VPC cannot adjust Ram

**Ayush** · 15-04-2009

Hello Friends,

Recently i had tried to follow each and every steps carefully by reading lots of instruction about how to install Xp VPC into Window built in Vista from several other websites. But while adjusting the Ram for my Virtual machine it showed me an error message that your VPC cannot adjust Ram. Can any one help me out how do i resolve the above issue? Any kind of information on the above issue would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

**Amd Athlon** · 15-04-2009

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 (VPC) is a software virtualization tool that lets you run multiple guest operating systems within virtual machines on a single computer running Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional as a host operating system.

How you can get the best performance from your VPC setup.

1. Run your host OS on appropriate hardware. The minimum hardware requirements for VPC are listed here, but you should try to exceed these requirements by a large margin for best performance, that is, a fast CPU, lots of RAM, and good hard drive subsystem. My own VPC test machine is server-grade hardware, a 3.2 GHz P4 with 2 GB RAM and hardware RAID. I initially thought of using a dual-processor machine for testing but unfortunately VPC will only use one CPU on an SMP machine, though VPC’s big brother Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 can make use of multiple processors (see here for a comparison of the different features of VPC and VS). My only hurdle in getting things up and running was the RAID drivers for my machine weren’t compatible with XP (the hardware is certified for Windows Server 2003 but not Windows XP) but I was able to obtain a driver for a newer version of my RAID controller from the manufacturer that let XP recognize the SATA drive system during Setup.

2. Store your VHDs on a separate drive. VPC disk images (.vhd files) should be stored on a separate drive from your host operating system to get best performance. And again, hardware RAID can improve even further on this. I have three 80 GB SATA drives in my test system with my XP host OS on the first drive and the other two drives configured as RAID 0 (disk striping) for top performance. I also partition my first drive so I can multiboot my box to other platforms I’m testing and which may not work so well running under Virtual PC.

3. Use your host OS exclusively for running VPC. Any programs or services running on your host OS will drain CPU cycles away from your virtual machines, so don’t use your host OS for anything other than providing a platform for running your virtual machines on. Disable any services on your host OS like the Indexing service that can be processor-intensive in their operation. Not running anything unnecessary on your host OS is especially important when you’re installing a guest OS to create a new virtual machine. That’s because the Setup process for guest OSes usually runs slower on a VM than it does on a similarly equipped (same RAM, disk, processor) physical machine. This also means you should shut down all other VMs when installing a new guest OS. I use my own VPC box exclusively for testing and nothing else, and it pays to do so in terms of usability.

**PeterAGASSI** · 15-04-2009

Some tips for running a virtual PC

If you want to move your mouse out of the VPC window, hit the Right ALT key. (Note the left one won’t work, has to be the right one). This will let your mouse exit the VPC window.
Use Right ALT + ENTER to toggle between window and full screen mode.
Use Right ALT + Delete in place of CTRL+ALT+DELETE for your VPC.

Finally, when you are done you have several options to exit your VPC. First, you can shut down normally from within the OS. This is the least troublesome method, but as you are doing a shut down (then later a start up) it’s more time consuming.

**Joshua** · 15-04-2009

You need to create actual virtual machines, not just virtual hard disks.You can't install the Additions until you've installed an operating
system.

1) Launch VPC 2007.

2) Click New to start the New Virtual Machine Wizard.

3) Click Next.

4) Making sure that the first option ("Create a virtual machine") is
selected, click Next.

5) Enter a name for your new virtual machine e.g. Win2K and click Next.

6) Select Windows 2000 (it may already be selected) and click Next.

7) Adjust the RAM if necessary - you can always adjust it later and click
Next.

8) Select "A new virtual hard disk" and click Next.

9) The Wizard will create a new virtual hard disk - click Next.

10 Click Finish. At this stage, you have created a new virtual machine - nothing more. Just like a physical machine, nothing will happen until you install an operating system.

11) Back in the VPC Console, select the Win2K machine and click Start.

12) Insert your Win2K CD and reboot the virtual machine - AltGr-Del, or by
using the menus.

13) The virtual machine will reboot and start to install Win2K.

14) Proceed as if you were installing the OS onto a real machine.

15) When the installation is complete, install the Additions by using the
menu.

16) Add software (e.g. antivirus, firewall etc) just as you would for a real
machine.