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#1
Questions about Windows Virtual PC and its Hard Drive Image
Greetings,
I installed Windows Virtual PC (Version 6.1: Build 7601, SP 1) on my Windows 7 Pro (64-bit) machine so that I could run Windows XP Mode. I recently noticed that when I open up Windows XP Mode, it takes a REALLY LONG TIME to power up, and even longer powering down. In fact, sometimes, it doesn't power down completely, instead, I get an error message saying something went wrong, and the whole thing just shuts down. But when I open XP Mode again, it works fine.
I checked my computer and I see that the Windows XP Mode has a Virtual Machine Hard Drive image that's nearly 17 GB. It's located at: "C:\Users\My Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines". I've seen this file before, a while back, and it was about 5 GB (this was about 10 months ago). I'm assuming that this hard drive image logs all the logins and logouts of XP Mode, and it will likely continue to get bigger and bigger as I continue to use the software.
I use XP Mode primarily to use 3 programs that only work well on XP, so I'll continually need to use it. My questions:
1) Is there anything I can do to get this hard drive image to get smaller OR keep it from getting larger?
2) If I simply delete that hard drive image, will it re-appear OR cause my XP Mode to no longer work?
Thanks in advance for answering these questions. I'm not overly technical, but I know just enough about computers to be able to set up XP Mode on my own, and know how to use it to install software, so please keep in mind I'm not a techie when you respond. I appreciate it.