# Setting Up a Virtual Machine using MS VPC



## iMav (Jan 25, 2008)

As always nothing good to do so thought of looking around whats new from Microsoft for a normal PC user like me and I remembered I had downloaded MS Virtual PC but never actually tired it as my old horse cannot handle a virtual environment efficiently but what the hell if it can run Vista it bloody hell can run a virtual machine. I know there are a lot of other options available for creating a virtual machine but why look else where when Microsoft provides something as powerful.

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/5134/63246266mp2.jpg
​Note: I have not tried any of the other available options, I used this and I liked this*.*

First we need to download Microsoft Virtual PC (MS VPC). Please *follow this* link to the download page. To use Virtual PC you should make sure that your machine can provide a little more than the minimum requirements of an OS.

Now reading the list you will see Microsoft has listed its Operating Systems, this does not mean that MS VPC does not support Linux Distros, it does and I will give you a tour of MS VPC by loading Ubuntu 6.06 (I could not find my Windows 98 bootable, so had to turn to the next least resource hungry OS with me) 
Lets begin with what are the benefits of using a virtual environment:
 Saves the hassle of setting up a dual boot
 The ability to use 2 desktop environments at the same time
 Allows you to see how the other OS behaves and works
 Install any number of OSs
 Makes you look cool
So, now lets begin with what MS VPC has to offer: 
Once you have installed it, the first time you run it you are welcomed by a Setup Wizard. The wizard is very simple and you just need to read and choose the option you need and your ready. Let's run through the setup wizard.

*Screen 1: Welcome*

blah blah ... just hit Next blindy here

*Screen 2: Type of Setup*

Here we have 3 options:
 A New VM
 A New VM with all default settings - pretty cool i think no need for 1 to go through a wizard
 Add an existing VMC (Will talk about this towards the end)
We will choose the first option as we dont like default settings and theres no fun in computing unless you choose options yourself.

*Screen 3: Choose the OS*

OK, let the fun begin ... This is the screen where you choose which OS would you like to install; the drop-down shows all Microsoft OSs and the default (minimum) hardwre requirements for the corresponding OS on the right. As we are going to run Linux we will choose Other. Also, dont worry about the default hardware selection, this wizard will allow you to change that in the coming steps.

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/9227/83687306qo7.jpg​ 
*Screen 4: RAM Adjustment* 

As I said - the wizard will allow you to change thesettings for the hardware resources. This is where you cna choose the amount of RAM that you want should be alloted to the guest OS. We have 2 options here:
 Use recommended RAM (The 1 that was shown under Default Hardware Selection on the previous screen)
 Adjust the amount of RAM manually
We are techies and thereby dont go for recommended settings! So, we will choose Adjusting the RAM; also it always better to allot RAM more than the minimum or recommended amount for obvious reason. A simple slider for adjusting the RAM and a box for manually entering vague amounts of RAM are provided choose the 1 you feel like.

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/3264/51501519gw5.jpg​ 
*Screen 5: Virtual Hard-Disk Setup*

Virtual OS - Virtual Hard-Disk. Welcome to the wizard to setup your Virtual HDD for the guest OS to store its files. Again a very simple wizard which allows you to either use an existing virtual hdd or setup a new 1, depending on your choice. As this is aour first time - we do not have a virtual hdd and there by we select A new virtual hard disk. 

*Screen 6: Virtual HDD Location & Size*

This screen allows you to setup your Viirtual HDD - where you want to save this hdd and allows you to define the size of the virtual hdd. You can browse to any location where you have sufficient space to install and use the guest OS.

NOTE: This is a Organic or a Dynamically Expanding HDD and can be converted into a Fixed size hdd or can also be compressed at a later stage. 

*Screen 7: Final*

This is the last screen of the Setup Wizard and gives you a summary of the options you have chosen and the settings you have saved.

Now that we have setup our Virtual Machine and are finished with our Wizard this is the VPC Console from where you can change the settings or fire up the Virtual Machine 

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/4412/83735441vh7.jpg
​Here  you can see the newly created machine, as you see the name shown is "Manan-Ubuntu" you can change this nae after the wiard by selecting the virtual machine and hitting Settings. Now let us see after setting up the machine via the wizard what all changes can be made to the Virtual Machine. You will be surprised to see that you can change almost everything and more!!!

*Virtual Machine Settings Screen 1:*

As I said you can change the name of the machine adn thats not only it there is a huge list in the left column that allows you change and set almost everything about you guest OS resources. As you can see you have the option of assigning more than 1 virtual hard disk to the guest OS. You can set the guest OS to use your physical CD_ROM drive; yes even floppy drive support is there! The COM ports; Network adapters; Sound; Display; Mouse .... almost every hardware that you use on your machine can be setup on how should it behave or how should your guest OS interact with that device. I will not be showing you all the Setting options but some of them I have discussed below.

*Virtual Machine Settings Screen 2:*

You alloted too much RAM or too little RAM for the guest OS during the wizard - tension not! You can re-define the amount of RAM your guest OS should use from the settings menu and here you have the slider and a box for helping you with that.

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/1433/40065036qx3.jpg​ 
*Virtual Machine Settings Screen 3:* 

Now I am showing you this option because I really liked what it allows you to do. Whenever you choose to shut down yur virtual machine you will be greeted with a shut down prompt similar to tghe 1 we get in windows but this goes a step further and allows you to define an action that should take place everytime you shoose shut down witout getting a prompt and you even have the option of seeing the prompt everytime or the virtual machine automatically performing the defined action. The below screenshot will explain things more easily. 

