How to start a Windows XP Virtual PC application using Powershell from Windows 7?

Question

This is a shortcut target of an application I launch from Windows 7 that starts a program in Windows XP Mode.

%SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\VMCPropertyHandler.dll,LaunchVMSal "Windows XP Mode" "||fc9407e9" "wIntegrate"

I can't seem to get the PS Start-process command to work for that target.

Code I use:

Start-Process %SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\VMCPropertyHandler.dll,LaunchVMSal "Windows XP Mode" "||fc9407e9" "wIntegrate"

Here is the error I receive:

Start-Process : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'Windows XP Mode'.
At C:\Users\username.domain\Desktop\rebootpick.ps1:13 char:14
+ Start-Process <<<<  %SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\VMCPropertyHandler.dll,LaunchVMSal "Windows XP Mode" "||fc9407e9" "wIntegrate"
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Start-Process], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartProcessCommand

Has anyone had any luck executing Windows XP Mode applications from Powershell from Windows 7?

Answer 1

This should do it for you:

$sysRoot = get-content env:systemroot;
Start-Process $sysRoot\system32\rundll32.exe -ArgumentList "$sysRoot\system32\VMCPropertyHandler.dll,LaunchVMSal `"Windows XP Mode`" `"||fc9407e9`" `"wIntegrate`"";
Remove-Variable sysRoot;

First trick: %systemroot% doesn't work in PS, so we assign a variable ($sysRoot) to get that environment variable in PS.

The next trick is realizing there is only one argument provided to RunDLL32, and that argument has arguments. So we need to enclose all the parts of the argument into one argument using quotes. But we need to keep the existing quotes in that argument, so we escape them with `.

Hope that helps...