How to share a Windows XP mode virtual machine

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I am in the process of replacing a shared PC with a new PC running Windows 7.

We have lots and lots of old games and other programs, used by various family members, and I need to make sure these are all available on the new computer.

Many of these can run under DOS, and work perfectly well using Dosbox. Some old programs need a Windows environment to run, and I have been installing these in a Windows XP virtual machine, created using the Windows XP mode of Windows 7. This works really well. For example it runs Sibelius 3, saving me the expense of upgrading to Sibelius 6.1 which is supported by Windows 7 but would cost a lot of money.

I have now started to create user accounts for the other members of my family, and I can’t see how to give them access to the same Windows XP mode virtual machine, Windows 7 wants to create a separate virtual machine for each Windows 7 user, which means that I would have to configure lots of virtual machines, and install the software on all of them.

The files for the virtual machine appear to be located in
C:UsersAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows Virtual PCVirtual Machines
which contains the following files

[*]Windows XP Mode.vhd (over 3 GB) – I suspect this is the virtual machine’s boot disk
[*]Windows XP Mode.vmc (15 KB)
[*]Windows XP Mode.vmc.vpcbackup (15 KB)
[*]Windows XP Mode.vmcx (2KB)
[*]Windows XP Mode.vsv (over 1 GB) – I think this may be the hibernated virtual machine’s memory

The start menu has entries as shown in the attached graphic.

[indent]

[/indent]The Windows XP mode applications have been created in my personal Start Menu, but I guess I could move them to the All Users menu. The other two shortcuts are already in the All Users start menu.

When I open the Windows Virtual PC menu item it shows only the Virtual PCs created by this user. This menu item has a shortcut of
%SystemRoot%system32vmwindow.exe

Windows XP mode has a shortcut of
%SystemRoot%system32rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%system32VMCPropertyHandler.dll,LaunchDefaultVM

I can’t work out where to move everything so that all users of the PC will be able to access the Virtual Machine that has the Windows XP applications installed.

I have searched in Google and found nothing helpful, so if anyone has played with this stuff and wants to offer any suggestions please do…

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I can’t seem to display your attachment; maybe it’s just me, or maybe there is a problem.

To add to your list of possibilities, my LaserJet 1020 works under Vista and other platforms but not Win 7, and I can’t help wondering if there is a way of supporting drivers by using the XP virtual machine.

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Stuart’s attachment displays fine on my PC (Windows XP SP3, Internet Explorer 8)

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THIS might (or might not) offer some ideas.

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THIS might (or might not) offer some ideas.

‘frayed knot.

I have found lots of pages describing how to set up Windows XP mode, but nothing that talks about how to move the Virtual Machines to a different location on the Windows 7 system so they can be visible to other users.

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