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Win XP virtual machine - please school me

bgaidan

bgaidan

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Anyone have a good, easy step by step for setting up a WinXP VM? I"ve tried in the past and it didn't click and I gave up.

I have an old school vinyl plotter that only works with XP and earlier drivers. I've tried all the tricks of running in compatibility mode and whatnot and it just doesn't work. Probably because it was a printer/plotter (printer is long dead) and doesn't behave like a traditional printer or plotter. I've been using a shitty old laptop with an XP install, but it's a pain in the ass and really, really clunky. I'd love to just be able to run it from my desktop.
 
Sometimes VM passthrough for peripherals is a bit tricky too.

You essentially allocate the disk drive space (20gb or so would be a good start), create the VHD, mount the XP installation .iso, boot the VM to the mounted media, install and it is just like a normal computer
 
I use VM Ware myself setup is dead easy. Is the plotter USB or RS232?
 
OllieNZ said:
I use VM Ware myself setup is dead easy. Is the plotter USB or RS232?
Click to expand...

Serial - it has 1284 and DB25 plugs on it. When my desktop was still XP, I ran it off a USB to serial DB25 adapter and it was fine as long as I didn't change USB ports, which would give the adapter a new serial port number.

The laptop I've been using has a docking station with serial out so I've been running it straight serial on that.
 
Have you got a WinXP disc or ISO?

Have you looked into VirtualBox?

That's the freebie VM tech. If you wanna pay a bit, VMWare is solid too.
 
Icono said:
Have you got a WinXP disc or ISO?

Have you looked into VirtualBox?

That's the freebie VM tech. If you wanna pay a bit, VMWare is solid too.
Click to expand...

I have a key and probably have a bootable flash drive....or can download the iso and make one. Hell, pretty sure I still have the full install CD's somwhere! I found my office 2000 install CD's when I was moving a few weeks ago. :laughing:



Is there an "software method" that doesn't require partitioning and effectively having to dual boot? Something like how the idiots I worked with that insisted on having macs would constantly have to run windows for all of our in-house software. I swear they could just run XP without having to boot off another partition.
 
bgaidan said:
I have a key and probably have a bootable flash drive....or can download the iso and make one. Hell, pretty sure I still have the full install CD's somwhere! I found my office 2000 install CD's when I was moving a few weeks ago. :laughing:



Is there an "software method" that doesn't require partitioning and effectively having to dual boot? Something like how the idiots I worked with that insisted on having macs would constantly have to run windows for all of our in-house software. I swear they could just run XP without having to boot off another partition.
Click to expand...

No, if you install either VirtualBox or VMWare on your machine, you then create an encapsulated "OS install" like it's an app or program.

Within the VM, all the drives, and everything else, are virtual, i.e. don't touch your machine. No dual boot or any of that.
 
bgaidan said:
Serial - it has 1284 and DB25 plugs on it. When my desktop was still XP, I ran it off a USB to serial DB25 adapter and it was fine as long as I didn't change USB ports, which would give the adapter a new serial port number.

The laptop I've been using has a docking station with serial out so I've been running it straight serial on that.
Click to expand...

Setting up the Com port is probably going to be the hardest thing. VMWare will walk you through the VM setup and OS installation it's pretty simple. Once you boot the virtual machine you can choose which bits of your physical machine (like the USB ports) it can talk to. Sounds like you've already got a known good adapter which is excellent. I've had issues where things will work with one adapter but not another despite them being allegedly the same :rolleyes:
Sometimes a bit of trail and error is needed to work out the best connection order. Some stuff I use can only be connected after the VM is running, others need to be plugged and force stopped in the main OS before launching the VM and others dgaf about connection order.
 
Windows 10 has Hyper-V which is free. You have to enable it in the Windows Features... then it installs.
 
I have an XP vm and just keep rolling back to a snapshot to get around the registration with Microsoft bs. I only need it for gui access to a device that won't work with anything but an ancient version of Java and IE6 :laughing:
 
It works, is free, basic enough for the beginner. *shrug*
 
I have several.

it's easy in virtualbox.
create a new machine
tell it win xp. select disk space and ram. leave everything else default.
attach winxp iso as an optical drive, boot virtual machine to iso, install XP.
install virtualbox additions immediately and all drivers are installed.

done.

the last win xp VM I built took like 15 minutes.

edit:
step by step, with pictures.
https://subscription.packtpub.com/b.../installing-windowsxp-on-oracle-vm-virtualbox
 
Last edited:
Ted_Kaczynski said:
I have an XP vm and just keep rolling back to a snapshot to get around the registration with Microsoft bs. I only need it for gui access to a device that won't work with anything but an ancient version of Java and IE6 :laughing:
Click to expand...

create a batch file with the OOBE reset command and run it when it nags you. resets it back to 30 days.

c:\windows\system32\rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnK
 
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