Windows XP Professional is one of the guest operating systems supported by Virtual PC 2007. If this is the guest operating system you plan to install, make sure that you select Windows XP as the operating system when you create the virtual machine (refer to step 5 in the part I of this series).

If your virtual machine is setup, proceed with the steps that I describe below to install Windows XP inside the virtual machine.

  1. In the Virtual PC Console, select your virtual machine and click Start.
  2. If you have Windows XP on a DVD, insert it into your drive and press Enter (if you have an ISO, click Capture ISO Image from the CD menu.)
  3. The setup of Windows XP begins.
  4. Press F6 to install a SCSI or RAID driver. Alternatively, you can press F5 at this point to select the appropriate Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for your computer.
  5. Once the initialization process completes, setup prompts you to select the type of installation. Press Enter to continue with the installation of Windows XP.
  6. At this point setup looks for any existing installation of Windows XP. Since this is a clean installation, there should be no existing copies installed.
  7. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement and continue the setup process. Alternatively, you can press Esc if you do not agree with the EULA. However, you will be unable to continue with the installation.
  8. The next screen will display the existing partitions and unpartitioned space on the computer. The delete an existing partition, use the Up and Down arrows to select the partition then press D to delete it.
  9. Press C to create a new partition. Enter in the size of the partition and press Enter.
  10. Press Enter to install Windows XP on the selected partition.
  11. Next, you must specify the type of file system to use.
  12. Press Enter to restart the computer. At this point, the text-mode phase of setup is complete and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) phase of the setup process will begin.
  13. Select the Regional and Language options and click Next to continue.
  14. Type in your name and company information. Click Next.
  15. Enter the 25 character Product Key and click Next.
  16. Provide a valid computer name and click Next to continue with setup.
  17. Select the appropriate day and time settings. This also includes selecting your time zone. Click Next.
  18. Click Next to accept the default network settings.
  19. If you are installing XP Professional, the next screen will allow you to configure domain or workgroup membership. By default, setup configures the computer as a member of a workgroup.
  20. Your computer will reboot and the Windows Activation screen will appear.

Once you complete these steps, refer to the section entitled ‘Installing Virtual Machine Additions’ in Part Iv of this series.

[tags]virtual pc, virtual machine[/tags]