Help with Hyper-V virtual machine.

[john70t]

I just got an awesome new computer made by an awesome dude but was slightly 'disappointed'* to find that none of the previous XP/Win7 programs will work in this thing called Windows 10. I tried using compatibility mode but only one of the top needed five was successful in working again. Also can't uninstall Cortana spyware or X-box or other garbage turned on by default. Ugh. Microsoft still appears to be the least-worst of the big three. For now.

(*'disappointed' as in 'everything is f'kng gone' 'wtf' version of 'disappointed'. Thousands of dollars in software and valuable data. Poof. Up in the air. Gone in a second.)

So I looked into running a virtual machine with XP.
1). There is AMD-V but this one has an Intel chip.
2). There is also Oracle Virtualbox but I wanted to stick with Microsoft because naturally things by the same manufacturer are going to work better together (am i right here fellows?)

3). I went with Hyper-V which is supposed to be built into Windows 10.
It needs WinPro version, 64bit, a compatible chip, and other things to work right.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v

I first went into cntrl panel/programs/turn window features on-off/Hyper-V and turned Hyper-V settings on.
A couple of the boxes were greyed out however and a firmware error issue message was returned.
(Also in system information one of the four hyper-v lines had a 'no' value.)

At first I could not get into BIOS using the 'del' key because the keyboard was loading later than Windows.
I unplugged it from the IOGear splitter and plugged it into the top left USB at the back of the motherboard. Success

Turn on BIOS virtualization and reboot. .

Hyper-V virtual machine was installed!! Yeah!

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by john70t

...but I wanted to stick with Microsoft because naturally things by the same manufacturer are going to work better together (am i right here fellows?)...

No. Sometimes in fact just the opposite.

Nothing wrong with Virtual Box for your needs.

[flipper35]

+1

[john70t]

In the setup, 4TB of the 8TB "D" drive below was allocated to becoming Hyper-V XP.
That should be plenty but I was afraid virtual machine might use virtual memory within itself.
In over my head here.
----------------------------
(cont.)
Ok, I also need an Operating System.
Hyper-V includes links to temporary Win10 and Umbutu but I need XP back.
(I also own a old legal registered XP computer which would be preferred but it would require burning an .ISO to transfer. etc.)

There is a free legal XP mode available here:
https://superuser.com/questions/1230652/get-official-windows-xp-virtual-machine-for-hyper-v
I unzipped it a couple times with 7zip, per instructions. A bit quirky to use.
I added the dot to make the .VHD executable file.
So far so good.

But then I accidentally double-clicked the .VHD because instruction said to 'load' it.
This is needed to change sysprep which allows XP to be unlocked and transferable to new different hardware.

It created a new ~1.3GB virtual 'G' drive which contains all the WindowsXP files, as seen on the left below.
Not sure where this is located.

The Hyper-V file did grow to about 7.8GB though but the few files within have unrecognizable names. Just strings.


Finally, when I went to 'Quick Create' XP this error was returned.


At this point I am stuck.

[john70t]

Closeup of error msg

[id10t]

I'd go with VirtualBox and trust an OpenSource solution - even one "owned" by Oracle - over anything Microsoft produces.

Oh, and I have 40 students per term that have no issues with VirtualBox running on Win10, Mac, or Linux, using Windows (7 & 10) and Linux (many different distros) VMs.

[widebody911]

I would go with VirtualBox or vmWare workstation, but leaning more towards virtualBox for home use. I hate hyperV.

In my last job I managed literally thousands of vmWare VMs

[VincentVega]

Virtualbox works fine, if a bit slow from experience. Why not get the the OS you want and not deal with the complexity?

[john70t]

Originally Posted by VincentVega

Why not get the the OS you want and not deal with the complexity?

Install XP on a drive and make dual-boot?

(there is an 'oh duh' moment)

[Oracle]

I only use Virtualbox. HyperV is more trouble down the road when migrating to the a new machine (eventually you will replace your PC, sooner or later).
Speed? About the same..

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by john70t

Install XP on a drive and make dual-boot?

(there is an 'oh duh' moment)

Learned something new today, we have kicked around the idea of a virtual install here at work but I have been too lazy to look into it. Will check out Virtualbox.

[VincentVega]

Originally Posted by john70t

Install XP on a drive and make dual-boot?

(there is an 'oh duh' moment)

You could do that I guess. Was thinking more 7. Too often I find folks get into overly complicated environments chasing down a path that sort of made sense at one point. Not you, most people. From hundreds of hypervisors to 1 domain, it never really works and it a PITA to maintain/update/migrate from. Keep it simple. What do you need to run? Where does it run? Can you upgrade it to something modern? Might be simpler than hyper-v dual boot, magic potion.

[Deschodt]

RE: dual boot - A lot of the new hardware won't work or even boot with XP. In fact we're starting to have that issue with Win7 already, forcing us to 10. XP is also End of life, no longer really patched, I would try going for 7 (if you want to dual boot) and see if your stuff still works, it will at least be supported for a little bit longer and frankly is less annoying than win10. And you can totally turn off Cortana on w10 if you want to, we do in our image, probably a registry tweak...

[john70t]

Originally Posted by VincentVega

You could do that I guess. Was thinking more 7.

Can you please explain this a bit further? I was unaware XP was still for sale.

Does Win7 have a better VM/emulator to run XP or before programs?

All attempts at running XP programs on 7 before have resulted in zero success.
Win7 seems to want to install everything twice and even then I couldn't get it to work.


I wanted to run old CAD software and games.

[john70t]

Weekend bump. (I'm going to try Virtual box thx.)

Just curious what people did when they lost a decade-worth of software...

[Radioactive]

Make sure Virtualization is enabled in the BIOS, use VirtualBox.
You could have VM's for Windows XP and Windows 7.
You can grab OS license keys off of old PC's people throw out.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Radioactive

You can grab OS license keys off of old PC's people throw out.

Yeah. It could happen to me. I looked at that official sticker on the plastic box I once paid for and I thought the same thing. Just wish MS had done the right thing when Win10 was implemented and put the cards on the table for everyone to see. That is trust. Would have made the business world a lot smoother.


From a computer/psychological perspective:
I was just wondering what people did and how they responded to the changeover.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by john70t

Weekend bump. (I'm going to try Virtual box thx.)

Just curious what people did when they lost a decade-worth of software...

A simple

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

fixed that. Have been known to need to use

dpkg --get-selections > file

on one machine and

dpkg --set-selections < file && apt-get dist-upgrade

on a second to get it up and going quick...

[KFC911]

Whenever I see VM....I think of IBM's internal op sys....they didn't want to release way back when .

Not worth a damn for efficiency at the low levels, but sure made techie's live easier...

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Radioactive

You can grab OS license keys off of old PC's people throw out.

Yup.

Used to grab em all the time.