Windows XP Mode Internals – Part 2 (Application Publishing Magic)

I like how it automaticlly adds the shortcut from the XP session to the Windows 7 session… I take it that you have to use the VHD that comes with the XP Mode due to the RDP 6.1+ technology requirements that would not be in a normal install of XP.

What do you think about similarities with vmware unity?

Does it allow running XP file explorer virtually? That would be a HUGE selling point for me.

@Joao’s question:
Thats damn good question. Like, if you stuck an Explorer Icon into the start menu, you could launch it right?

Then again… you would only have browsing access to the files on the Virtual disk right? damn… UNLESS you set up some network drives… hmmmm thats getting to complicated…

I wish Vista (and Windows 7) would allow multiple RDP sessions as well, even if it was restricted. (e.g. Only admins can start a second session, it’s time-limited and you can only open three apps. That would do fine!)

Why? Media Center.

If someone is watching TV via Media Center on my HTPC, but I want to log-on and do some admin task, I have to kick them off, which annoys both them and me. Them because it stops their video and blanks the screen. Me because I have to wait 30 seconds while they are asked whether or not they want to allow me to take over. (If there is even someone at the TV at the time, and I’m not sure if they can respond to the prompt with the remote control anyway.) (Is there a way to stop that 30 second prompt? I’m the administrator; I should be able to take control immediately without them getting the option to say no.)

The icing on the cake is that once I’m done doing admin stuff, if I just disconnect then the screen — i.e. my TV — will be left locked. Which is awesome when there’s no keyboard plugged in to unlock it and when I don’t want everyone to know the password. That means every time I RDP to my HTPC to do admin work I have to finish by rebooting it.

All because of a completely artificial policy restriction. :-|

Media Center rocks overall but I wish Microsoft would be a bit more committed to it (i.e. fix all the damn screensaver/focus-loss video-restart/unpause bugs, for the love of god) and think a bit more about how people will use it (i.e. we need to use RDP to maintain the thing because nobody wants a keyboard plugged into their freaking television!).

@Joao:
“Does it allow running XP file explorer virtually? That would be a HUGE selling point for me.”

So you can run a file manager that only sucks (XP) instead of one that is virtually unusable (Vista/Win7)? :-)

Better to use on that is actually good, e.g. Opus. (Disclaimer: I am a huge Opus fanboy.)

I miss the network activity animation on the taskbar and Windows Meeting Space which would allow ad hoc desktop sharing without an internet connection.

So the ‘additions’ component does the auto-publishing step and the Start menu folders inside the 7 Start menu is set up to be shared with the XP VM where the published/packaged shortcut goes, no need for “monitoring logic”?

How does it fit into Aero? Is it seen in Flip3D and taskbar previews?

I cannot run Vista because I need a version of Cisco’s VPN client that no likey the Vista. Will I be able to run a VPN Client in XPMode and actually connect to my company’s network?

Why it is so slow?
Does it stop the vm when starting the app?

are the apps you run restricted to the vhds file system, or can they access the host as well?

@Leo: Agreed, concurrent login restrictions have always been a major problem with the Remote Desktop implementation. Your idea of a restricted second session is a good one, although time limits are probably a no-go (what if I’m installing a big Service Pack, or troubleshooting?). I’m not sure Microsoft’s cannibalization fears with Remote Desktop are justified — surely Windows is not going to lose the desktop through two-for-one license consolidation (one Windows machine, one Linux machine that’s only used to RDP in). Especially since Remote Desktop is only available in the higher SKUs.

Note, however, that you don’t necessarily have to reboot after termserving in. Although the Start menu defaults to disconnecting without logoff, you can log off the admin user in two ways: (1) Issue the “logoff” command from the command prompt (2) Open task manager and go to the “Users” tab — notice two distinct actions: Disconnect and Logoff. This still leaves the screen locked, but on the TV user account rather than the admin — so you should be able to log back in using the MCE remote control.

And, frankly, I don’t see why logoff isn’t one of the options on the Start menu anyway …

@Chad, I would like to know this as well. Is there anyway to get a confirmation on how a scenario like this would work?

So how is this going to work with proprietary programs that are coded for Windows XP. I mean I worked in an insurance company and they the Chief admin never switched to Vista and he had no want to up grade to 7 either…. And from what I read on Neowin, its going to offer 100% compatibility like a nativity running copy of XP. I mean why is this? Minus a few tweaks under the hood it is just a XP SP3.

Shame they haven’t hacked it up abit so that the relavent icon appears on the taskbar. Be kinda neat seeing the IE6 logo sitting there.

azz0r: FWIW I just checked and VMWare’s Fusion feature does put the IE6 (or whatever) icon on the taskbar, at least on Vista.

I wonder if this Virtual XP stuff does the same thing, but on Winodws 7 you get all of the virtual windows grouped into a single top-level Virtual XP icon on the taskbar? (i.e. Below that icon there may be an IE6 icon.)

