\XYZ\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines and right click on that folder or the .vhd file inside?
At any rate I have done that an there's no setting thing available so it must be something else but as that's all I can get from that so could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Next I have two optical drives but as far as in the drives list in explorer, it is only showing one (the DVD-RW) and not the other (CD-RW) as an optical. For the CD-RW it shows it but as a networked drive like all my other harddrives.
So is there anything I can do about this?
3: Naming & Networking:
Is there anyway I can, or should I even rename the user folder, the computer name and the workgroup name?
For the "user" folder I just would like to make it like my old XP as it is just easer, for the computer and workgroup name, as several other PC's that are networked to this one are already expecting certain names for this machine, I just thought it would be easer if these were those.
But for all of these, if this will screw things up for the virtual machine side of things perhaps it's just better left alone?
4: Backups:
Lastly I had some questions on the backing up of anything in XP Mode:
I typically do full backups of everything on my C:\ drive, so I would assume I would get what ever is in XP Mode, but just to ask, is basically "everything" in the virtual C:\ drive of XP mode stored in folder of C:\Users\XYZ\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines ?
As well if I were to save everything in that folder and had to do a rebuild, could I just do the same install an setting up of things, then delete everything in that folder and copy in the backed up versions and everything is as it was?
Well I guess that's it for now, again, sorry there was a lot here but figured I'd get everything I could think of. As well again, if anyone could answer any of these, it would be very helpful.
Thanks for any help.