Hello.

I had a very important Virtual PC running Windows XP on my Windows 7 installation.  It has all my legacy web devleopment stuff on it (XP/IIS/Frontpage as well as all the source files).

I didn't realise Virtual PC didn't work in Windows 8, and the upgrade advisor did not mention it or I wouldn't have upgraded.

What do I do now?  Microsoft needs to fix this for their customers who, like me, are exclusively using Microsoft software and yet still have been escorted up a dead end!!

- Rob

Paul,

Thanks for taking the time to reply, that's appreciated and very helpful.

Presumably that won't let me run the virtual PC though, just access its hard disk?  I really need to be able to run it...

I'm thinking of rolling my laptop back to Windows 7, and copying it over to there to run... I can't think of what else to do!

Still flabbergasted that the upgrade process didn't mention this, given that Virtual PC was such a big sell with Windows 7!  I just presumed it would continue to work and I could double-click on my VPC file like usual!

- Rob

Windows VPC is a feature of Windows 7, so it can't install on Windows 8.

You can use Hyper-V to run a VM, but fi you're using XP Mode, then you're out of luck.  XP Mode will not activate on Windows 8 Hyper-V.

If you have your own installation of Windows XP, you should be able to just mount the VHD to a new VM in Win8 Hyper-V.  I'd make a copy of the VHD before you do anything though.

• Marked as answer by Rob Lightbody Wednesday, January 30, 2013 10:02 AM

Windows VPC is a feature of Windows 7, so it can't install on Windows 8.

You can use Hyper-V to run a VM, but fi you're using XP Mode, then you're out of luck.  XP Mode will not activate on Windows 8 Hyper-V.

If you have your own installation of Windows XP, you should be able to just mount the VHD to a new VM in Win8 Hyper-V.  I'd make a copy of the VHD before you do anything though.

• Marked as answer by Rob Lightbody Wednesday, January 30, 2013 10:02 AM

Thanks for your replies.

I eventually managed to unearth my old VHD file in a hidden folder!  I then created a new Hyper-V virtual machine using the old vhd disk, and after about 90 minutes of figuring out how to have a virtual external switch and a legacy network card, I got it back online, and apart from reactivating windows and office, its now running OK!

Not straightforward at all though, but do-able!

Phew!

  Yes, they do. But they also can count, and know that it was released 13 years ago!

  Yes, they do. But they also can count, and know that it was released 13 years ago!