Mini-Guide for Installing and Running Windows 7 on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Overview
There are quite a few people here that are experimenting with Windows 7. Lots of questions are going around on if it's "safe" to partition and dual-boot Windows 7 with Vista or XP.

To aide those who want to run Windows 7 but cannot get their DVD's to work properly or don't want to run the risk of bricking their existing installations, I've put together this mini-guide to setting up a virtual environment with Windows 7.

Some Very Important Notes
Running an operating system virtually is somewhat taxing on a system. It is recommended to run virtual machines with at least the following system specifications:

• Dual-Core Processor @ 2.0 GHz
• 2 GB Memory

Some problems that I've encountered so far running Windows 7 virtually:

• Aero glass effects may not be available, even if you have a powerful system.
• Direct 3D acceleration may cause the Windows Experience Index test to stop at the 'Tuning Windows Media Decoder' stage. (I've encountered this when using VMWare only. I haven't tried Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 with Windows 7).

The Guide

1. Download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and install. It's free, and can be found here. Make sure you choose the correct version of Virtual PC 2007 (32-bit or 64-bit) based on what your current operating system is.
   
2. When you first startup Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, create a new virtual machine instance with the following options set:
   
   Operating System: Windows Vista
   
   Memory: Manually adjust the memory. People on these forums have gotten Windows 7 to run fine with 768 MB of memory. This setting can be changed later if you find the virtual machine is running a bit sluggish.
   
   Virtual Hard Disk: Create a new virtual hard-disk. Set the size to at least 15 GB so the Windows setup doesn't complain. If you need more, you can add more "virtual disks" later. You can choose to "split the virtual disk" into multiple files, which makes copying the virtual machine a little easier. I don't know if doing that improves performance though.
   
3. Highlight your virtual machine and click 'Start'. This will actually start up your virtual machine instance. Don't worry about the text that comes up. We'll fix that soon enough.
   
4. On the menu bar on top, choose CD then Capture ISO Image. Locate where you downloaded your Windows 7 ISO file and press OK. You can use your DVD if you'd like, but the ISO file is much quicker when setting up.
   
5. Restart the virtual machine instance by selecting the Action menu item, and then choosing Reset.
   
6. When the instance resets itself, the Windows 7 setup will begin.
   
7. Once setup has finished, and you booted into Windows 7's desktop, the final step is to install the "Virtual PC Additions", which can be done by clicking on Action then Install or Update Virtual PC Addtions
   
8. Finally, remember to detach the ISO image file from the virtual machine instance so it doesn't keep loading it when you start your virtual machine.
   
9. Enjoy!

 

Doing that right now. Thanks for the tips!

 

I made a critical adjustment to the final steps, where you must install the Virtual Machine additions. It's fixed now.

 

Having a bit of an issue with my Virtual PC - whenever I un-fullscreen out of my Win7 desktop, I can't go back in without getting a "Your resolution is too big for your screen, so you're staying in windowed." Kind of annoying. Any ideas?
My Win7 desktop is set for 1024x768 anyway.
Edit: Never mind, figured it out.

 

Even if you figured it out, care to share with us in case we run into the same issue? Thanks.