Installing Windows on a VirtualBox virtual machine. Creating a shared folder in VirtualBox

Starting position: I have an old desktop with Win2K on board. Some ancient, but very scarce programs have been installed, the installations for which have been lost for centuries, i.e. they cannot be reinstalled on a new system, and compatibility at least with WinXP is in question. Along with this, there is the latest desktop with a cool i7 processor and pre-installed Windows 7. Task: get rid of the old computer, while keeping the old programs with all the settings.

Solutions:

1. Transferring Win2K to a new computer as a second system with a multibooter. Create a new logical disk, clone Win2K onto it, install a multibooter on the Seven (for example, the free EasyBCD), solve the problem of compatibility with SATA AHCI and other drivers. The undoubted disadvantage of this option is the need to unload from each system to enter another, and this is provided that drivers were found for a very old system for modern equipment. Yes, and installing SATA controller drivers via Intel Matrix Storage is still a dance with a tambourine, and it’s not a fact that it will work.

2. Transfer to a virtual machine. In my opinion - the best option. But there may be pitfalls, which this article is devoted to describing and overcoming.

I have been using VMWare Workstation for a long time and find it a very convenient tool. The advantages of virtual machines are well known - the presence of several operating systems (clients) on one physical computer (host) with the ability to use them and the host simultaneously, connect to a network between each other and physical machines, and share resources, devices and ports of the host. I tried both Virtual PC and VirtualBox, but settled on VMWare - it seemed the most convenient. In addition, there is VMWare Player - a free version of VMWare Workstation with somewhat truncated functionality. Therefore, I will describe the migration process specifically to VMWare.

At one time, I successfully transferred Windows XP to VMWare machines using VMWare Converter. However, in this case, several different versions of the converter failed in the same way and produced conversion errors. I had to act asymmetrically.

The process below is suitable for migrating both Win2K and WinXP.

Disclaimer: everything is done at your own peril and risk. In case of material or moral damage, the author of the article washes his hands;))

So: the host is a new computer with Windows 7 64 bit, with the latest (at the time of writing) VMWare Workstation 8.0.2 installed on it. What to have before the process:

1. A utility for creating and restoring an image and cloning partitions and disks (Acronis True Image, Symantec Norton Ghost (paid), Clonezilla (free), etc.). I used the first one, and in the future for brevity I will simply call it “Acronis”.

2. Windows 2000 or XP distribution (CD or ISO image) - to launch the Recovery Console.

3. A floppy disk image with a SCSI driver for VMWare (you can download or).

4. Update KB835732 (on the Microsoft website: Win2K - English, Russian; WinXP - English, Russian)

5. External USB HDD (if method 1 is used when transferring the system (step 3)) or IDE to USB adapter or box (method 2).

Step by step:

1. Preparing Win2K for transfer.

a. Make sure SP4 is installed. It won't hurt to install all possible updates.

b. Download KB835732 corresponding to our system and copy it to the root (or other easily accessible folder) of the system disk.

2. Create a new virtual machine. Select Windows 2000 Professional when prompted to select an operating system for the VM ( Select a Guest Operating System ). When asked about the maximum disk size, I set it to 40 GB, since this is the size of the physical disk with Win2K, and it is more than two-thirds full. The rest can be done by default. Reaching the screen Ready to Create Virtual Machine , click on the button Customize Hardware... and change the type New CD/DVD from default IDE to SCSI. If you leave the IDE, the system will not connect the CD/DVD after the first successful launch, but it is needed to install VMWare Tools. After installing VMWare Tools and, accordingly, all virtual drivers, you can change the type back to IDE.

3. Transferring the contents of the physical disk to the VM disk. There are several ways:

Method 1:

a. Using Acronis, we create an image of a physical disk with Win2K and copy it to an external USB drive. We connect the disk with the image to the host.

b. We start the virtual machine from a CD or Acronis image, and in the menu V.M. > Removable Devices find our external drive and click on the submenu Connect (Disconnect from Host) . The disk will now be recognized by Acronis.

If Acronis is loaded from an ISO image, then this image must be located on a disk different from the external disk we connected, since it is disconnected from the host.

c. Restoring the image to the virtual machine disk

Method 2:

a. We remove the original disk from the old computer, connect it as an external one (via an adapter or box) to the host.

b. The same steps as in paragraph. b method 1.

c. We clone the contents of a physical disk (or transfer only the necessary partitions) to a virtual one.

