Sunday, November 11, 2007
Virtual PC 2007
Yesterday, without reading directions, sure it's a bad thing but way more fun, Virtual PC 2007 was installed on my Vista computer. It was great fun getting XP SP2 to run. Everything worked extremely well and I was excited. That is until my USB microphone would not work! The reading of information from the Shared Folder was extremely slow. Everything else was quick and worked well.
Hamachi installed and worked without a hitch. Yahoo Widgets installed and worked without a hitch. My password manager installed and worked. Office installed and worked. Firefox and its extensions installed and worked. Virtual PC 2007 could see my local lan and the Internet without a single burp!
Then the microphone would not work!! The sound played through my HiFi Link without a hitch BUT it first went to Virtual PC's sound card and then to the Vista's sound card and then to the HiFi Link. The sound was not crystal clear but very understandable. XM Tuner, Yahoo Widget, worked without a hitch, expect for an occasional stutter when Vista was working hard which was occasionally.
BUT breaking down and reading the directions resulted in discovering the following: USB is NOT supported by Virtual PC 2007!
Bummer!!! Show Stopper!!!!!!!!!
Then the real fun began. In Add/Remove Programs no entry for Virtual PC 2007. No problem: Google to the rescue!! Unfortunately, there were no clear directions for removing Virtual PC 2007 on Google, at least where my eyes looked for four hours. Finally enough of that, back to reading the directions again.
This worked and was a matter of correctly reading the Release Notes for Virtual PC 2007. They did tell me; just too obtuse to read the English correctly.
For others that might have the same problem:
1) You have to get Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi out of setup.exe.
This is accomplished in a CMD windows via:
{location setup.exe}>setup.exe /t {location where you want the msi file}
my specific command line:
C:\Ori\VirturalPC2007>setup.exe /t c:\Ori\VirturalPC2007
ignore any error message thrown up by Vista, my user had admin privileges
2) Shut down all applications except for the CMD window
3) Use msiexec.exe to uninstall Virtual PC 2007.
{location Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi}>msiexec.exe /x Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi
my specific command line:
C:\Ori\VirturalPC2007>msiexec.exe /x Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi
agree with dialog box that you really do want to uninstall Virtual PC 2007
4) Reboot Vista!
5) Remove rubbish left over from install of Virtual PC 2007
in my case the "Shared Folder" was still present on my hard drive
the file that contained the XP that was installed on Virtual PC 2007 was still present
deleting the two files and then running a registry cleaner put Vista back into good shape
Hopefully this will help someone who was as confused as myself as to how to get ride of Virtual PC 2007. It's very annoying that the only was to remove VPC is using the code only a dyed in the wool programmer could love. A simple uninstall program would have been nice especially if it properly cleaned up after itself and returned Vista to the shape it was prior to the install of Virtual PC 2007!!
It is hard for programmers who are proud of their baby to realize that not ALL users love the baby the way they do. Without USB support Virtual PC 2007 is not much more than a glamorous toy which is fun to play with but accomplishes very little.
Hamachi installed and worked without a hitch. Yahoo Widgets installed and worked without a hitch. My password manager installed and worked. Office installed and worked. Firefox and its extensions installed and worked. Virtual PC 2007 could see my local lan and the Internet without a single burp!
Then the microphone would not work!! The sound played through my HiFi Link without a hitch BUT it first went to Virtual PC's sound card and then to the Vista's sound card and then to the HiFi Link. The sound was not crystal clear but very understandable. XM Tuner, Yahoo Widget, worked without a hitch, expect for an occasional stutter when Vista was working hard which was occasionally.
BUT breaking down and reading the directions resulted in discovering the following: USB is NOT supported by Virtual PC 2007!
Bummer!!! Show Stopper!!!!!!!!!
Then the real fun began. In Add/Remove Programs no entry for Virtual PC 2007. No problem: Google to the rescue!! Unfortunately, there were no clear directions for removing Virtual PC 2007 on Google, at least where my eyes looked for four hours. Finally enough of that, back to reading the directions again.
This worked and was a matter of correctly reading the Release Notes for Virtual PC 2007. They did tell me; just too obtuse to read the English correctly.
For others that might have the same problem:
1) You have to get Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi out of setup.exe.
This is accomplished in a CMD windows via:
{location setup.exe}>setup.exe /t {location where you want the msi file}
my specific command line:
C:\Ori\VirturalPC2007>setup.exe /t c:\Ori\VirturalPC2007
ignore any error message thrown up by Vista, my user had admin privileges
2) Shut down all applications except for the CMD window
3) Use msiexec.exe to uninstall Virtual PC 2007.
{location Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi}>msiexec.exe /x Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi
my specific command line:
C:\Ori\VirturalPC2007>msiexec.exe /x Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi
agree with dialog box that you really do want to uninstall Virtual PC 2007
4) Reboot Vista!
5) Remove rubbish left over from install of Virtual PC 2007
in my case the "Shared Folder" was still present on my hard drive
the file that contained the XP that was installed on Virtual PC 2007 was still present
deleting the two files and then running a registry cleaner put Vista back into good shape
Hopefully this will help someone who was as confused as myself as to how to get ride of Virtual PC 2007. It's very annoying that the only was to remove VPC is using the code only a dyed in the wool programmer could love. A simple uninstall program would have been nice especially if it properly cleaned up after itself and returned Vista to the shape it was prior to the install of Virtual PC 2007!!
It is hard for programmers who are proud of their baby to realize that not ALL users love the baby the way they do. Without USB support Virtual PC 2007 is not much more than a glamorous toy which is fun to play with but accomplishes very little.
