Windows 7 on Virtual PC on Windows 7

You might be interested to know that this is a combination that works just fine.  Here is a screenshot of Windows 7 on Virtual PC 2007 on Windows 7:

Win7VPC

Though there are a couple of things you should know:

  • Use Virtual PC 2007 SP1.  Earlier versions of Virtual PC will not work.
  • You need to tell the new virtual machine wizard that you are going to install Windows Vista - so you get the right sound device.
  • While all the integration aspects of Virtual Machine Additions work (mouse integration, shared folders, etc...) there is no performance tuning for Windows 7 at this stage - so for best performance you should use a system with hardware vitalization support.

Two other random points to make:

  • If you are upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 Beta, the virtual machine network services driver be uninstalled.  You need to reinstall Virtual PC to get this back - but you will not lose any of your virtual machines by doing this (so do not fear - it just takes a minute or to do - and you will be up and running).

  • Virtual PC's behavior of minimizing the Virtual PC console to the tray rather than the taskbar is a bit problematic with the Windows 7 super-bar.  To get this to work properly you might want to change the setting for Virtual PC to have its taskbar icon always displayed:

    Win7VPC2

Cheers,
Ben