Technically Speaking

Brian, who runs the excellent Blogcast Repository, recently shared with me how he could not use a host computer's wireless NIC with a guest OS when running Virtual PC when Windows Vista is the host OS. I even tried it on my laptop and sure enough, no luck. It just doesn't appear as an option under settings > network. After doing some digging in the readme that came with Virtual PC 2007 I stumbled upon: Virtual PC fails to open the network services driver after an upgrade of Windows Vista. It didn't seem to fit the bill precisely as both Brian and I had used clean installs for Vista RC2. But, I gave it a shot and followed the steps. Sure enough, my wireless NIC was missing the "Virtual Machine Network Services Driver." Follow the steps below to re-install it. in step four, the network services driver wasn't an option so I had to dig it out of the default location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Utility\VMNetSrv and pick VMNetSrv. Once completed, open the properties for the wireless NIC and make sure the NSD is selected.

Steps:

Virtual PC fails to open the network services driver after an upgrade of Windows Vista

This occurs because Windows Vista modifies the bindings on the network adapter when you perform an upgrade.

To reinstall the network services driver:

1. From Control Panel, under click Network and Internet, click Set up file sharing, and then click Manage network connections.

2. Right-click the network adapter and then click Properties.

3. Click Install.

4. Click Service and then click Add.

5. Select Virtual Machine Network Services driver from the list and click OK.

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