Windows xp virtual machine. Installing Windows XP on a VirtualBox virtual machine

Virtualization is quite a hot topic in the world of operating systems. Information technology specialists responsible for large-scale server farms, as well as home users, simply rejoice at the opportunity to run one operating system inside another. However, nothing is more controversial than the benefits of a virtual operating system on your desktop PC. Of course, experimenters and virus makers like the opportunity to run Windows XP under Vista, Windows 7, MacOS, and Linux-based operating systems to test their “masterpieces” and run the necessary programs. This opportunity is also useful for those who want to do away with the “small-soft” OS forever, but do not dare to do this due to the impossibility of running some programs under the Wine emulator.

To determine whether you need a Windows XP virtual system, answer the following questions:

Do you want to try reinstalling the operating system you are working under?
Do you want to check the operation of a program downloaded from the network on some other “not my” computer to see how it installs, for the presence of viruses, whether the program will satisfy you, and then decide whether it is worth installing it on a real computer or not?
Do you want your experiments to not in any way affect the operation of a real computer, on which perhaps not only you are working??

If the answer to the questions is yes, then after reading this article you will receive virtual Windows XP on board your PC.

Let's consider virtualization using VirtualBox as an example, since this program can be installed on almost any OS, however, bug-free operation, including all its capabilities (such as connecting via RDP to the virtual system console) is only available on Linux, so Ubuntu Linux was chosen. For VirtualBox itself, no special configuration of the installed axis is required; it is enough to allocate a separate disk or partition for storing images of virtual systems and a folder with images of installation disks for installation.

Key features of the program:

Cross-platform (can run on any computer)
Modularity (additional modules that increase functionality)
USB 2.0 support, when the host machine's devices become open to the guest operating system
Support for 64-bit guest systems
Support for already created hard disk images VMDK (VMware) and VHD (Microsoft Virtual PC), including snapshots
Built-in RDP server, with possible support for USB client devices over RDP protocol
Experimental support for hardware 3D accelerator (Open GL, Direct X)
Support for virtualization and audio devices (emulation of AC 97 or Sound Blaster16 or Intel HD Audio codecs to choose from)
Supports various types of network infrastructure configuration (NAT, Host Networking via Bridged, Internal)
The ability to create chains of saved virtual machine states (snapshots), to which a rollback can be applied from the last saved state of the guest operating system
Shared Folders support for quick exchange of information between host and guest systems
Possible desktop integration (seamless mode) between host and guest operating systems
Russian interface support

The add-on package includes the following modules:

VirtualBox Guest Additions is a set of software that is installed in a guest operating system and increases the range of its applications in relation to the virtualization system and the host system (for example, after installing special “virtual video card” drivers, it becomes possible to change the desktop resolution of the guest axis in an arbitrary manner following the size of the window VirtualBox in which this virtual machine is running)
The basic version is entirely open source under the GNU GPL license, so there are no restrictions on use
RDP server (allows you to connect to a virtual system remotely using any of the compatible clients)

USB port support allows you to transfer access to USB devices to the virtual machine

Intel PXEboot - loading the operating system over the grid (possible when used when creating a thin client / diskless workstation)

Preparatory stage for installing Windows XP in Virtualbox

Download the virtualization program. VirtualBox is available for any platform (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.).

If you have not installed any virtual systems yet, then you need to decide on which storage media the created virtual machines will be located (drive C:, D: in the Home directory). The main point here is the availability of sufficient space for deployment. Select the drive and create a directory with a name such as Virtual.

Initial setup of the virtualization program

To do this, open our virtualization program and go to Settings, specifying the Folder for the virtual machine (for example, D:Virtual) and clicking OK.

Now you need to create a new machine, select a type and name. After entering, click Forward.

In the next window, specify the size of RAM (Windows XP requires a minimum of 256 MB).

