Post your questions to the MSFT Virtualization team

[sygnus21]

I'm crystal now. This cleared it up for me...

XP mode runs the 32 bit version of XP.

You can't use Virtual PC to run (say) 64 bit Vista on 64bit Windows 7.But you could use it to run 32 bit vista on 64 bit 7

Thanks

Thanks Kari.

 

[Edwin Yuen]

I'm crystal now. This cleared it up for me...

XP mode runs the 32 bit version of XP.

You can't use Virtual PC to run (say) 64 bit Vista on 64bit Windows 7.But you could use it to run 32 bit vista on 64 bit 7

Thanks

Thanks Kari.

Sygnus21,

If you do need to run x64 OSes in a VM, you can use Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. It's a free download and supports x64 OS inside the VM. I posted a link in the Server thread.

 

[James O'Neill]

What would you VPC geeks recommend to speed up XP Mode? Assigning more RAM, or does it have any effect after 1 gig? What else?

Kari

My 3 rules for improving perf.
1. Add more RAM
2. Add more RAM
3. If there are any empty memory sockets , add RAM.

With XP mode it is always a compromise because adding memory to the VM takes it away from the host. So you need to balance VM performance against host performance.

The other thing which will make a difference is the type of virtual hard disk you use. By default XP-Mode creates differencing disk for each XP VM , a differencing disk is slower than a single disk, and if you have a single disk a Fixed disk is better quicker on writes than the a dynamically expanding disk .

Then the speed of the disk has an impact.

 

[sygnus21]

If you do need to run x64 OSes in a VM, you can use Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. It's a free download and supports x64 OS inside the VM. I posted a link in the Server thread.

Thanks, I'll probabbly give it a try just to play with, but I really don't have much use for a VM in my day to day computing. But, it's always nice to learn something new; that's why I'm here.

Thanks.

 

[sygnus21]

What would you VPC geeks recommend to speed up XP Mode? Assigning more RAM, or does it have any effect after 1 gig? What else?

Kari

Not necessarily a speed increase, but for photographers, such as myself, or graphic artists, it would be nice to operate in a 32-bit color mode environment should we need to use a VPC or XP mode due to compatibility issues under Windows 7 or 64-bit mode.

I think this would be a blessing for a lot of people.

 

[Kari]

What would you VPC geeks recommend to speed up XP Mode? Assigning more RAM, or does it have any effect after 1 gig? What else?

Kari

Not necessarily a speed increase, but for photographers, such as myself, or graphic artists, it would be nice to operate in a 32-bit color mode environment should we need to use a VPC or XP mode due to compatibility issues under Windows 7 or 64-bit mode.

I think this would be a blessing for a lot of people.

If you disable the integration features, you can use 32-bit gfx.

About the speed, I got some time ago a tip from a colleague to add this to C:\Users\Your_Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Options.xml, somewhere between the Preferences tags:

<virtual_machines>
      <enable_idle_thread type="boolean">true</enable_idle_thread>
</virtual_machines><br/>

It seems to give some extra speed but I'm completely willing to admit it's like placebo medicine; it works because I want to believe it works

Kari

 

[sygnus21]

If you disable the integration features, you can use 32-bit gfx.

Care to help me out (explain), and what "side" effects will this have or cause?



Thanks

 

[Kari]

Care to help me out (explain), and what "side" effects will this have or cause?

Thanks

Basically, you do not have access to any of the host's resources if integration is disabled.

This post shows a typical example. Integration enabled, all the host's drives are available. Integration disabled, only way to access host is over the network.

Bidirectional clipboard is also included in integration features, as is printing from XP Mode directly to host's printer.

Kari

 

[sygnus21]

This post shows a typical example.

Man this is a homework assignment.

I'll have to read through it later.

Thanks.

 

[pparks1]

What would you VPC geeks recommend to speed up XP Mode? Assigning more RAM, or does it have any effect after 1 gig? What else?

Kari

My 3 rules for improving perf.
1. Add more RAM
2. Add more RAM
3. If there are any empty memory sockets , add RAM.

With XP mode it is always a compromise because adding memory to the VM takes it away from the host. So you need to balance VM performance against host performance.

The other thing which will make a difference is the type of virtual hard disk you use. By default XP-Mode creates differencing disk for each XP VM , a differencing disk is slower than a single disk, and if you have a single disk a Fixed disk is better quicker on writes than the a dynamically expanding disk .

Then the speed of the disk has an impact.

I'm a systems admin for a living with a considerable amount of experience with virtual machines...both stand-alone applications as well as hypervisor based products.

My only complaint with Windows XP Mode...is that it's terribly slow compared to other 3rd party products. While I understand where you are coming from with more RAM and faster hard drives...these aren't really necessary with the 3rd party products.

 

[fakeasdf]

What would you VPC geeks recommend to speed up XP Mode? Assigning more RAM, or does it have any effect after 1 gig? What else?

Kari

My 3 rules for improving perf.
1. Add more RAM
2. Add more RAM
3. If there are any empty memory sockets , add RAM.

With XP mode it is always a compromise because adding memory to the VM takes it away from the host. So you need to balance VM performance against host performance.

The other thing which will make a difference is the type of virtual hard disk you use. By default XP-Mode creates differencing disk for each XP VM , a differencing disk is slower than a single disk, and if you have a single disk a Fixed disk is better quicker on writes than the a dynamically expanding disk .

Then the speed of the disk has an impact.

I'm a systems admin for a living with a considerable amount of experience with virtual machines...both stand-alone applications as well as hypervisor based products.

My only complaint with Windows XP Mode...is that it's terribly slow compared to other 3rd party products. While I understand where you are coming from with more RAM and faster hard drives...these aren't really necessary with the 3rd party products.

