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I’ve just installed VMWare Fusion 2 on my Mac.

Microsoft makes available some Virtual PC disk images containing different versions of IE, so that us humble web developers can test our code on them:

I want to convert these .vhd files to work with VMWare.

I’ve tried VMWare Converter Standalone on Windows, but it doesn’t work with .vhd files (as of the current version, 4.0.1).

Any ideas? VMWare’s website is confused corporate hell.

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This isn't an answer so much as it is precautionary...

I've launched those MS provided VM's with Microsoft's Virtual PC, then used VMware Converter to convert them as suggested by others.

It ain't pretty. Or at least, wasn't 2 years ago when I last tried. Among other things, I lost the windows license...

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Yeah, I had the same problem actually. Not sure of a workaround yet — I might end up running one purchased Windows in VMWare with the latest IE, and the run Virtual PC inside that for older IEs. Decidedly frustrating. Hey Microsoft, I just want to make my websites work in your shitty, shitty old browsers without spending a fortune on Windows licenses. – Paul D. Waite Sep 30 at 15:24
Virtual PC seems to crash my VMWare Windows virtual machine, so running the Microsoft VMs in Virtual PC within a VMWare instance doesn’t seem to be an option either. – Paul D. Waite Oct 12 at 22:22
Just for the record, I installed a purchased Windows XP Pro in one VM, then copied it twice in order to run IE6, IE7 and IE8 in their own Virtual Machine. The Microsoft IE Virtual PC VMs won’t activate over the internet when converted and running in VMWare. Haven’t tried calling the activation phone number though, that might work. – Paul D. Waite Oct 16 at 10:56
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Alternatively, if you are using Windows 7, you can mount the .vhd file in the drive manager, then use that mounted drive as a physical drive in vmware.

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Aha: mount the VHD, then import it as if it were a physical drive. Cool. Unfortunately I’m not on Windows 7, but that’s a good workaround. – Paul D. Waite Sep 30 at 11:57
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Your problem is that the VMware Converter Standalone wants to convert whole Virtual PC images which are .vmc files and not just the disk images, the .vhd files.

I guess you'll need to download Virtual PC, create an image that uses the disk, and then convert that.

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Sure, that’s probably the sensible way to go. Virtual PC is a free download, so it’s not much bother. – Paul D. Waite Sep 30 at 12:15
Aha: as mentioned below, Windows on the MS images may start complaining when you run it after this conversion process. Watch this space. – Paul D. Waite Sep 30 at 16:49
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The VMware Virtual Machine Importer can convert several VM formats (and physical disks) to a VMware disk. This includes the VHD format used by VirtualPC.

Check the doc here for the supported formats.

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Not a direct answer, but IEs4Linux lets you test your site using multiple versions of Internet Explorer, without actually running Windows.

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

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Nice, worth a look. – Paul D. Waite Oct 13 at 10:37
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Qemu will convert .vhds to work with VMWare:

(Qemu doesn’t work on the Mac. There is a Mac port called Q, but I couldn’t get it working with the Windows Virtual PC files I had.)

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Use WinImage to convert the VHD file into a VMDK file. Here is a great walkthrough:

http://www.sertec.ca/howtos/Howto-Convert-VHD-to-VMDK-Partition-types.html

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Windows 7’s XP Mode might be a decent alternative.

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I used WinImage and was left with two vmdk files. One was several GBs and the other was 1KB. I did not have a vmx file though so I couldn't open in vmware.

I was able to create a vmx file at this website and the image works great. http://www.easyvmx.com

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Yes I agree with Dougman, the best way to convert VHD to VMware is:

http://www.sertec.ca/howtos/Howto-Convert-VHD-to-VMDK-Partition-types.html

Thanks for this link!

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I’m sure Dougman appreciates it, but I think the Superuser way to show your appreciation for an answer is to vote it up, rather than replicate it in your own answer. – Paul D. Waite Feb 10 at 6:40

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