Windows 7 Virtual PC create from existing install

I have a current version of Windows 7 Professional where everything is working just fine. I have Visual Studio, Sql Server Enterprise and a number of other software development tools installed. I was thinking of upgrading my PC. Is it possible that I could get a new PC with Win7 Pro and then take my existing PC and just create a Virtual PC from it. Move that to my new machine and then just be off and running as a Virtual PC on the new computer. If this works, I would think it best to just keep running this way. Then in the future if I upgrade I can just move the Virtual PC and voila. Is this possible?

microsoft-virtual-pc

time

Posted 2012-08-20T19:46:35.810

Reputation: 33

Answers

Certainly! You can use a sysinternals tool called Disk2VHD and then attach the virtual disk that you export to a VM in Virtual PC.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

Chris N

Posted 2012-08-20T19:46:35.810

Reputation: 266

Upon further research it appears the Virtual PC cannot access the full capabilities of the root machine. E.g. cannot use all CPU cores. Since I need my builds to go as quick as possible it looks like Virtual PC is not a great option. – time – 2012-08-29T21:41:47.150

There are a few tools out there depending on what software you use VMs with, I personally use VMware Workstation and have successfully converted physical machines to virtual (P2V) with this tool

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

j_bombay

Posted 2012-08-20T19:46:35.810

Reputation: 640