I got one heck of a shock tonight. The last week I’ve worked my butt off installing non-compatible software under Win 7’s virtual XP mode. I installed Corel Office 2000 with Word Perfect 9, Photoshop 7, and Adobe PDF (full update) ver 7. None of these older XP programs run correctly under Win 7. At least that’s what my google research told me.
Everything works fantastic on my account. As an admin at work I always install software under the Admin account and then set it up under the user. Since Win 7 doesn’t seem to have a “real” administrator log in; I used my own.
I get on the user account tonight and virtual XP Mode doesn’t show the virtual application folder with the programs I installed. I start XP Mode and it goes through a 10 minute initialization. Once I sign in, none of the programs I installed show up under the start menu.
I got a sick feeling I’ve been played big time. Certainly they don’t expect us to reinstall several gig of software for every user account? That’s nuts.
I need help first, getting the programs I installed under my admin account recognized under the Virtual XP console. Then somehow, I need to get the virtual application folder created under the users win 7 program menu.
Any help would be appreciated. I got to get this working. Even if it means spending five hours on the phone with Microsoft support. I just can’t believe an operating system setup for multiple user accounts wouldn’t share the programs under virtual XP mode. As an admin I was taught to install all software and software updates/patches from one win account only. That’s standard procedure.
when I sign in under my own admin account (let’s call it) MyAdmin and start the xp console. There’s a virtual C: drive. The software I installed is under All Users / Start / Programs. Exactly like you’d expect in XP.
Sign on to my Mom’s account. MyMom the console logs into XPMUser. There’s a virtual C: drive. But, nothing that I installed is under All Users or XPMUser start / program menu. It’s a brand new virtual drive.
There’s several other virtual drives. Two are the Win 7 partitions I have set up and I can browse them. The other two virtual drives allow no access.
I’ve triple checked that both Win 7 accounts are signing into the XP virtual Console as XPMUser. They are. But, they are getting different virtual C: drives.
At this point. I have no idea where the software is actually installed. They got it hidden well. Unless you’re in the XP console.
The trick is that Windows 7 has created a new virtual machine for your mother. If you look, you will find that your virtual machine is stored in your profile’s directory tree ("\Users\aceplace57\Virtual Machines", for instance). You installed the XP software into that virtual machine, but your mother is using one that was created for her. I suspect that it might be as easy as copying the VM file from your directory to hers, although that will only replicate the machine the first time. If you do it again, you’ll wipe out anything that’s been done under her account (and provide her with anything that you’ve done/stored in that VM). I haven’t tried moving XP mode VMs, although my QA people do it a lot with regular Virtual PC and VMware images.
Ok. that gives me a start and some hope. Virtual XP Mode was Microsofts answer to the Corporate World that was worried about their old in-house applications. XP Mode was the answer to keep them running. Also, at work typically every PC has multiple user accounts because various people sign into them. If Suzy is off sick, then whoever covers for her uses Suzy’s desk,signs into Suzy PC with their own account, and continues working. The office doesn’t shut down because Suzy is sick.
There must be a tool that copies virtual machines and keeps the user settings in sync. I just have to track it down. I’m glad I’m getting this figured out now on my mom’s pc before we convert to Win 7 at work.
WIn 7 restricts access to the User folders. Even when you have admin privs.
I can click into MyMom Virtual Machines folder. But, not any other users Virtual Machines folder.
One work around would be to 1. sign on as MyAdmin, copy the Virtual Machine folders somewhere outside Users. 2. Sign on to My Mom and copy it over. But, first I want to search around for a legit Microsoft tool. I rather not hack unless forced too.
I’m still figuring this out. This Technet article helps a lot.
The article says the virtual machine can be copied to a location where all the accounts can access it.
I’m still trying to figure out how to tell each account where to look for the virtual machine file.
I’m too exhausted to read anymore tonight.
If someone has done this before would you mind explaining how to move the virtual machine file and tell the Virtual Machine where to look for it?
The goal is to have 4 accounts on this PC all use a common virtual machine. Right now, the vhd file is in \Users\MyAdmin\AppData and is inaccessible to the other accounts.
You should be able to launch a virtual machine by double-clicking on the .vhd file. So, you can put a link on the desktop to access it. Of course, I suspect that won’t let you run XP apps on your Windows 7 desktop as you can with the default configuration. It’s possible that the registry editing suggested by the TechNet article will resolve that, but I’m not sure.
Windows 7 restricts access to the USERS folders that are not your own, but you can override it. Right click the folder, select properties, and then use the security tab to change security settings for the folder.
Fixed the problem. I got the virtual mode image file moved from c:\users to a common folder that any account on the pc can use. I learned a lot more about the setup & admin of virtual mode than I planned. Knowledge is always good. Even though the process is often frustrating.
That tech net article I linked to earlier in this thread? Useless. I discovered that Win XP mode does not install the full web based admin virtual server. XP Mode is simpler and uses a different way to admin it.
I have 4 accounts on this win 7 pc. They all see the same virtual desktop and xp start menu.
I’ve learned a lot at the straight dope GQ. I owe everyone so much. Here’s a small bit of info that I learned in the past three days. I wrote everything up in Word 2003 and then converted to pdf with Adobe Acrobat Professional 7. I love that convert to pdf Icon on Words toolbar.
I plan to share this with Computing Services at work. They are still evaluating the migration to Win 7 So, I went all out with screen caps. Plus, it’s documentation for my own pc work and consulting.
There’s good info and screencaps on the admin utility for virtual mode in the pdf. I hope people find it helpful.
A pdf that I created from Word.
I welcome comments and corrections. I still need to proof read this and edit after getting some sleep. http://www.filedropper.com/winxpmodefix_1