The first method only requires an external drive (or even a large and fast flash drive, which is not uncommon these days). If you don't have an IDE to USB adapter or you're too lazy to remove the original disk, it's preferable. And an extra system backup won't hurt. Minus - if the old computer has USB1.1, the process of creating an image can be long. Well, leave it overnight!

There is also a third way - to work directly with the physical disk from the VM. The disk is removed from the old machine, connected to the host as external or internal, and mounted in the VM as a virtual one. This method is more labor-intensive, since before mounting it is necessary to remove the letters of all partitions to prevent simultaneous access to the disk by the host and VM, and during the mount itself, identify the disk in a list like PhysicalDrive0, PhysicalDrive1, etc. If you remove the disk, it’s better second transfer method. The third method is only for those who do not have space on a new computer (host) and who are going to run a VM with a physical disk permanently.

4. Start the virtual machine- the system crashes into BSOD with the message:

Inaccessible boot device.

This happens because the disk in the VM is connected to a virtual SCSI controller, and the system does not have a corresponding driver. This problem can be resolved by replacing the IDE driver file atapi.sys with a file with the same name, but containing the VMWare virtual SCSI controller driver. This trick will trick the system at boot time by giving it the required driver with a name that matches the settings in the registry.

a. Insert the disk with the Win2K/WinXP distribution into the CD/DVD-ROM and in the VM settings CD/DVD we indicate to use a physical drive, or we mount the distribution image (ISO image) into the virtual machine drive. In the floppy VM we mount a floppy disk image with a SCSI driver for VMWare. Checking the checkboxes Connect at power on In chapter Device status for both of the above virtual devices.

b. We start the VM from a CD/DVD (by setting the boot sequence in the virtual machine’s BIOS once and for all, or by pressing Esc after turning on the VM and selecting the CD-ROM drive). The Windows installation process begins. We go to the Recovery Console, select our system and get into the system folder C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINNT. On the command line enter:

cd SYSTEM32\DRIVERS del atapi.sys copy a:\vmscsi.sys atapi.sys

You can skip the second line, then we agree to overwrite the existing atapi.sys.

All of the above applies to the case when the old disk is IDE type. If it is connected to a SCSI or SATA controller, atapi.sys cannot be used. You need to determine which file contains the controller driver for your disk type and replace it with vmscsi.sys. The LISTSVC recovery console command, which lists system services, can help identify the driver file. It should be in the Boot category (2nd column).

c. Restart the VM by entering exit to the command line. This time the system boots successfully.

It should be noted here that at startup the system replaces the fake IDE driver slipped to it back to the original one, so if you reboot without installing the VM SCSI controller driver in the system, the blue screen will return. Therefore, I rejected all the system’s suggestions for manually installing drivers and rebooting, and the first thing I did was install the SCSI Controller driver via Device Manager from the same floppy disk. Now a reboot is not fraught with a blue screen, and the system starts successfully (but I did have to reboot once, more on that later). If you accidentally rebooted the VM and got BSOD again, repeat step 4.

5. Installing VMware Tools. I run it and get the message:

Microsoft Runtime DLLs cannot be installed on this operating system. Please see Microsoft KB835732 for details.

I installed the KB835732 update, rebooted (now I can), and VMware Tools installed without problems. Hurray, we have successfully moved to a virtual machine!

By the way, it’s not a fact that you will also encounter a similar problem with the installation of VMware Tools. Especially if, as I mentioned at the beginning, all the updates were installed on the original system before the transfer. Still, have KB835732 at hand, preferably right on disk for ease of access.

Installing a virtual machine on your computer is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. In this article we will explain in detail how to install and configure virtualbox, as well as how to add new virtual machines. First, let's figure out what a virtual machine is.

For example, you have Windows 7 or higher operating system installed, but you need to use an application that runs exclusively on Windows XP. Agree, if you need to work with this application, it is not always advisable to reinstall the OS, especially on an outdated version of Windows. It’s easier to install a virtual machine on your computer, deploy Windows XP in it and run the required application without any problems.

Thus, a virtual machine is a full-fledged computer (containing a processor, RAM, hard drive and BIOS), running inside the computer through an emulator application.

Using a virtual machine you can:

test applications;
run programs that your OS does not support;
become familiar with the capabilities of other operating systems;
test the operation of network programs in closed virtual networks, etc.

