Running an existing VHD Image in Windows 7 RC 1

In my previous post, I showed the difficulty of running Virtual Server 2005 on Windows 7 RC 1 due to the “Hard Block” and I vowed to try to get an existing VHD running inside Win 7. Here is a screenshot showing my VHD running in all its glory in Windows 7 Release Candidate 1. Its a SharePoint (MOSS 2007) image that I created a long long time ago.

 

In order to get an existing VHD running, the option you can use is Windows Virtual PC.

1. Download and install Windows Virtual PC from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx.
2. Navigate to a folder that contains the VHD and VMC file like the image shown below and double click on the VMC file.

   

3. This will start up the Virtual PC and ask you to install the integration module. Click ok and after a restart, you should see the login screen for your VHD image.

 

For now this method will get you running in the environment. However, I am finding that it is painfully slow, much like using the Remote Control Client that ships with Virtual Server 2005. Next thing to find out is how to set this up efficiently and in a way that allows you to get things done.

 

 

Update (6/1/2009) 

I setup a Microsoft Loopback Adapter on my machine, bound the Network Adapter for the VHD to it and was able to RDP to that IP. However, it is INSANELY slow! This is NOT a way to run a VHD and do local development. I tried using Windows Virtual PC itself instead of RDP and that was just as slow. Here are the settings for the VHD. As you can see, I am using 2560 MB of RAM. My machine is a dual core CPU with native virtualization support.

 

 

So to summarize, Windows Virtual PC BLOWS, RDP into Windows Virtual PC BLOWS, making the VHD bootable BLOWS (because its complicated and requires you to exist in the VHD OS at all times).

 

MICROSOFT! Just what is a Windows 7 RC 1 (x64) user supposed to do?

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Virtual Server 2005 and Windows 7

Wanna install Virtual Server 2005? Wanna install it on Windows 7? “Big Whoop, Wanna fight about it!”	Paddy Tanninger the Caddy Manager
Ok I know, I promised you all this post a long time ago. 2009/01/21 to be exact. So without much further ado, here is Virtual Server 2005 running on Windows 7.   That’s Windows 7 BETA.
When I tried to install this again on Windows 7 RC 1, I ran into this NASTY little thing. I say nasty with all the venom, hate and loathing I have in every fiber of my body.           To quote Microsoft: Hard Block: The software must exhibit the following behavior to qualify for a hard block: The OS is rendered unusable and unrecoverable (includes bug check). The hard block is preferable to the alternative user experience, including: a. The OS would be left partially functional, and no in-context guidance can be given to the user, and the hard block can provide steps to remedy the problem. b. An application would be left unusable and unrecoverable (can’t be repaired by uninstall or upgrade). This should be an extremely rare case, since recovering from an application installation should be possible through install/uninstall software. The vendor would need to prove that that is not an option.       Hard blocks are EVERYTHING that is wrong with our software industry today. The proverbial PRE KILL SWITCH, the DRM SQUARED, the “I know what’s good for your machine mentality.” If Virtual Server 2005 works with the Windows 7 Beta build, then what have you done to make this program FAIL in the RC version. If all Microsoft is trying to do is encourage people to use the Windows 7 native VHD support, then do so by telling me that in a soft block format but give me the option to do things my way too.
Frustrated, my next step was to try to put a stop to Program Compatibility Assistant (henceforth known as ASS) by using gpedit.msc, disabling services and even installing some updates etc. BTW. What the hell is Program Inventory (PDU), Application Telemetry “The PDU inventories programs and files on the system and sends information about those files to Microsoft. This information is used to help associate files to programs and diagnose application compatibility problems.” Hmm. Seems to me like this could be an invasion of privacy waiting to happen.           Frustrated again, I emailed the SharePoint team asking for some sense of sanity. How do they want us developing on SharePoint if we can’t use Virtual Server. Virtual PC? Scoff! That’s for kiddies and your grandma! Ha!   Thank you to Dave Pae for that email.   So now to go to the following URL and read up:  http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/05/14/native-vhd-support-in-windows-7.aspx

 

 

My next post should come up with a solution for how to make your existing VHD files work with Windows 7 RC 1.