Are you talking about Virtual PC, or when you use applications from (XP/Win 7 etc) virtualized into the host environment?

 

[pparks1]

Are you talking about Virtual PC, or when you use applications from (XP/Win 7 etc) virtualized into the host environment?

You can have a look at this other thread to get the main point that I am making
http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/21575-xp-mode-slow-any-way-improve.html

In a nutshell, the XP Mode while easy to install and use...but is considerably slower to boot and launch applications than running XP installed under VMWare Player 3.0 or Sun VirtualBox 3.x

Originally, I was very bummed because I wanted to make use of the activated copy of XP that I was entitled to when I purchased Windows 7 Ultimate. However, since that time, VMWare Player 3.0 has introduced the ability to convert that instance and use within VMWare Player 3.0 without violating the MS EULA...so I got what I wanted in the end.

 

[Win7User512]

What would you VPC geeks recommend to speed up XP Mode? Assigning more RAM, or does it have any effect after 1 gig? What else?

Kari

My 3 rules for improving perf.
1. Add more RAM
2. Add more RAM
3. If there are any empty memory sockets , add RAM.

With XP mode it is always a compromise because adding memory to the VM takes it away from the host. So you need to balance VM performance against host performance.

The other thing which will make a difference is the type of virtual hard disk you use. By default XP-Mode creates differencing disk for each XP VM , a differencing disk is slower than a single disk, and if you have a single disk a Fixed disk is better quicker on writes than the a dynamically expanding disk .

Then the speed of the disk has an impact.

I'm a systems admin for a living with a considerable amount of experience with virtual machines...both stand-alone applications as well as hypervisor based products.

My only complaint with Windows XP Mode...is that it's terribly slow compared to other 3rd party products. While I understand where you are coming from with more RAM and faster hard drives...these aren't really necessary with the 3rd party products.

Yes. I too found that XP Mode is slower than others such as VMWare and VirtualBox.

 

[polycue]

Are you talking about Virtual PC, or when you use applications from (XP/Win 7 etc) virtualized into the host environment?

You can have a look at this other thread to get the main point that I am making
http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/21575-xp-mode-slow-any-way-improve.html

In a nutshell, the XP Mode while easy to install and use...but is considerably slower to boot and launch applications than running XP installed under VMWare Player 3.0 or Sun VirtualBox 3.x

Originally, I was very bummed because I wanted to make use of the activated copy of XP that I was entitled to when I purchased Windows 7 Ultimate. However, since that time, VMWare Player 3.0 has introduced the ability to convert that instance and use within VMWare Player 3.0 without violating the MS EULA...so I got what I wanted in the end.

Can VMWare Player 3.0 and Windows Virtual PC co-exist on the same machine?

 

[Kari]

Can VMWare Player 3.0 and Windows Virtual PC co-exist on the same machine?

You can have VMWare, Sun VirtulaBox and Virtual PC installed on the same machine at the same time, but you can only have one of those running on any given moment. When I want to run Mandriva Linux which I have installed on VirtualBox, I have to first shut down Virtual PC and XP Mode

Kari

 

[Win7User512]

Can VMWare Player 3.0 and Windows Virtual PC co-exist on the same machine?

You can have VMWare, Sun VirtulaBox and Virtual PC installed on the same machine at the same time, but you can only have one of those running on any given moment. When I want to run Mandriva Linux which I have installed on VirtualBox, I have to first shut down Virtual PC and XP Mode

Kari

Yeah, I tried running XP Mode and VirtualBox but a nasty error came up.

I enjoyed this Q & A with the MS people. We should shoot for that again for another topic or topics.

 

[sygnus21]

I enjoyed this Q & A with the MS people. We should shoot for that again for another topic or topics.

True dat

 

[Kari]

I enjoyed this Q & A with the MS people. We should shoot for that again for another topic or topics.

+1

Hopefully it was not the last time...

 

[sygnus21]

OK, so I just now tried to get into my Virtual PC/XP Mode and got this error when clicking the "Windows XP Mode" icon...



Anybody know what's going on here. I haven't made any changes to the machine since installing it. And it initially worked, as I was posting about it here. Now for some odd reason it doesn't

If I click on the "Windows Virtual PC" icon, it takes me here.... C:\Users\MyName\Virtual Machines



...and clicking that link (windows xp mode.vmcx) gives the same error... :huh:

I'm thinking about doing a reinstall. However when I did attempt to do the uninstall, I was warned that the files on the VHD will also be removed. So I’d like to try going around that first.

Again, don’t know why the error since I’ve made no changes to the machine since installing the program.

Any suggestions on a fix?

Thanks.

 

[Kari]

This has happened two times to me. Only workaround I've found is to create a new virtual machine using your existing XP Mode vhd-file.

Goes like this:

• Open C:\Users\Your_Username\Virtual Machines, click Create virtual machine
• Name the new vm, click Next
  
• Specify amount of RAM you want to assign to this vm, click Next
• Choose Use an existing virtual hard disk
• Click Browse, choose the existing XPM vhd (default location C:\Users\Your_Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Mode.vhd)
  
• Click Create
• Test your new XP Mode. If it starts and runs, you can now delete the old XP Mode by removing following files:
  • Windows XP Mode.vhd
  • Windows XP Mode.vmc
  • Windows XP Mode.vmc.vpcbackup
  • Windows XP Mode.vsv (exists only if vhd was hibernated)
    The above mentioned files are located in C:\Users\Your_Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines
  • Windows XP Mode.vmcx in C:\Users\Your_Username\Virtual Machines

This has worked for me.

Kari