If you need a lot of free space on the virtual hard drive and the speed of the virtual machine is not important, choose a Dynamic virtual hard disk. If you don’t care how much space the virtual axis will take up, but the speed of operation is very important, select Fixed size (it doesn’t matter how much space is occupied by the operating system in VirtualBox, you will always have a certain size in gigabytes occupied, specified in the next step).

Dynamic - this is as the operating system installed in VirtualBox fills up (the occupied free space on drive C, for example, which you chose to store the image, also changes). In general, determine the option that is convenient in all cases and click Forward.

Then specify the amount of space for the operating system on VitualBox according to your requirements and click Forward (For Xp min: 2 GB, although 10 GB is recommended). After the virtual disk has been created, the VirtualBox menu window with Windows XP on board will open.

At this installation stage, you need to select an ISO image of Windows XP (or any other for other OSes) in the virtual machine settings. Here we need to indicate that our virtual machine will boot from the ISO. But even without it, we can install Windows XP from a regular “blank” with recorded data.

To do this, go to Settings, select the Media item, click on the IDE Controller, then on the green plus sign and select an image in .ISO format with Windows XP (thus indicating that the boot should start not from an empty hard drive, but from the image .ISO). Having completed these operations, you can begin installing Windows XP in VirtualBox

Installing Windows XP on a virtual machine

So, when the image is specified, our virtual machine is ready to install Windows XP. To do this, go to the main menu of VirtualBox and click on the newly created system, selecting Run or double-click on it.

After this, the created disk will load and files will be downloaded from the installation distribution. Actions will be necessary only when a window with partitioning options opens: how to partition a hard drive.

Click C, select the required size and press Enterr. Then again select drive C, and then quick format.

After rebooting the machine, you do not need to press any keys. You can safely enjoy the Windows XP installation process.

After installing Windows XP in a virtual machine, you need to extract the ISO image so that the next time you start the operating system, the installation does not start again.

Go to Settings → Media → Right-click on ISO Remove device

Now let's launch a virtual machine with Windows XP and select a convenient display type.

Installing drivers is the same as if you were installing an axis on a regular computer, so we’ll skip this step.

After this, you can praise yourself - you have successfully made Windows XP a virtual machine!

Conclusion

Of course, there are some important features associated with running Windows XP Mode on older systems or VirtualBox with a licensed copy of Windows XP. Let's look at them in order:

You need to monitor available updates for two different operating systems (the host system and the guest OS in the virtual machine). For some users this will not be difficult, but in the hands of an inexperienced user it will lead to additional difficulties, since the update will have to be done many more times.

Hardware support, including “firewood” for devices. Standard devices such as USB keys, optical drives, etc. will continue to work. But problems may arise with new devices. For example, there are some problems with virtual machines that support 3D.

Still, taking into account all the problems, is it worth it or not to run a virtual machine at home or in a small office with Windows XP installed on board?

One of the main reasons is security. For example, if you have a shared computer that is used by all family members, then children may use Internet browsers to view prohibited sites. Even if you have installed the best firewall and purchased a licensed antivirus, your children can still end up downloading Trojans, adware or any other malicious code. By installing Windows XP in a virtual machine, users receive a very comfortable and transparent experience, and the virtual machine provides an additional level of protection.
If your goal is to run older programs, then performance is not an issue. Any modern operating system will run old applications perfectly in a virtual machine. Drivers for specialized equipment may be a critical point, but this is also a solvable issue.

A virtualization program is an excellent solution, especially if its user has some experience. Here you can easily run Linux under Windows XP, Windows XP under Linux and DOS, as well as any OS. For home users of legacy applications or to increase security, this will be quite enough. But remember that you will need to support more than one operating system.

VirtualBox (Russian: Virtual Box) is a virtual machine from Oracle Corporation. A free program designed for virtualizing operating systems Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris/OpenSolaris, other platforms are supported.

