Thursday, December 31, 2009

WIM2VHD - More reason for can't wait ..

If so far you have only known of the straight path of getting Windows Virtual PC.. getting Windows XP Mode...install all your apps in XP Mode then that wouldn't be very interesting right ?

However, you now have a more attractive option :

1.) Using your existing Windows XP imagex WIM image to create a VHD by WIM2VHD

2.) Install just Windows Virtual PC

3.) Create a virtual machine with the VHD created in step 1

4.) Install Integration Components and RemoteApp.

Now people can use the three modes of Windows XPM.


So what are you still waiting ? For me I am going ahead before 2010 :)



Please note though this is only a valid option if you have hardware support for virtualization.



References

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wim2vhd
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681616(WS.10).aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/windows_vpc/archive/2009/08/27/three-modes-of-windows-xp-mode.aspx

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Windows 7 compatibility with Steadystate?



http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprosecurity/thread/0110d93c-eea5-4da9-9eea-d97ff88bff0e


Let's all poll here so that MS can "collect specific feedback" and make it a New Year resolution to release SteadyStae for Windows 7 :D

Monday, December 21, 2009

Will there be SteadyState Support for Windows 7?

So far as of October we only have this disappointment :



http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/windowssteadystate/thread/8ddff48e-aa90-4bf3-9b5a-4b11b02906bb


However, there are still things we can do about it in the meantime while hoping :D
Windows 7 support native VHD boot and we can actually make use of this cool new technology to implement a “home-made” Windows SteadyState for Windows 7.

1. Install Windows 7 to boot by VHD. Use a filename of d:\w7.vhd.



2. Create a startup script like the following, the whole idea is to create a differencing disk for the NEXT reboot while booting up the current copy of differencing disk. This script can then be added to the startup group policy.

If exist d:\2 goto next2
bcdedit /import d:\boot1.bcd
del d:\diff1.vhd
diskpart /s d:\create1.txt
del d:\1
echo 2 > d:\2
goto end
:next2
bcdedit /import d:\boot2.bcd
del d:\diff2.vhd
diskpart /s d:\create2.txt
del d:\2
echo 1 > d:\1
:end

3. Create the create1.txt and create2.txt diskpart script files as following.

create1.txt file content: create vdisk file=d:\diff1.vhd parent=d:\w7.vhd
create2.txt file content: create vdisk file=d:\diff2.vhd parent=d:\w7.vhd

4. Create the boot1.bcd and boot2.bcd BCD (Boot Configuration Data) file by using the following commands

boot1.bcd:
bcdedit /set {current} device vhd=[d:]\diff1.vhd
bcdedit /set {current} osdevice vhd=[d:]\diff1.vhd
bcdedit /export d:\boot1.bcd
boot2.bcd:
bcdedit /set {current} device vhd=[d:]\diff2.vhd
bcdedit /set {current} osdevice vhd=[d:]\diff2.vhd
bcdedit /export d:\boot2.bcd



References: