[hemmerling] Making the Transition from VirtualPC to VirtualBox

Motivation

VirtualPC and VirtualServer are the standard free virtualisation technologies for W2k, WinXP, Vista and Win 7 hosts. I am using VirtualPC since 2004, creating many VirtualPC machines .
Now with Win8:
- VirtualPC can't be installed on a Win8 host ( while it was an integreated product on Win7 hosts ).
- The successor Hyper-V is just available for 64-bit Windows.
So on 32-bit Win8 systems, if you want to use virtualisation, you have to turn to another solution.
I decided to turn to VirtualBox, as it may load VirtualPC machines with dynamic file space allocation ( VirtualPC New Virtual Machine Wizard: “Virtual hard disk size” < “Maximum virtual hard disk size” ) without transformation . With VMware, you need to transform the VirtualPC file system, by the free “VMware vCenter Converter” .

Guest operating system - The operating system which is running on the virtualisation system ( i.e. in the simulator ).
Host operating system - The operating system which is running the virtualisation system ( i.e. the simulator ). This is the native operating system of the computer, when you turn it on.

Remember, any other virtualisation will crash, if “Virtual Machine Additions” ( or “Extension Pack” ) of a different virtualisation are installed on the guest operating system.
1. On a Windows host running VirtualPC, run the VirtualPC machine, login.
2. After login, deinstall the “Virtual Machine Additions” by “Action / Install or Update Virtual Maschine Additions”.
3. Reboot the VirtualPC and check, that no “Virtual Machine Additions” are installed: The mouse cursor is captured inside the VirtualPC windows. By pressing the “ALT-GR”, you may leave the window.

Install the OpenSource Oracle VirtualBox and the OpenSource “Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack”.
Call the Oracle VM VirtualBox manager “Oracle VM VirtualBox”.
- Create a new VirtualBox by pressing the “New” button.
- Name the new virtual machine, e.g. “vbx5_w2ks”.
- Select the memory size, e.g. 1024 MB.
- Select “Do not add a virtual hard drive”, press the button “continue” on the modal warning window.
- Now at “C:\users\<username>\VirtualBox VMs”, there is a directory “vbx5_w2ks”.
Copy your VirtualPC *vhd file into that directory, e.g. “vpc5_w2ks Hard Disk.vhd”.
Call the Oracle VM VirtualBox manager “Oracle VM VirtualBox”.
- Select “Settings / Storage”.
- Mouse-rightclick at “Controller: IDE”.
- Select “Add Hard Disk”, press the button “Coose existing disk”, select the VirtualPC *vhd file, e.g. “vpc5_w2ks Hard Disk.vhd”.
- Press the button “Ok”.
Installation and de-installation of devices:
- Add a shared folder by “Settings / Shared Folders”, e.g. “C:\” → “C_DRIVE” with the option ”[x] Auto-mount”, for Windows guests.
- For Win98SE guests, you must deselect USB by “Settings / USB”, ”[ ] Enable USB Controller” .

Start a VirtualBox by “Start”.
After login at the guest operating system, you are captured in the VirtualBox window.
If “Found new hardware wizards” windows appears, always select “Cancel”.
If the window “System Settings Change. Do you want to restart your computer now?” appears, select “No”.
Use “Ctrl” to leave the VirtualBox window.
Execute “Devices / Install GuestAdditions...” to install the VirtualBox guest additions.
Change number of colors of the graphics card to “True Color (32 bit)”, by mouse-rightclick, “Properties / Setting / Colors”.
Change the drive letter of the CDROM drive to “Z:”, by “Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management”, “CDRom 0” → “Change Drive Letter and Paths”.
Reboot the VirtualBox guest operating system.

With VirtualPC, you have the freedom to create VirtualPC machines at any place .
You just can install VirtualBox machines at ”/users/public/<username>/VirtualBox VMs/” .

The “Virtual Disk Wizard” of VirtualPC may not just create harddisk images, but also Floppy-Disk images ( *.vfd, *.img, *ima, *.dsk ).
Problem: With VirtualBox, you can´t create Floppy-Disk images.
Solution:
- On Windows ( W2k Server, WinXP..., Win8, but not W2k-Pro ): “fsutil file createnew myimage.vfd 1474560”.
- On Linux: “fallocate -l 1474560 myimage.vfd”.
- On Linux & other Unix-like systems: “head -c 1474560 /dev/zero > myimage.vfd”.
Source: Superuser "How to create empty floppy image with Virtual Box Windows guest?".

A VirtualPC is part of the Windows network, i.e. “Entire Network / Microsoft Windows Network / Workgroup / <VirtualPC>”. On that base, you may create shares, e.g. “Entire Network / Microsoft Windows Network / Workgroup / <Windows Host> / <Shared Host Folder>”.
A VirtualBox isn't part of the Windows network. You may create shares of folders of your local computer, e.g. “Entire Network / VirtualBox Shared Folders / <Shared Host Folder>”.

With VirtualPC, you can use copies of the VirtualPC filesystem *.vhd ( i.e. filesystems with the same UUID ) to serve with different VirtualPC accounts *.vmc on the same computer.
Problem: With VirtualBox, VirtualBox filesystems are registered. If you try to link a copy of a VirtualBox *.vhd filesystem with more than one VirtualBox account, you get an error message
```
Failed to open the hard disk "C:\\..." {uuid..}\\
Cannot register the hard disk "C:\\..." {uuid...} \\
because a hard disk "C:\\..." with UUID {uuid...} \\
already exists".
```
The only solution: Move the VirtualBox folder to another location and carefully remove the harddisk and the account which is not needed at once .

There are no “Oracle VirtualBox Guest Additions” for Windows98SE as guest operation system.
As VirtualPC is not available for Win8 , an integrated operation of Win98SE ( with network file access to the Windows host,.. ) is just possible on W2k, WinXP, Vista and Win7 hosts, using VirtualPC .
linuxforen.de -- User helfen Usern, stefan.becker "4) Probleme und Lösungen / FAQ" - “4.2) Win 9x / ME / 3.11 als Gast”, “4.2.3) Windows 9x+ME / höhere Bildschirmauflösungen” #.
See Windows 3.x , Windows 9.x, Windows ME ( WinME ).