Benefits of a virtual machine

Using a virtual machine (VM) on a home PC, first of all, will allow you to simultaneously run several operating systems (guest OS).

For example, one of the editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system (host OS) is currently installed on your computer or laptop. Installing a virtual machine, in this case VirtualBox, allows you to use any other systems (guests) in the host OS environment, including macOS, Linux, Android, Windows, and so on; there can be a lot of options here.

Some features and capabilities of VirtualBox

Support for VMDK () and VHD (Microsoft Virtual PC) hard disk images;
Audio device virtualization (optional AC97 / SoundBlaster 16 / Intel HD Audio emulation);
Creating, deleting, restoring VM snapshots;
Shared Folders – creating shared file exchange directories between host and guest systems;
OVF/OVA format support;
Creating secure environments for accessing the Internet;
Supports various connection options: NAT, network bridge, virtual host adapter, etc.;
Experimental support for hardware 3D acceleration;
Cross-platform (Virtual Box, );
Convenient navigation and user-friendly interface;
Multilingual localization – Russian, Ukrainian and other languages;
The program is distributed under the GNU GPL 2 license - free software (no restrictions on use).

Download VirtualBox for Windows

The latest version of Oracle VM VirtualBox for Windows 7, 8.x, 10 is available for download on our website (starting from version 5, Virtual Box does not support Windows XP).

Download VirtualBox for free, without registration.

Spoiler (Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack)

Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack – components that expand the capabilities of the virtual machine (RDP server, support for USB, NVMe, PXE and other capabilities).
Download and install Extension Pack only of the same version as VirtualBox.
Download the latest version of Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack

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VirtualBox is a virtual machine from Oracle Corporation. A free program designed for virtualizing operating systems Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, etc.

Version: VirtualBox 6.0.14

Size: 162 MB

Operating system: Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7

Russian language

Program status: Free

Developer: Oracle

Official site:

What's new in version: List of changes

Operating systems are developing quite rapidly, and with each new version the issue of compatibility of applications and games written, for example, for XP on later versions of the OS - Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 becomes more pressing. For versions, the solution to this compatibility problem is to install a separately downloadable component Windows XP Mode.

In more detail, we have a computer running Windows 7, on which we install an additional package Windows Virtual PC, which allows you to create virtual machines. Inside it we deploy Windows XP Mode - this is a virtual machine surrounded by Virtual PC in which we install XP Mode and, on which XP is already installed, in a sense it is a Windows XP emulator . Due to additional updates, our applications that we install in Windows XP are translated into Windows 7, creating a virtual environment.

Windows XP Emulator for Windows 10

In the Windows 8 and 10 operating systems, support for virtualization is also present, only now on Hyper-V technology. Where can you install a full-fledged operating system on a virtual machine. Hyper-V is included by default in all new OSes. But initially, during installation, it is disabled, and in order to start working with virtual machines and, for example, install Windows XP, you will need to enable it in the settings for enabling and disabling Windows components.

If the computer processor does not support virtualization, then you will not be able to work with Hyper-V, you simply will not be able to enable it, this item in the settings will be inactive.

Virtual machine

If Hyper-V is not available due to limited technical capabilities, or, more precisely, the processor does not support virtualization. In such cases, you can use third-party applications with which you can create virtual machines and deploy our operating systems in them. One such third-party program is VirtualBox. Here we can deploy as many machines as needed, of any version and capacity. These are full-fledged operating systems running in a virtual environment.

To use VirtualBox, you need to click on the “Create” button in the window of the running program. This is necessary in order to create a virtual hard disk for subsequent installation of the operating system into it.
We set a name and select the version and bit depth for our future machine; the system will automatically determine the size of the required disk space that will be allocated for installation. The amount of memory can be set manually, of course.

Next, we don’t change anything in the settings, but click “Next” - Next - Next three times in the virtual hard disk creation wizard.
Specify the file name and size, as well as the path (the location on the hard drive where our machine will be stored).