Running Virtual Server 2005 on Windows 7

I am putting together a step-by-step post on how to install, manage and use Virtual Server 2005 on Windows 7. Personally, I believe that Virtual Server 2005 is a LOT better than Virtual PC so I will work with that technology and point out some of its cool “features”.

So look for details on that in a day or so. Hopefully, it will help you get started on Virtualization or working in a separate OS which is a necessity for SharePoint (MOSS/WSS) development or “testing” downloads. 🙂

Update: See my follow up post at https://aboutdev.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/virtual-server-2005-and-windows-7/

I leave you with a link to the Engineering Windows7 blog and specifically to the The Windows 7 Taskbar post. They even have an image of the Windows 1.01 taskbar. AWESOME!

Fix for disabled Wireless Adapter & installing a Loopback Adapter

It appears from blogstats that people are coming to this blog using google searches which is totally awesome because I just got this blog underway again. So what are some of the searches people use:-

• windows 7 network card sleep
• windows 7 enable wireless adapter
• windows 7 laptop sleeps explorer crash
• network loopback “windows 7” or windows7
• windows iis sleep disable
• windows 7 wireless error

Wireless Disabled Issue

It seems that a gaggle of Windows 7 users are facing the wireless issue I talked about in my previous post. To recap, when the machine comes back from Sleep, the wireless adapter is disabled and no amount of fiddling the switch or disabling/enabling the adapter will fix it.

But fear not, oh gaggle of Windows 7 beta users. I have found the solution to all your problem (yes that was singular). The problem is that Windows 7 manages power of your wireless adapter by default. So you will need to go into the wireless properties and turn it off. Here is how.

1) Open the wireless adapter properties.

2) Click on the Configure button.

3) Click on the Power Management tab.

4) Uncheck the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” checkbox.

Make sure you save the changes and now, the adapter should be enabled when you come out of sleep mode.

Loopback adapter in Windows 7 Beta

Another problem that needs attention is how to install a Loopback adapter in Windows 7. You will notice that the ‘Add new hardware’ link in Control Panel is missing. In order to get to it, you will have to type in ‘hdwwiz.exe‘ from the start menu as shown in the image below.

Windows 7

I have been using Windows 7 as my main development machine for a while now and its a very interesting OS. You can read more about it on the interwebs but here are a few things I personally came across.

1) Virtual Server 2005 runs well. Also, my SharePoint (MOSS, WSS) images are running very well on there. I wasn’t able to figure out how to create Loopback adapters but I haven’t needed them. I set the adapter to connect using the wireless network adapter and RDP into the OS using that assigned IP. Noteworthy is just how fast the SharePoint sites come up in the Windows 7 IE 8 browser when I’m connecting to my Virtual Server images.

2) VS 2008 runs but throws a package load error.

3) Flash installer properties crashes explorer.
If I try to look at the properties of the flash installer you see here, Windows Explorer crashes and restarts. To be fair, I am not seeing this error right now. It was happening yesterday night.

4) Wireless networking glitch.
Everytime my laptop goes to sleep, it will completely loose the ability to connect to a wireless network. It appears that the Wireless Adapter gets disabled and will not enable until I reset the machine. The one workaround I found is to disable the adapter manually before shutting down, then enabling it myself when the machine comes out of sleep.

5) IIS slows bootup, significantly.
I have found that installing IIS etc to enable asp.net development really slows the machine down when booting or shutting down. Workaround is to turn off unnecessary services in services.msc and just give it a little time.

6) My color depth is stuck at 16bit.
I cannot get it to 32bit without going into the Nvidia control panel and manually setting it there.

The above were the issues I have faced. Doesn’t really inhibit my ability to work so i’m not too worried. The one thing to remember is that this is a BETA! I don’t expect it to work flawlessly but I do expect these issues will be resolved when the OS goes RTM. It is important to keep things in perspective, ladies and gentlemen.

I am just blown away by the responsiveness of the OS and applications on there! Once the OS has loaded, things are just BLAZING FAST! Here are the specs I am currently using.