I can't get XP Mode to run on Windows 7 Enterprise x64 - it just keeps reinstalling

Question

I'm trying to install Windows XP Mode on my work PC, a machine running Windows 7 x64 Enterprise. However, every time I try to run it, it disappears and re-installs itself.

Here's the sequence of events:

1. Download XP Mode
2. Download Virtual PC (same place)
3. Install Virtual PC
4. Reboot
5. Install XP Mode
6. Skipped update from XP Mode page since I'm already running SP1 (if you attempt to install it you're told it doesn't apply)
7. Started XP Mode, get prompted with Windows XP Mode Setup
8. When prompted: accepted the EULA, set up a password, set up automatic updates
9. Setup then shows some info and a status bar
10. Setup goes away. Nothing else happens
11. I click the "Windows Virtual PC" from the Start Menu
12. I see the "Virtual Machines" folder is empty
13. I do a Start Menu search for XP Mode. I click the shortcut
14. The Windows XP Mode Setup wizard shows up again.
15. I follow the same steps as in step #8 above
16. This time I notice, during the status bar portion like I saw in step #9, I see an entry in the "Virtual Machines" folder for "Windows XP Mode.vmcx". It's listed as "Running" under Machine Status
17. Once the Windows XP Mode Setup wizard goes away, the status of the Windows XP Mode Virtual Machine changes to "Powered down"
18. I double-click on the "Windows XP Mode.vmcx" file.
19. I am once again presented with the Windows XP Mode Setup wizard like in step #8 and the "Windows XP Mode.vmcx" file disappears.
20. If, at this point, I click "Cancel" the VM remains gone from the "Virtual Machines" folder. I can still do a search for "Windows XP Mode" in the Start menu and find a shortcut that essentially starts the process over at step #8 again. Or if I instead go through the wizard then the process repeats anyway.

The Event Logs don't show anything funny but I'm not sure if there's supposed to be more logs elsewhere.

The machine is using a Intel Core i7 870 processor, so the processor isn't the issue (plus as I follow it the processor-specific requirements were removed with SP1). System has 12GB of RAM so I don't think memory is the issue.

Some of my Google searching shows incidents of people who were experiencing similar issues (although never mentioning the infinite setup wizard) and fixed them by removing some driver that was conflicting - like a USB webcam or something. I'm a software developer and I've got a plethora of drivers for various things - flatbed scanners, mobile phones, etc., so removing drivers and starting over is not really an option.

If I have to resort to something like VMWare for the legacy programs I need to run then that's what I'll do, but in the meantime has anyone experienced what I'm seeing above? Anyone know how to fix it?

Answer 1

Virtualization has to be enabled in the bios, most notebooks have this disabled by default, also check to be sure you have enough hard disk space.

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