We have created a virtual hard disk, now you can install our operating system on it.

Click on the “Run” button and in the window that opens, select the section where we have the ISO image of the system. The further installation process will not differ from the usual installation of Windows XP.

There is a fairly wide range of programs that are still very actively used at the moment, but on modern versions of the operating system they work incorrectly or do not work at all. What should you do if you have software installed on your computer that works well on Windows XP, but crashes on the newer Windows 7? The most rational way in this situation is to use the virtual OS Windows XP, which can be installed on Windows 7. Sometimes this can even be called the only way out, because modern drivers sometimes do not support the operation of old equipment.

So what is virtual mechanism mode? In short, using this mode, you can run an earlier version of the product on a computer with Windows 7 installed. It is part of the Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization technology (MEDV for short) and comes in the form of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.

A distinctive feature of using such a virtual machine is full integration with the parent system - the user will be able to distinguish Windows XP from the installed main seven only by different window designs. Therefore, it will not be confused with the desktops of two operating systems, switching from one system to another, which is very convenient. In addition, there will be no problems running applications written exclusively for Windows XP or earlier versions - they will run in an environment that is “familiar” to them. If you intend to actively use Windows XP, but do not intend to install it as a guest OS, you will simply need to use a virtual machine. In this case we are talking about a machine called Virtual PC.

Before installation

Before installing the Virtual PC virtual machine on your computer, you should make sure that your central processor supports visualization technology. Although the vast majority of modern microprocessors support this function, it would be a good idea to check it again. After all, without the support of visualization instructions, it is simply impossible to install the machine.

You should also be aware that only 32-bit systems can be installed on the machine (even if the main OS is 64-bit).

System updates may be required for the virtual machine to function correctly. Without some updates, the program will not work, and installing all the latest versions significantly increases the level of security.

Program installation

Installation of Virtual PC is carried out using the wizard for creating the appropriate devices. Thanks to it, you can configure the basic parameters of Windows XP the way you personally need it. For example, you can set a certain amount of RAM that will be available to your machine.

Let's move directly to the installation algorithm:

Click on the Start menu button and open the Windows Virtual PC folder;
A folder called “Virtual Machines” opens, where all machines installed on the computer are displayed (if there were any previously). Select the item “Create a virtual machine”;
A wizard opens where you can select the desired configuration, namely: determine the name and location of the system, determine the available memory, and create a virtual HDD device.

When the wizard completes, the newly created Virtual PC virtual machine will appear in the above folder. If necessary, you can set access restrictions for certain users. This is done using the “Sharing” item.

That's it, the Virtual PC virtual machine is installed. In order to launch it, you need to select the desired machine from the list of available ones and click “Open”. The OS installer program will open. Installing an operating system on a machine involves using an installation disk with an XP system. Virtual Windows XP is installed in the same way as a regular operating system.

As soon as the installation is complete, in the same folder you need to select “Service/Install integration components”. Installation of integration components is also carried out using the corresponding wizard. After it is completed, the computer will need to be restarted, and only then the machine with XP installed on it will be ready for use.

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Virtualization is an umbrella term that covers the abstraction of resources for many aspects of computing. Some of the most typical examples of virtualization are given below. In turn, a virtual machine is an environment that appears to the “guest” operating system as hardware. However, in reality it is a software environment that is simulated by the host system software. This simulation must be robust enough to allow the guest drivers to operate reliably. When using paravirtualization, the virtual machine does not simulate the hardware, but instead offers the use of a special API.

Terms used:

Host system (host)- a computer running the virtualization platform
Guest operating system- operating system running inside a virtual machine
Virtual machine, virtual environment- virtualized computer hardware that can run a guest operating system and applications. Several virtual machines can be running at the same time
Virtual application- a virtual machine with a pre-installed guest operating system and fully configured applications, aimed at solving a specific task

In this guide, I will talk about the new virtualization features of the Windows 7 operating system. Virtual PC Windows is a new optional system component that can be used to deploy and migrate compatibility support for applications in Windows 7 that can be managed on legacy operating systems. This component is available when you download the update package.

Virtual PC Windows provides an easy way to manage Windows XP and support compatibility for applications that need to be managed on this operating system. Can be used to access a virtual image of Windows XP that is ready to provide compatibility customization with the applications the user needs. You can even use Windows XP Mode and Windows 7 to run applications directly from Windows 7 when the applications are, in principle, installed in the Windows XP virtual machine. Windows XP Mode is available in Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Ultimate.

Under the Windows 7 operating system, other 32-bit operating systems can also be used in Windows Virtual PC. Namely:

Windows XP - only Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Professional is supported;
Windows Vista - only Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate are supported;
Windows 7 - only Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate are supported;

In this guide, I will describe several options for using Virtual PC - installing Windows XP Mode, as well as installing another operating system. In both cases, virtual machines are used to provide management of the operating system. Windows XP Mode is a faster method because... it involves fewer steps and effort. Once the operating system test environment is installed, we'll look at a few key features of Windows Virtual PC, such as sharing physical resources: USB devices, printers, and hard drives.

Pre-installation steps

To install Windows Virtual PC, you must download and install a specific system update. Before you install Windows Virtual PC, you need to review the requirements to determine whether your computer can run Windows Virtual PC. Windows Virtual PC requires Windows 7 hardware support for virtualization. Virtualization support is available for processors that include a virtualization option—namely, processors with Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) and AMD Virtualization Technology (AMD-V), as well as some VIA processors. You can enable hardware support for virtualization using the BIOS. For more detailed information regarding hardware support for a specific virtualization processor, it is best to consult the hardware manufacturer's Web site.

In order to find out whether hardware virtualization is supported in Intel processors, you need to do the following:

Download, install and run Intel Processor Identification Utility;
Go to the “CPU Technologies” tab and read the value in the “Intel Virtualization Technology” field

In order to find out whether hardware virtualization is supported on AMD processors, you need to download, install and run the AMD Virtualization Compatibility Check Utility

The following list shows some Intel processor models that have hardware virtualization support:

Pentium 4 662 and 672
Pentium Extreme Edition 955 and 965 (not Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with HT) Pentium D 920-960 except 945, 935, 925, 915
Core Duo T2300, T2400, T2500, T2600, T2700 (Yonah)
Core 2 Duo E6300, E6400, E6320, E6420, E6540, E6550, E6600, E6700, E6750, E6850 (Conroe)
Core 2 Duo E7600, E8200, E8300, E8400, E8500, E8600 and some versions of the E7400 and E7500 (Wolfdale)
Mobile Core 2 Duo T5500, T5600, T7100, T7200, T7250, T7300, T7400, T7500, T7600, T7600G, T7700, T7800 (Merom)
Mobile Core 2 Duo SU9300, SU9400, SU9600, P7370, P8400, P8600, P8700, P8800, P9500, P9600, P9700, T8100, T8300, T9300, T9400, T9500, T9600, T9800, T9900 (Pen ryn)
Core 2 Quad Q6600, Q6700 (Kentsfield)
Core 2 Quad Q8400, Q8400S, Q9300, Q9400, Q9400S, Q9450, Q9550, Q9550S, Q9650 and some versions of the Q8300 (Yorkfield)
Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Conroe_XE)
Core 2 Extreme QX6700, QX6800, QX6850 (Kentsfield_XE) Core 2 Extreme QX9650, QX9770, QX9775 (Yorkfield_XE) Xeon 3000, 5000, 7000 series
Atom Z520, Z530, Z540, Z550, Z515 (Silverthorne)
all Intel Core i7 processors
Pentium Dual-Core E6300, E6500 and some versions of the E5300 and E5400*
Celeron E3000 series

This section of the guide describes the process of installing Windows Virtual PC, as well as installing the virtual machine itself. Additional configuration and technical details in the examples.

