XP Mode on Win7 (.vhd file)

[tcsenter]

I installed XP Mode under the lone user I had created up to that point, an 'Admin' user/account. After getting XP Mode all setup and configured, I then created a Standard User (for Win7) but XP Mode appears to be per-user dealio that needs to be installed/configured for each user, resulting in a VHD for each user account?

The Standard User will actually be using XP Mode (and apps). The 'Admin' user I created is just for administrator stuff. Can I just copy or move the VHD (and config) files from the 'Admin' Virtual Machines folder to the corresponding path/directory under the Standard User account and then delete the one under 'Admin'? It took a while to install all the updates to XP, the apps, and configure it, I'd rather not do it twice, nor have another 8GB of the SSD taken up by a 2nd XP Mode VHD. TIA!

 

[RampantAndroid]

Wait.....I remember XP mode being built in. I had to do no configuration? What am I missing?

 

[tcsenter]

It's not built into Windows 7. You have to install XP Mode and Microsoft Virtual PC (or other Virtual Machine software). Once installed, you must create at least one XP Mode user account (with password), configure both Windows XP (same as if you had installed XP w/SP3 as the system OS) and the Virtual Machine settings, apply a gob of Windows Updates to XP, install NET Framework, et. al. It's a couple-few hours work, if I have to do it all over again.

 

[Dahak]

Wait.....I remember XP mode being built in. I had to do no configuration? What am I missing?

Some OEM many have preloaded it when you bought the computer that supported it, I know HP had that option.

Back to the OP.
If you move the VHD to a common shared location, you should be able to edit the config file for the XP Mode machine and point it to the new location and the standard user should be able to use it too and the admin as well off the 1 image

Now you would have to fully shutdown the XP Mode machine before you can edit the file.

 

[tcsenter]

If you move the VHD to a common shared location, you should be able to edit the config file for the XP Mode machine and point it to the new location and the standard user should be able to use it too and the admin as well off the 1 image.

Thanks! I gave this a try, except that I copied the VHD and related files to the corresponding directories under the Standard User account, rather than place it in a shared/public directory where both (or all) user accounts could access it.

Users\{user account}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC

Users\{user account}\Virtual Machines

I did have to edit the config files to reflect the proper paths (just changing the user name in the path) but it was easy. e.g. file(s) with .VMC and .VMCX extension, plus the "options.xml" file. Each of them contained path references that needed updating for the different account name. So now I have two separate XP Mode setups, but I plan on deleting the first one.

Seems to work fine but I haven't tested extensively. I only started XP Mode virtual machine, made sure all the devices were accessible and working, integration features were enabled. I did have to enter the password for the XP Mode User on first start (which was created during XP Mode setup the first time), but there was an option to save the credentials for subsequent auto-logon.

Thanks again!