I don’t have VMWare installed on a Win7 machine to see what would happen there.

Will this be able to play basic 3D games such as Duke Nukem, possibly Counter-Strike?

@Joao, you sure can. Just add IE as shown in the video and type “C:\” into the address bar. Boom.

Oh, it also appears that you can launch ANY app from this explorer without having to add it to the menu. Little tip.

@Rafael;

This is by far the best thing microsoft could have done to secure windows 7 on my computer, something that I installed since the M3 build. And now this release candidate.

To let others know, I am running the 64bit version of windows 7 and I happen to have some devices that some manufactures will not offer 64bit drivers, I was disappointed at them and not with windows since this is not windows fault!
But now that microsoft has spent the time and effort to put this out, I might as well let other people know;

If you have a device that has no 64bit drivers, there is a possibility that it can still communicate with the USB integration feature of Microsoft Virtual PC, therefore you are able to install the driver/software in the guest os and actually use your device in the Virtual Environment (not via App Deployment, VM has to be initialized).

I was happy by the fact that I can now use by old 32bit hardware even though I was running 64bit and only 32bit drivers are available for it!

Now that I said that, how does it work for you? If you have one of these devices with 32bit drivers only, does it work for you?
Give it a try.

And for your info, my device was a usb gps with internal storage that can only be accessed by a tool with the right drivers installed to it can update its files. It shows up as communication device under the usb option of microsoft virtual pc.

I don’t like the way drives share works: all or none.

In Virtual PC 2007 it’s possible to share only the drives or folders you really need to share, with the new Windows Virtual PC that is gone and I really don’t like the idea that a less secure OS has access to all my file.
OK, it cannot write in the Program Files and Windows folders, but it still have full access to all the data on the host OS and that is pretty bad.

Drag&drop between host and client desktop doesn’t work, it’s something I can live without, but only if the drives integration is fixed.

Integration right now is supported only for XP SP3, Vista SP1 and Windows 7. I need integration and folder sharing for Windows Server as well.

It’s always bad when a new version of a product loses some features of the previous one.

Can you send me the wallpaper of the video or the link for download it please!

has anyone actually confirmed that they can use cisco VPN across the virtualization layer? I don’t seem to be successful. (i do not mean anyconnect, i mean the ipsec vpn).

In the XP Mode beta, offline files seems to be enabled. Is that being used to sync files across the VM and Windows 7?

Thanks Rafael for all this info. I tried Windows XP mode on Win 7. It’s quite a bit slow. It is still in beta stage so I hope it will improve. As for now VMWare is the champ of Virtualization. Unity mode works like a charm on Windows 7.

I’m wondered about this before.. Why didn’t they just virtualize an XP compatibility mode in the first place and make Vista a completely new kernel and architecture without worrying about compatibility? Even with Windows 7, it appears this is just to guarantee compatibility with old apps… They could have used it as an opportunity to make major changes to the system without worrying about old apps

@Andy

Microsoft’s gonna need some ice for that burn :D

Just to tell everyone, this is available to download on torrent site.. I downloaded and installed it and runs very stable :) Remember, this is a BETA program over a BETA OS (Which is more stable than Vista) I’m on Windows 7 Build 7100 right now and I just love it :D

Does anyone know if it will run if AMD-V is NOT enabled in the bios? Will it fail to run at all? fail to install? The reason why i’m asking this is because on my Compaq laptop, even though the AMD-V compatiblility check finishes successfully, it’s only checking if the CPU has the extenstions, and does not cheque the actual hardware support in the bios (at least to my belief). Since OEM bios’ are heavily modified and the settings all hidden, i’m unable to determine if it’s enabled or not.

So, in light of that, could Virtual XP be using software mode, if it doesn’t detect virtualisation enabled in the bios? If you have this option in the bios, can you turn it off and see if Virtual XP will install and run without warning/error messages?

Is the user account in the vm a member of the xp’s admin group?

Hi Guys

Been playing with this feature and found the Start Menu Publishing has a exclusion list in the VM registry. Anything listed in there won’t show on the Windows 7 Start Menu. Registry Key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtual Machine\VPCVAppExcludeList

In there you’ll find things like explorer.exe & mstsc.exe all the XP games exe ( god knows why MS just didn’t remove the games from the vhd). I deleted explorer.exe and mstsc.exe from the list and rebooted the VM from the action menu. I now have Explorer and RDP on my Windows 7 Start Menu. I have installed Cisco VPN Client which works fine. I now can kiss x86 Windows goodbye.

Hey Rafael, and idea how VMCPropertyHandler.dll@LaunchDefaultVM knows which is the default VM, and how we can change this value so that a different VM can be launched?

Rafael,

Any way to get XP mode to utilize more than just your main monitor? It looks like it’s using seemless RDP to present the apps on the windows 7 desktop. Is there some way to insert the /span switch into the string that starts the virutal enviornment?