Installing Windows Virtual PC

After installing Windows Virtual PC, you need to install a virtual machine. You can use Windows XP Mode or create your own virtual machine. If you plan to use Windows XP, you can download it using the Windows XP Mode installation package discussed in the "Before You Begin" section.

A little about integration components

Integration components make a virtual machine easier to use by improving the interaction between physical resources and the virtual machine environment. They are installed automatically along with Windows XP Mode. For other operating systems, they must be installed manually after installing the operating system itself. Integration components are included with Windows Virtual PC and provide access to the following resources:

Installing Windows XP Mode

Installation process:

Attention

You should not uninstall a package if you will no longer use it. If you uninstall it, the Windows XP Mode feature package will no longer be available and you may lose important data. Uninstalling the package removes the virtual machine and also stops access to the data that was stored in the virtual machine;
Microsoft recommends keeping an archived copy of the Windows XP Mode package (WindowsXPMode_xx-XX.exe, where xx-XX is the system language) as a backup in case you need to restore the Windows XP Mode environment. For example, you can burn the .exe file to a CD or DVD. It is highly recommended to have a backup copy because Windows XP Mode has 2 virtual hard disks - a parent virtual hard disk and a differential disk. A differential disk cannot be used without a parent disk. If the parent disk is deleted or damaged, you must update the existing Windows XP Mode environment. In this case, you need to use the same parent hard drive that was used previously if you will be installing Windows XP Mode again

The installation process is as follows:

After installing Windows XP Mode, you may want to create new accounts for this component. If you create accounts, you will need to add them to the Remote Desktop User and Administrators groups. Accounts can be either domain or local.

Installing a virtual machine manually

This method can be used if you do not want your guest system to be Windows XP. In this section, I'll show you how you can create a virtual machine and install the guest operating system that you plan to manage in Virtual PC. You can use the Create Virtual Machine Wizard to create a virtual machine. The wizard will walk you through configuring the virtual machine with basic settings that you can customize to suit your needs for using the virtual machine. For example, you can specify a certain amount of memory that the virtual machine will use. The amount of RAM allocated should be the same as what you would allocate to a physical computer. It is advisable to provide the virtual machine with enough memory so that you can easily manage the operating system and applications installed on it. You should also pay attention to how you will install the guest operating system. For example, to install an operating system, you can use a network installation server or a physical CD or DVD drive into which you simply place the installation disk with the system. If you are installing a Virtual PC-supported guest operating system, you will need to install the Integration Component Pack after installation.

You need to open the virtual machine folder. To do this, go to the menu “ Start", select " Windows Virtual PC" If this item is not immediately available in the menu, you need to click on the menu “ Start" on " All programs", left-click on the folder " Windows Virtual PC", and then select " Windows Virtual PC»
The folder " Virtual machines" From the menu area, click on “”.

Folder " Virtual machines" provides detailed information about all virtual machines created by the current user, and from this folder you can share, create and modify virtual machines and virtual disks.
The Create Virtual Machine Wizard will open. After going through the wizard dialogs, you will select the required settings for installing the guest operating system.

The first step is to name the new virtual machine and specify its location.

In the second step, the virtual machine creation wizard prompts us to specify memory parameters for the virtual machine.

