Disabling Integrated Mode in Windows Virtual PC

Earlier this week I talked about integrated mode in Windows Virtual PC.  And there I mentioned that there are times that you may want to disable integrated mode.  You can do this on a running virtual machine by using the tools menu:

int2

You can also permanently disable integrated mode by disabling integration features under the virtual machine settings:

int3

But what if you need to disable integrated mode while a virtual machine is booting?  Normally when a virtual machine with integration components installed is booting on Windows Virtual PC you will see the following display:

int1

But what if you need to boot into safe mode?  Or are trying to reinstall the operating system? 

Well, you can do this by hitting “SHIFT + ESC” on this dialog.  You will then get access to the virtual machine session with integration features disabled.  This can be very handy at times.

Cheers,
Ben