*VPC Window 1:*

After saving and closing the settings wizrd or after completing the wizard if u choose the 'Start' option you will see this screen:

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/9775/59194708mi7.jpg​ 
This is your Virtual Machine Window which acts as the monitor for your guest OS. The CD option you see there shows me 3 options:
Capture ISO image - With this you can browse to an ISO image of an OS and it will boot or access that ISO disc.
Release Physical Drive - I have chosen for VPC to access my physical CD-ROM drive as i will be booting Linux from there.
Eject CD - For ejecting your physical CD-ROM drive.
It has an in-nbuilt ISO reader which allows you to directly load an ISO image; VPC can boot with it or even access it later. 
Once your machine starts processing its like the screen we used to see in the good old days with everythign being shown as to what loads the amount of RAM etc.

*VPC Window 2: BIOS Settings*

It is pretty much like your normal BIOS but less options. I hope you did not expect a full fledged BIOS here too! 

As i said pretty much like the 1 you have but with lesser options and not without the basic options of setting how your machine behaves, you can change the boot devices pretty much like how you do it on your normal PC. Here is the Boot option screen:

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/674/38985779sb3.jpg​ 
Ok, now the BIOS is set to boot from the CD we have captured the CD now lets boot into the OS with the CD, I have put the Ubuntu bootable disc in the tray and have restarted my machine.

*NOTE: To restart a VMC the keyboard buttons are Alt+Del as opposed to Ctrl+Alt+Delete in a normal environment*

That's it enough of setting u and tweaking now lets see what does ubuntu look like when booting:

*VPC Window 3: Ubuntu Live Disc Boot Menu*

Here is the boot menu option of the live cd of ubuntu:

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/2752/78861642yz5.jpg​ 
At the bottom left of the screen you see a few icons namely:
Hard-Disk
CD-ROM
Floppy
Folder
Network
Lets say VPC is accessing your CD-ROM in that case you will see something like this:

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/2571/39224800mj9.jpg

The dot binks on the resource being used at the time; so if your VPC is using the network there will be a blinking dot on the Network  icon so on and so forth.

Lets choose - Start or Install Linux and move forward to get the ubuntu desktop. It did take some time to load the desktop and the boot screen was displayed for a long time. But it was great to see the Linux Desktop finally appearing inside Windows

*VPC Window Screen 4: Ubuntu Start UP*

Here is the Guest & Host together:

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/8206/97006554aw1.jpg​
Now that we are in Ubuntu and lets say we want to use the mouse then we need to first 'Captuer' it; dont worry all you have to do is click in the Virtul Machine Windows and voila its done; now lets say you want to access the host machine and want to take your mouse pointer out of the Guest OS all you need to do is press the right Alt and your normal mouse pointer will be activated. U will get a prompt that will explain this to u.

To view the Guest OS in full screen or your Virtual Machine is Full Screen all one needs to do is hit Alt+Enter and to exit the Full Screen its again Alt+Enter (Windows Media Player uses the same combo of keys to switch to & from Full Screen Mode). You will get this prompt which will tell you how to access your host machine once you are in Full Screen mode:

*img134.imageshack.us/img134/61/71824281sp5.jpg​ 
Well that was this and now one of the better parts of using a Virtual Environment is that you can carry your Virtual Machine and access it on any machine having Microsoft Virtual PC. Lets say once you have installed Ubuntu or Windows XP on a virtual hard disk all you have to do is carry the virtual hdd (*.vhd) and virtual machine settings file (*.vmc) we created earlier in a pen drive. The location of both these files are defined by you in the initial steps of the Setup Wizard. Make sure MS VPC is installed on the other machine and all you have to do is double click on the VPC machine file with the extension *.vmc and it will automatically add itself to the MS VPC console and you can start using the Guest OS.

 This is it, here i end my wlak through of Microsoft's Virtual Environment Client - Microsoft Virtual PC. Please remember that Virtual Environments require a powerful machine and thereby if a particular OS runs slower or not smoothly does not mean that it will give the same performance incase of a native install. A personal tip while using VPC is to give it with Highest Resource Priority from the Windows Task Manager.

Peace, have fun ... these are just the first steps to achieve the Matrix.

*Full Walk Thorough with more Images*


----------



## RCuber (Jan 25, 2008)

*Re: Etting Up a Virtual Machine using MS VPC*

Great work Manan . 10/10.


----------



## vaibhavtek (Jan 25, 2008)

*Re: Etting Up a Virtual Machine using MS VPC*

nice amazing


----------



## nvidia (Jan 25, 2008)

*Re: Etting Up a Virtual Machine using MS VPC*

Nice tutorial.....


----------



## casanova (Jan 25, 2008)

*Re: Etting Up a Virtual Machine using MS VPC*

Nice tut iMav. Thx for clarifying that MS Virtual PC supports linux. Somewhere I had read that it doesn't support linux.


----------



## iMav (Jan 26, 2008)

*Re: Etting Up a Virtual Machine using MS VPC*

thank u for the appreciation and yeah it runs linux 

btw wat are the mods doing i reported a change in the title hasnt been done


----------



## INS-ANI (Feb 26, 2008)

i tried the same,but i guess the virtual machine setup i have is outdated. I installed it from digit july and november 2007 CD.

Before installation i was given a warning thatthe S?W may not be compatible with my OS(that is vista basic) and i installed it anyway, but again i was told that the S?W is not compatible with my cuirrent OS.


----------



## achutes (Jun 24, 2009)

Thank's Now I am running inux Under vista .


----------