The third step requires you to specify the virtual machine disk settings.
At the end of the wizard, the virtual machine will be displayed in the list of files in the “ Virtual machines».
Installing a guest operating system. If you are using a network installation server, you can safely skip this step. If you are using a CD or DVD, insert it into the drive carriage and proceed to the next installation step. To use the .iso image you need to do the following:
a) Right-click on the created virtual machine and select " Options»;
B) In the left pane, select the drive where the image is located. In the right pane, select " Open ISO image" Click the button OK.
Start the virtual machine. In the list of files, select the virtual machine and click " Open" Windows Virtual PC will open the system installer for the virtual machine. The virtual machine will look for the installation disk. The installation will begin once the boot disk is found.
After the installation is completed, you need to install the integration components. Click on the menu " Service" in the virtual machine window and select the item "". If the installation does not start after a few seconds, go to the desktop of the virtual machine and open the CD in it. After this, you need to double-click on the file with the left mouse button IntegrationComponents.msi.
Complete the installation using the Integration Components Installation Wizard.
Reboot the virtual machine. From the menu " Action" in the virtual machine window, select " Reboot»

Closing a virtual machine

Before you start performing some actions in the virtual machine, you may want to know how to log out of the virtual machine. When you close a virtual machine, it may hibernate, shut down, or shut down. When a virtual machine wakes up from hibernation mode, it does not boot the system sequentially, so this option is much faster than shutting down and shutting down.

Attention

When you open a virtual machine, Windows Virtual PC provides it with memory and processing resources. The length of time it takes to open a virtual machine depends on how you closed it during your last session. The amount of memory you allocated when creating the virtual machine also matters. By default, when you click the “Close” button in the virtual machine window, the Windows XP Mode virtual machine goes into hibernation mode and prompts you to select the same action for other virtual machines. You can change this option yourself.

Changes to the default action to close a virtual machine

Shutting down a virtual machine

In the virtual machine window, click on Ctrl+Alt+Del. Or you can press the key combination CTRL+ALT+END.
In the guest operating system window that appears, click on “ Shut Down».
The operating system will be turned off, the resources consumed by it will be returned to the host system.

Attention! If you want the installed software to appear on the desktop of the host operating system, you need to log out of your account before closing the virtual machine.

If you are running certain versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 in a virtual machine, then you have the ability to access an application directly from the desktop on the host computer when the application is installed in the virtual machine. With this feature, you can run existing applications on your Windows 7 host machine, avoiding problems that may arise if they are not compatible with the host operating system.

Business applications running on the Windows XP operating system are great for testing this feature. However, Windows Virtual PC does not support applications that require stereo sound or 3D graphics. This means that user applications, such as games, cannot be launched in this case.

Using USB devices in a virtual machine.

Windows Virtual PC supports USB devices version 2.0, and it is also possible to share a device or record from a device to a virtual machine. The method you use depends on the type of USB device you are using. If integration components are installed and enabled by the guest operating system, storage devices and smart card readers are automatically shared between the virtual machines and the physical computer. No additional steps are required for these types of storage devices. For other types, their use is possible by attaching them to a virtual machine. For example, you can attach the following types of USB devices:

Digital cameras;
USB CD drive;
MP3 players;
Phone/PDA/mobile device;
Webcams/video cameras;
Wireless network adapters.

Printing from a virtual machine

There are several ways to make a printer available on a virtual machine. Some factors that influence the methods you can use include whether a printer driver is available on Windows 7 and whether the printer is connected locally or over a network. You can also use the XPS format if your computer supports this printing method.

Using a Local USB Printer

Attention! This method is suitable if drivers are available for both systems - the Windows 7 host system and the guest operating system. You only need to go through a few steps to install the printer on a virtual machine. The following steps assume that you have already printed to the printer using the host operating system.

Make sure the printer is turned on and available for driver installation. For example, you can install drivers on it using a CD.

Connect the printer to the virtual machine. To do this, in the virtual machine window, click on “ USB" and then to " DeviceName Sharing».
Install the printer driver on the guest operating system. You can install the driver via the Internet or use a CD.
Disconnect the printer from the virtual machine. To do this, from the virtual machine window, click on “ USB" and then to " Device_name Release».
Reboot the virtual machine. To do this, from the virtual machine window, click on “ Action" and then to " Reboot».
The printer will be available on both systems, both the host and the guest.

If you are using a Windows XP guest system, you must manually install the driver for the printer that will be used.