If you haven’t already installed Virtual PC 2007 you can get it here.
Now I would like to talk a little bit about installing and configuring in general. Often times when it comes to computers there are several ways to do different things. It is also true that depending on your specific system and configuration some methods will work better than others. The reason I’m touching on this subject is that I found methods that theoretically should of worked on my system, but for whatever reason they didn’t. When I searched the issues I found that others were having the same problems that I was, so these are the steps that actually worked for me.
The first thing I needed to do was download the ISO file of the Windows 7 Enterprise Installation Disk. An ISO file is an exact image of a disk, not a copy of the files on it. The first problem I encountered was that Microsoft uses a download manager the .iso file also has a .dlm extension on it.
Even though I could use Winrar to see the files on the disk and launch the disk for burning using Free Easy Burner I had trouble getting the image to burn on a DVD. You are supposed to be able to take an ISO file and burn the image onto a DVD which will create an installation disk.
The burning of the installation disk is actually an extra step with Virtual PC because you can install directly from an ISO file since it is an exact image of an installation disk. So I wanted to download the installation files without using the Download Manager so I wouldn’t have to deal with that extra .dlm extension.
The easiest work around I could find was to look at the source files (view source) on the download page and find the URL and copy and paste directly into a browser window. This enabled me to download the files without using the download manager and having to deal with the extra .dlm extension.
Now that I have the ISO file on my computer I need to open Virtual PC and select the virtual machine I previously created in the PC Console. A new window will open which will be the new Virtual PC without an operating system. Eventually you will see a message that looks like this (insert image 1).
Next click on the CD menu on the virtual machine window, then choose Capture ISO Image, and use the browse button to find your ISO image and click on OK. If the setup screen does not launch click on reset on the virtual machine and the Installation for Windows 7 Enterprise should begin.
Now all you have to do is follow the onscreen prompts and your new operating system will be installed, within the Virtual PC, on your existing machine. The nice thing about this is, if anything goes wrong, it will be contained within the Virtual PC and your current OS and files and settings will not be harmed.
At Install 7 this is just one method for installing Windows 7 that we will be talking about, below are screen shots of my new Virtual installation of Windows 7 Enterprise
0 comments:
Post a Comment