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Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

I've been having an interesting time with the Vista SP1 install and Virtual PC 2007.  After installing Vista SP1, I thought all was well.  Assuming "Well" means that you now have "For testing purposes only" and the build number watermarked in the corner, but I'll save that for another post.

I was unfortunately at a client site when I went to start Virtual PC 2007 for the first time, post Vista SP1.  Started okay but then as soon as I clicked on "New", all I got was an open task in the task bar but no window on the desktop.  Hovering over the task bar item, I could see that the windows was blank according to the Vista thumbnail view. 

I tried uninstalling Virtual PC, getting the latest bits, reinstalling...no good.  I posted a message on the MVP Vista boards and got a response from Paul Adare, MVP Virtual Machines. (Thanks Paul!) He mentioned that he has heard that this was reported and suggested:

"Try deleting C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Virtual PC\options.xml and then starting VPC again." 

That did the trick.

This is because the configuration is set to display the window in an area which is way out of the scope of the current viewable area.  This may be due to switching between multiple dual monitor configurations and sleep mode?

Print | posted on Sunday, March 02, 2008 9:22 PM | Filed Under [ Vista ]


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# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

I wish my issue was as simple to fix as yours. Post SP1 install in Vista, whenever shutting down or rebooting a guest machine, Vista BSODs with either "A driver is mismanaging system PTEs" or "No_More_System_PTEs". I've been at a complete loss for the past couple of weeks. 3/10/2008 2:40 PM | Fuzzball

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

I am getting the same issue as you Fuzzball. However my issue only seems to happen on VM images that are located on a network share. If I move the file locally there are no more issues. I am curious as to why this would be. I have also updated all my drivers to latest but still nothing. I wish I had taken a backup of my machine pre-vista. With a 3 TB file server it was nice to not have to worry about drive space for my virtuals.

MS PLEASE HELP!!!!
0x000000DA (0000000000000103 FFFFFA60095C4000 000000005F786D56 0000000000000014) 3/17/2008 12:36 AM | Rich Denis

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

I have a slightly different issue with Vista SP1. I am running Virtual PC on an XP machine with Vista as guest. After installing SP1 Vista slowed markedly, to the point of being unusable.

Are there any new "additions" to fix this issue, or do I have to remove and reinstall without SP1?

3/19/2008 7:55 PM | gorgol

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

Gorgol, if you look in the System properties, does it report your CPU frequency as a very low number? Yyou might be having the issue described here (still looking for a solution): http://www.aspdeveloper.net/Virtual_PC/rn-739-53297_Vista_and_SP1_in_VPC_2007.aspx 3/19/2008 8:54 PM | Wes R

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

Same thing here as well. I installed SP1 of Vista on a Vista Business guest OS running on a Windows XP Media Center 2005 PC and the performance is horrendous (read: unusable). I uninstalled SP1 and rebooted and Vista ran almost as fast as my desktop again. I didn't check the CPU frequency though. I'll let SP1 ride out in the open a while longer until some of the glitches are worked out. I'm glad I'm not alone on this one. 3/25/2008 8:44 PM | Beersc

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

Thank you Beersc! your right.......
the fastest way to bring back your vista based "virtual pc" guest system into a stable status is to just uninstall SP1:
Contrlo Panel / Programs and Features / Installaed Update
4/23/2008 4:56 PM | Daniel

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

After I've installed SP1 I get the message: You are not running on a supported operating system. Please see Microsoft Virtual PC help for the list of supported host operating systems.

Virtual PC might run on other operating systems, but these configurations will not be supported by Microsoft Product Support Services.

How do you solve that?! 5/10/2008 7:14 PM | Tom

# re: Virtual PC 2007 Stops Working after Vista SP1 Install

hepl me 9/15/2008 7:19 AM | Ebrahim

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