Posts Tagged ‘Virtualization’

Tip: Convering your Virtual PC 2007 disks to Windows Virtual PC (on Windows 7)

June 29th, 2009 by Tobias Zimmergren

Author: Tobias Zimmergren
URL: http://www.zimmergren.net

Introduction

As you all know, most of the SharePoint people (architects, developers, testers, designers, <etc>) are running our environments virtually. That rocks! But, there’s some things one need to think of when you want to migrate your VPC to Windows 7.

I just "migrated" all of my Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 virtual machines to Windows Virtual PC which is a feature set for Windows 7.

While doing so – I bumped into one major PITA which I now want to share so you can get around it if you’re converting as well…

The problem & solution

You would think that you can take your .vhd files and simply launch as normal in Windows 7. Although that’s not untrue, there’s something you’ll need to do first if you want to have full Windows 7 integration support:

Uninstall Virtual Machine Additions before you even open the VHD file in your Windows 7 Virtual PC setup.

Basically, all you need to do is uninstall the additions in Virtual PC 2007, copy your .VHD file to your Windows 7 machine and then hook it up as usual with your Windows Virtual PC setup there.

If you do not do this, you will not be able to install the Integration Features of your Windows Virtual PC on your virtual disk.

With that said, just uninstall on VPC 2007 - move - install on Windows 7 VPC. Then simply install the integration features.

Note: Failing to do this, will most certainly get you to a stage where your Virtual Machine can not copy/paste, you can not drag’n'drop things, you can not get a full integration with your normal desktop.

Thanks to Daniel Sörlöv for tipping me of about this, it saved me tons of time!
Beer-ticker says +1

SharePoint development environment now running Windows 7

January 17th, 2009 by Tobias Zimmergren

I thought I’d share my new personal SharePoint Development Environment with you, since it’s probably the best setup I’ve ever used!

Specifications

HP Elitebook 8530w

CPU: 2.53 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 6 MB cache

RAM: 6 GB
DDR II SDRAM – 800 MHz – PC2-6400

Disk: 250 GB
S-ATA 7200rpm

Graphics: 512 MB
NVIDIA Quadro FX770M

OS: Windows 7 beta build 7000
Bloody well awesome!

Those are some of the main specs of this machine, for more details check out this link

Virtual PC – oldie but goodie

As you may know VPC is rather dead today and will most likely not be developed much further, and the thing to focus on is either Hyper-V or VMWare if you want 64-bit guest OS’s running virtually.

However, running 64-bit guest OS isn’t a requirement for me at the moment, so running Windows 7 + Virtual PC 2007 SP1 is an awesome setup. Say what you want about Virtual Machines and SharePoint Development – but this is probably the fastest, most efficient way I’ve ever developed on any platform. Heck, the Guest OS (Server 2003) in my VPC runs faster than my Vista laptop at home.

Summary

If you’re a SharePoint developer, you’ve got a laptop to spare (or want to wipe the existing one), want more efficiency and power while developing – GO GET WINDOWS 7

<End of Windows 7 promo :-) />

SharePoint Virtual Images from Microsoft

May 17th, 2008 by Tobias Zimmergren

WSS 3.0 SP1 Virtual Disk

Tonight at 08:23 Microsoft released the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 virtual disk with Visual Studio pre-installed.

You can find the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 here

MOSS 2007 Virtual Disk

Most of you probably already know that there’s an image out for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to use with Virtual PC or Virtual Server 2005, but if you didn’t know:

You can find the Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD here.

 

Sidenote: Yes, I’m still going to Egypt – Just had to pitch in the update about WSS 3.0 SP1 virtual harddrive since a lot of people attending my SharePoint Development classes asks about just that! :)

Edit: URL’s were interchanged, updated. Thanks Paresh.

Virtual PC 2007 availible for download!

February 20th, 2007 by Tobias Zimmergren

You’ve probably seen this in a bunch of other blogposts already, but if you havn’t:

It’s time for an upgrade of those horrible VPC’s ;) Go get VPC 2007 from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

Quoted from the Microsoft website:
"Use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same physical computer. Switch between virtual machines with the click of a button. Use virtual machines to run legacy applications, provide support, train users, and enhance quality assurance.

Virtual PC lets you create separate virtual machines on your Windows desktop, each of which virtualizes the hardware of a complete physical computer. Use virtual machines to run operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2. You can run multiple operating systems at once on a single physical computer and switch between them as easily as switching applications�instantly, with a mouse click. Virtual PC is perfect for any scenario in which you need to support multiple operating systems, whether you use it for tech support, legacy application support, training, or just for consolidating physical computers."