up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

Can you install Windows 7 on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, VirtualBox on a mac, or on Windows 7's Virtual PC?

Using Virtual PC 2007 to install Win 7 is a bit weird... but in fact, it is just like installing Win 7 on an old machine... so if 10 years later, if there is Windows 9, you can still install it on a Virtual PC 2007 probably?

Did anyone try those and saw how big the .vhd or .vmdk was? Win 7 requires 16GB of hard disk space so maybe the .vhd file is close to 16GB too? In that case it is hard to burn to a DVD-R and store that image file for later use.

link|improve this question
70% accept rate
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

why do you want to keep a VM for 10 years? sentimental reasons??? :)

you can always archive the image (they compress fairly well, 50% or better) and split to make it fit on a DVD ... or use double layer DVDs.

i'm using a vLited version of 7 in VBox here, the backup VDI size of the clean installation is about 2.5 GB, compressed 701 MB (will fit onto a blank CD)

link|improve this answer
thanks. so vLited Win 7 is like a slim down version of Win 7? ha, it just feel amazing that 10 years later, the Windows probably still can be installed on a virtual machine created by Virtual PC 2007... or course it will be single core only though. – 動靜能量 Nov 4 '09 at 19:10
to be honest, Windows 7 doesn't have the potential of Windows XP (as in around for well over 8 years now and still alive and kicking :). the problem i see, you will have to keep and old version of VPC around as well as VPC 2020 may not play too well with a 10 year old image. and yes, vLite is a software to rip the living daylights out of Vista/7, useful as well to update the installation disc with patches, drivers, etc. – Molly7244 Nov 4 '09 at 20:01
Would you care to describe which components you removed from which windows 7 edition? Also do you trust the optional entering of your windows product key into [vn]Lite? – dlamblin Nov 4 '09 at 20:45
@Molly: I know people running Windows 98 still. There have been more surprising things than 8 years of Win7. – Will Eddins Nov 4 '09 at 20:53
@dlamblin: pretty much everything in order to squeeze it onto the 4GB SSD of my eee 701 4G. if you google for: vlite session.ini windows 7 ... the interwebs are full of them. please note: as with nLite, there is no 'one fits all' solution, but you may use them as guidelines for your own customized windows 7 installation. – Molly7244 Nov 4 '09 at 21:12
show 1 more comment
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Also realize that you can use differential and expanding VHD's that will start smaller and only grow to the needed size.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.