{"id":1115,"date":"2010-03-14T12:20:02","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T10:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2016-08-17T14:30:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T12:30:37","slug":"windows-visual-pc-files-and-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/1115","title":{"rendered":"Windows Virtual PC files and locations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Windows Virtual PC<\/a> implements virtual machines and the application holds the entire machine state and virtual hard disk information in files. In a few large files in fact, so a question to move and\/or backup the files is a question of periodic interest.<\/p>\n

So what are the files it is using? First of all, the primary file a user clicks on to start virtual machine is a .VMCX<\/strong> file and it is located in “C:\\Users\\$(UserName)\\Virtual Machines”<\/strong> directory. It is a shortcut to internal files and is holding very basic information about the machine, its state and location of other files.<\/p>\n

<\/pre>\n
<?<\/span>xml<\/span> version<\/span>=<\/span>\"1.0\"<\/span> encoding<\/span>=<\/span>\"UTF-16\"<\/span>?><\/span>\r\n<!--<\/span> Microsoft Virtual Machine Description and Registration Settings <\/span>--><\/span>\r\n<<\/span>vm_description<\/span>><\/span>\r\n    <<\/span>ram_size<\/span> type<\/span>=<\/span>\"<\/span>string<\/span>\"<\/span>><\/span>512 MB<\/<\/span>ram_size<\/span>><\/span>\r\n    <<\/span>vmstate<\/span> type<\/span>=<\/span>\"<\/span>string<\/span>\"<\/span>><\/span>Hibernated<\/<\/span>vmstate<\/span>><\/span>\r\n    <<\/span>primary_disk1<\/span> type<\/span>=<\/span>\"<\/span>string<\/span>\"<\/span>><\/span>C:\\Users\\Roman\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows Virtual PC\\Virtual Machines\\Windows XP Mode.vhd<\/<\/span>primary_disk1<\/span>><\/span>\r\n    <<\/span>secondary_disk1<\/span> type<\/span>=<\/span>\"<\/span>string<\/span>\"<\/span> \/><\/span>\r\n    <<\/span>notes<\/span> type<\/span>=<\/span>\"<\/span>string<\/span>\"<\/span>><\/span>Windows XP Professional in \"XP Mode\"\r\nUsername XPMUser, Password XPM User<\/<\/span>notes<\/span>><\/span>\r\n    <<\/span>vmc_path<\/span> type<\/span>=<\/span>\"<\/span>string<\/span>\"<\/span>><\/span>C:\\Users\\Roman\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows Virtual PC\\Virtual Machines\\Windows XP Mode.vmc<\/<\/span>vmc_path<\/span>><\/span>\r\n<\/<\/span>vm_description<\/span>><\/span><\/pre>\n
This directory has a special hidden desktop.ini<\/strong> file in it, which instruct the shell to treat the directory and the files in a special way, as Virtual PC files. This is also how Windows is providing user a link “Create virtual machine”.<\/p>\n
The .VMCX<\/strong> file is editable (its format is based on XML) and it holds references to .VHD<\/strong> virtual disk files and .VMC<\/strong> virtual machine configuration files. However, .VMCX<\/strong> file is nothing but a shortcut only, and Windows Virtual PC will re-created those files once underlying .VMC<\/strong> file is double-clicked to be started, so there is no need to edit .VMCX<\/strong> files.<\/p>\n
.VMC<\/strong> file is a virtual machine configuration file and it holds the settings a user provides for the virtual machine through settings dialog. The file is also using XML formatting, and is editable. While the file is small itself, its location is used as a base location for .VSV<\/strong> file, where software stores runtime state of virtual machine. The .VSV<\/strong> file size is stipulated by amount of RAM granted to the virtual machine, so the file may be pretty large itself and it might be desired to be moved to another location also. To achieve this, the small .VMC<\/strong> file needs to be moved to location of interest. A .VMC<\/strong> file can be double-clicked itself to start the virtual machine.<\/p>\n
\"Windows
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
.VHD <\/strong>are the large files as they store data from virtual hard disks, so moving them may make sense. Additionally to the files themselves, if “Create Undo Disks” option is enabled, software will manage additional .VUD<\/strong> file with the name of format “VirtualPCUndo_$(VirtualMachineName)_$(Token).vud” file with changes that has not yet been applied. If moved, the .VUD<\/strong> files have to be thought of as a part of .VHD <\/strong>files.<\/p>\n
By default a .VMC<\/strong> file holds both absolute and relative path refrences to .VHD<\/strong> and .VUD<\/strong> files, with relative reference as a priority. So if .VMC<\/strong> and .VHD<\/strong> (optionally with .VUD<\/strong>) files are moved together, no special path update\/edit required. Software will be able to locate moved disk file automatically as soon as virtual machine is started. Still it is possible to edit the files manually and have files located in different directories. Also if disk file location is modified via GUI, software offers\/attempts to strip undo disk .VUD<\/strong> file and cancel unapplied changes. If configuration file is edited manually, it is possible to keep undo disks without canceling the changes.<\/p>\n
When moving files to a different location, make sure to check directory security so that Windows Virtual PC has sufficient privileges accessing files in the new location, or otherwise it would show ambiguous error messages “Could not register the virtual machine”.<\/p>\n
See Also: Windows Virtual PC Tips on microsoft.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Microsoft Windows Virtual PC implements virtual machines and the application holds the entire machine state and virtual hard disk information in files. In a few large files in fact, so a question to move and\/or backup the files is a question of periodic interest. So what are the files it is using? First of all,… <\/p>\n
Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[287,289,290,288,47,291,286],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-vhd","tag-vmc","tag-vmcx","tag-vud","tag-howto","tag-tip","tag-virtual-pc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alax.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}