Converting a Virtual PC Image to VMware 6
I use VMware 6 on my Linux-based laptop to run a Windows development
environment. Quite often I receive pre-made Virtual PC images from
clients containing a copy of their specific environment. Unfortunately,
VMware for Linux can not run Virtual PC images directly. (Supposedly
VMware for Windows can.) So I am stuck with the task of converting the
VPC images to VMware images. Luckily, VMware has a free conversion tool
available to do just that. Unluckily, it only runs under Windows.
I started by installing VMware Converter on one of my existing
Windows images. Next start the convertor and run the conversion wizard.
Setup the wizard to convert a standalone machine and browse to the
directory that contains the VPC definition. Finish working through the
steps in the wizard, and make sure to check the box to install the
VMware tools. Failure to do so will cause the converted VPC image to
crash hard when you boot it up. After the wizard finishes converting the
image, boot up the newly converted virtual machine from the VMware
console and allow Windows to install and configure the new “hardware”
and drivers. Reboot the virtual machine once the hardware configuration
is finished. The final step is to remove the mouse filter that the VPC
tools installs. Open RegEdit and navigate to
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4036E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\UpperFilters
and remove the msvmmouf entry from the UpperFilters key. (You can skip
this step if you uninstall the Virtual PC tools prior to starting the
conversion.) Reboot one final time and the virtual machine is ready to
go.
I hope this is helpful to anybody else out there who has struggled with
getting a Virtual PC image running under VMware for Linux. Feel free to
leave any questions or observations in the comments section.