Windows 7: Moving my applications from Virtual PC to VirtualBox

I recently started using VirtualBox (by using VMLite Workstation) to run Windows XP Mode. However, none of the applications which I installed in Virtual PC were moved to the Virtual Box.



Is there a way to transfer these apps or remove them from Virtual PC and move them to VirtualBox?

The one thing I found from having both the XP Mode and VBox seeing it's own XP Home install on that was each one saw programs installed fresh like you would normally expect when dual booting two separate OSs.

For the XP Mode you would use the add/remove programs on that form of XP Pro to uninstall/remove anything installed but need to perform a separate fresh install on any OS being run on VBox.

You should be able to backup work however from the VPC and then run that on the VBox install by way of Gladinet's CloudDesktop where you upload files into the Windows Live SkyDrive and then download through a setup on VBox taking the long route. That is due to not having direct access to internal drives as seen with the XP Mode.

That's if you use Windows Live at all however. MS also has a new Live Mesh for access to the WLM SkyDrive folders from your desktop now seen in beta form for live online storage. Even when Vista was tried out on a vhd through the Virtual PC and lacked the intergrate components that was one solution.

The problem is that one of the apps (RSLogix) I have on the Windows XP Mode has only 1 license so I can't reinstall it in VirtualBox. Is there any way to get around this?

That's a different matter entirely! You wouldn't see more then the trial application if it requires activation online like several programs run here do. The license however is for that one machine as far as rechnicalities are concerned.

When the board on the last build was.... running out of time I contacted the support staff about the circumstance where they extended the number of times only to avoid charging for a new license out of courtesy. For any Windows reinstall or XP Mode uninstalling while connected online apparently preserves the value of the present according to the information on that software while it may not and likely wouldn't be the same for you.

Have yoiu tried installing it just the same on VBox? If you had to reinstall Windows and the program all over again it would be the same where you saw more then one install on the same machine and still should be covered under the same license. If that install saw problems then you would need to contact the support for that software to make an inquiry and explain your effort to see it run on Virtual Box.

I would do that by merging differencing XP Mode vhd's (XP Mode base.vhd and XP Mode.vhd), and then simply mount the resulting standalone XP vhd to a VirtualBox vm.

Merging differencing XP Mode

From VMLite Wizard, choose option 2 to import from the VHD file. This way, you will use your original VPC vhd file, all of your apps inside will be preserved.

Good point! In fact the VMLite Work Station for the XP Mode will automatically look for the vhd in the original location under the user account and configure things for you.

Thank you Kari and Huisinro. Your advice worked. Everything works perfectly in VirtualBox.