Configuring VPC

Microsoft has a very neat, powerful program that allows you to run multiple Operating Systems (”OS”), through your single windows machine. It’s called Microsoft Virtual PC (”VPC”). VPC creates virtual network adapters and hard disks (with settings), using your main OS resources (such as CPU, RAM, mouse, keyboard, floppy, CD-ROM, etc.). This is a basic lab on setting up a single virtual machine, a single virtual hard disk, and local only network adapter using VPC.

Getting VPC

You have two choices. Either purchase VPC (you can purchase it for $129), or you can go download the 45 day trial from here). Once you have this, and it is installed, please do continue. I do recommend that you have at least 512MB of RAM installed on your computer.

Settings Up VPC

Well, congratulations, you have gotten this far, some people I know, weren’t able to get this far. Setting up a virtual PC can be confusing to some people, so read very carefully to setting up VPC. You have virtual machines (.vmc), which are just configuration files for your VPC to know how much RAM, what network devices, what devices are using what, etc. Then you have virtual hard disks (.vhd), which are the actual hard drives they are using for the OS you decide to install on that VPC. So when you actually get to the part where you install the OS, and it says “Formatting Drive C:”, don’t freak out, it’s formatting the virtual hard disk, NOT your actual “C:\ drive”.

Now, let’s get going with this. First you will start MS Virtual PC (which should be in your start menu now), and, if this is your first VPC, you will get a dialog box, if this is NOT your first, then you will just get a VPC Console. In this case, you would have to click “New…”, and you would get the dialog box to set up a new virtual machine. For most of you, you will get the dialog upon opening VPC, because this is probably your first time to use VPC.

Click Next, to proceed.

Click Create a virutal machine. Then click next to continue.

In the Name and Location text box, browse to the spot on your physical hard drive that you want to save the .vmc (configuration) file to be stored. Remember, to use good naming conventions and don’t just name it os1, or something not easy to remember. Then click Next to continue. Default location is My Documents

Next it asks you for your OS type. Depending on what OS you plan to install, choose it from the list; if it is not listed, then choose other. Click next.

Now we must configure the memory. You can just use the default setting Using the recommended RAM, unless you think that your OS should use more memory, or you have the memory to up it more. Remember, this does not include your host memory, so if you use too much, you will not be able to use the virtual machine, and will have to lower the amount of RAM for the virtual machine. Click next to continue.

This next part you will tell VPC how to assign your virtual hard disk (.vhd), in which you will set up just like the virtual machine. Use the option A new virtual hard disk option. Click next to continue.

Now we are going to actually save the virtual hard disk. Save it in the same place you saved the virtual machine. Click next to continue.

If all went well, you should have a dialog box with a summary that is similar to mine. Click Finish to close the dialog box and finalize the virtual machine setup. Congratulations, you have set up a new virtual machine.

Configuring the Virtual Machine

This part is pretty cool. This is where you get to go and mess with the settings of your Virtual Machine. For this lab, we are going to change the network adapter to local only and give you the reason why. Make sure that you have the VPC console up and select the virtual machine we want to edit and click Settings….

Once you see the dialog box similar to the above image, click the Networking option.

Once you have the Networking option selected your option to the right will change. For the Number of network adapters drop-down, there should be 1 (one) and for Adapter 1 drop-down, it should read Local only. The reason why we want this is simple. There are usually four (4) options: none, local only, [your network card here] (your host network card), and NAT. If you don’t want a network card, choose none. If you want to connect using your network card, you choose your network card. If you can’t use your network card for some reason, then use the NAT option, it will use your host internet for access. We are using local only, so that we can act like it has no relation to the host computer and it is a card in itself. This allows us to take full advantage of the virtual network card.

When finished, click OK.

Startup, Install, and GO!

This is a basic lab, so I am not going through the entire process of this, but if you know how to install an OS, then you are set.

Make sure that your virtual machine is selected and click Start. A windows opens up and looks as if it is performing POST tests…it is. At this point, you need to quickly go to the top of the window and click CD. Normally, if you have the CD in the drive, you should use your CD. As an advanced way, you could use an ISO image file, that has everything that your CD has, only it is one file and it is located usually on a hard drive. If you would like more information about that, just contact me.

Now just follow the basic steps to installing an OS, and wait for the OS to completely install, and you will completely finish your virtual machine. Congrats if you get that far.

Good luck with getting it to work, but it is fairly easy to install and get up and running. If you run into any problems, please post them.