Adding a Boot Menu Option for a VHD in Windows 7

Having already created and installed a a VHD using VirtualPC I now wanted to use the great new feature available in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 which allows you to boot the machine from the VHD instead of the physical partition. In order to achieve this I just had to run a few commands at a command prompt running as admin:

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 7 Visual Studio 2010 VHD"

The entry was successfully copied to {fc7d293a-666d-11de-bd7a-001bdc0fdad5}.


C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /set {fc7d293a-666d-11de-bd7a-001bdc0fdad5} osdevice vhd=[c:]\VMs\Windows7VisualStudio10.vhd

The operation completed successfully.

The first command returns a GUID which must be copied into the second command but that’s all that’s required to add a new entry to the boot menu (which in Windows 7 is no longer a boot.ini file but a ‘mini-database’.)

Installing Windows XP Compatibility in Windows 7 Beta

There’s a specific Microsoft page where you can download the beta of Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode which will provide you a full virtualised Windows XP environment in Windows 7 providing the best compatibility ever!

However, I didn’t think my Dell Inspiron 6400 was that old but it appears it doesn’t support Intel VT (Virtualization Technology) and the Virtual PC Beta annoyingly requires it. I used a tool called securable which told me pretty clearly where I stood :

As a side note, the site that offered the securable tool also provides the neat tool called Shields Up! which can test the effectiveness of your internet security.

I managed to work around the issue of no virtualisation by running the Windows XP VHD from Virtual PC 2007 SP1 – however, the Virtual PC beta seemed to break my installation of 2007 so I had to uninstall both and re-install 2007.