@John Dunsire

God, thank you so much! I’ve been wanting to run MSPaint and this is the perfect solution! One question: Some shortcuts still have issues. I have Firefox installed and copied the shortcut into the All Users start menu of the VM and it’s not showing in the host OS, and there’s no entries in the VPCVAppExcludeList. Do I need to manually add it in the AppAllowList, and if so how do I do that? Also, when I had Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 installed, it worked fine but with 3.0.10, no integration.

Edit: Nevermind. When I installed 3.0.10 it replaced 3.5 Beta 4 but kept the folders/shortcuts with the same name. Launching 3.5 Beta 4 shortcut opened 3.0.10 :) Sorry for the double post.

Hi,

There is a doubt for the last paragraph of the post.. On my first run, I could see I can run IE6 and at the same time I can install updates from Windows update !!!

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/8065/vxprunning01.jpg

I didnt do any modification, its just the default XO mode running under Win7..

May be I am not understanding the meaning of the post properly !!!

Thanks.

Rafael,

Do you know of a way to upgrade an old virtual machine to have “application publishing” capability

I have the RC2 and the MS download XPM working fine but I also have some labouriously configured XP virtual machines that contain old MS office installs and other old XP era software that I can’t be bothered reinstalling and reconfiguring again.

BTW: These old VMs run fine under RC2 with integration features. Very useful too. Just no application publishing.

Thanks
Rick

I must say, this XPM just rocks!
I’ve had some issues with the VPN on Win7 so I figured I’d try XPM, sure enough, the VPN worked flawlessly. I was then able to RDP into the particular server on that particular site. I had to do all this on the XP desktop. Then I thought, what if I just run the XPM VPN from the Win7 start menu + XPM RDP… I didn’t even tried it. I went for the MMC instead. I copied my MMC with all my remote connections from Win 7 to the virtual XP, so now, I run the XPM VPN then I open XPM IE, go to favorites and open my remotes.msc MMC… Works great! Are we loving Microsoft or what?

I see alot of questions about running Cisco VPN on a virtual machine, well yes it works and works fine.
The way to get it working is to install in XPM and then you basically share the conncetion of the Cisco adaptor.
I can give more info if needed.

Now 1 hand washes the other, i need to know will CISCO give support if there is any problem with the connections of VPN whilst using this method????

George Smith: I would love some more information on sharing the connection of the Cisco adaptor with the Windows 7 host. Thanks!

Hi George,
I’m finding that I have no problems publishing applications from XP Virtual mode with the integration components installed, but if I build a VHD with our XP/SP3 OSD image and install the integration components, any apps that I install won’t publish. Do you know if a specific KB Hotfix is required for the publishing to work?

I’d love information on this on how to run Cisco VPN in XP Mode or through Windows 7. My VPN blocks outside traffic and I need to use the Internet to research. So could I do this VPN in XP Mode for one browser while in just 7 run another browser for outside Internet with no VPN restricting me? I’m a little new to VPN so don’t have this all figured out but sounds possible. Would love people’s ideas, setups!

Do you have a updated Reg key to hide / unhide apps that will be published I looked for the one John Dunsire gave but I don’t have it on my Windows 7 Enterprise machine. I am running the RC of Virtural PC.

You can get your old VM running XP/sp3 to publish apps by installing remoteApp on them.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5433d88-685f-4036-b435-570ff53598cd&displaylang=en

I think there is a version you can install on your VM Vista as well.

This is great and all, unfortunately every tutorial on the internet only shows the most basic example, of dragging Internet Explorer on there, or installing a program with an install manager.

What happens when you want to run a shortcut of a program that is on a mounted network drive? Because the Virtual XP won’t bother with shortcuts, doing this little publishing trick is impossible where it is needed most.

Same thing happens when you make a shortcut to something like Microsoft Hearts game.

Perhaps I’m missing something, but unfortunately from my Googling, no one else cares about this small yet important flaw. Can anything be done?

All of you running cisco ipsec, I am using shrew soft vpn client. It’s free. It can use the Cisco .pcf file. The development releases work with W7 x64 (and beware the stable relase as it BSOD’s. I wasn’t paying attention and it doesn’t say it supports 7 so I experienced it myself :p ).
And I think it’s faster than the Cisco client, at least logging on is way faster than when I was using the cisco client. But I am comparing between two different OS’es so many things differ, the first one with XP being our corporate image that the desktop team managed to make slow as hell :D

I am not able to public remote desktop connection to windows 7. Has anyone else had this problem?

I have many client (up to 5000) Windows 7 and i need to publish an older apps in xpmode.

I have build and test an xp machine with remote apps etc… it’s all ok.

Now i need to configure an autologon to this apps (service account). I need to delete the windows 7 authentication windows (when launch xpmode apps).

If i configure the autologon in windows xp the w7 auth windows appears and if you press cancel you can use correctly the apps (xp autologon works). How i can disable the w7 auth windows?

…. or ….

How i can autoconfigure (script?) the credential to access an xpmode machine?

Thnx all !

Stefano