Step-by-step installation of Virtualbox

To download Virtualbox, go to the official website www.virtualbox.org. Currently, the latest version of the utility is 5.0.10.

Run the downloaded installer file, click “Next”.

After this, the next program window will open. Don't change anything about it. Click Next.

In the parameter selection window, leave the checkboxes as default. Click "Next".

Afterwards another installation window will appear. The Virtualbox installer will inform you that a new network connection will be created during the program installation process. This means that your main connection is temporarily disabled. Click “Yes”, then in the next window “Install”.

Wait while the application installs. Upon completion of the installation, a notification will appear regarding the successful completion of the Virtualbox installation process. Click Finish.

If everything was successful, “VirtualBox Manager” will start.

“Manager” is a shell that provides work between Virtualbox and a desktop PC. The range of options for this application is quite small. True, it’s not worth spending time reviewing them, since the program works with default settings that can satisfy most users.

How to add a new virtual machine?

To install a new virtual machine, select the “Create” option. Enter its name, select the type and version of the operating system. In our case, Windows XP.

In the new window, select the amount of RAM. Keep in mind that you will not be able to allocate more memory than is installed on your PC.

The next window will ask you to create a new virtual hard disk or use an existing one. Since this is our first launch. Since this is our first launch of the program, create a new one using the “Create a new virtual hard disk” option.

In the next window you need to specify the type of hard drive. We recommend leaving the VDI type, then your virtual disk will be completely synchronized with the virtual machine, and the speed at which it performs its functions will be no less than that of a real hard drive.

A dynamic virtual disk, the volume of which tends to change as information is added. It forms faster, but functions very slowly.

A fixed virtual hard drive, the volume of which will be static and will be designated by the size that was specified during creation. It takes longer to create, but works much faster.

Which type to choose is up to you. But in our example we will focus on the dynamic type.

Let's go to the next window. Here you need to enter the name of the disk, indicate its size and location.

Click on the “Create” button and a window with the newly created virtual machine will open in front of us. Actually, this concludes our preparatory actions.

How to set up a new virtual machine?

Go to virtualbox settings, click “Configure”:

After completing the steps, click “OK”, then “Run”.

If you did everything correctly, the operating system will begin loading, as shown in the figure.

Virtualbox is an intuitive virtual machine, that is, a program with which you can run additional operating systems as part of the main one installed on your hard drive or SSD. Windows XP is an old, but time-tested and, in a sense, still relevant, lightweight and familiar operating system. By installing it on a virtual machine, you can solve a variety of problems.

What is it for

First, a little terminology. The operating system you are currently working on and reading this text is called the host. The OS installed and running within the host system is called a guest OS. Installing “ex-pi” on Virtualbox can serve different purposes. Even if your working system is Windows XP, a guest “copy” can also come in handy. Here are some popular uses for this feature:

Installing and launching Windows programs in a different environment (Ubuntu, Debian, etc.).
Using old applications and games that do not work on new systems (7, 8.1 or 10).
Testing potentially dangerous applications (the guest OS is isolated from the host system unless shared folders are created).

Here are at least three reasons why installing Windows XP in a virtual machine is not a fool's errand. In the end, you can simply practice for the sake of self-education. Virtualbox is cross-platform and runs on most operating systems. The only rule for its correct operation is to have a good supply of system resources. That is, to run Windows XP as a guest system, there must be at least 500 MB of unused RAM and a more or less unloaded processor.

Step-by-step deployment of the guest OS

First of all, you need to download Virtualbox from the official website. Let's assume that your host system is one of the latest Microsoft operating systems, 8 or 10. Installing Virtualbox is no different from installing any other program, except that during the process it may display a message stating that the software has not been tested with this version of the operating system. Don't pay any attention to him. It may appear up to 3-5 times, just continue with the installation.

The program interface on different OSes is slightly different, but in general it looks something like this:

You must have a Windows XP CD or disk image in ISO format. But first you need to create the virtual machine itself. For this:

Click the “Create” button.
In the drop-down menus, select the OS type and version, and also give the machine a custom name (nothing depends on it except the name in the window title).

Click the “Forward” button.
Now specify the amount of RAM available to the guest system. The default value is enough to run Windows XP itself, but not enough to run programs. If your amount of RAM allows, move the slider to at least 512 MB, and preferably to 1024 (the green zone is the most comfortable value for joint operation of the host and guest systems).

Click Forward.
Create a virtual hard disk for the guest system. Everything is indicated in the screenshots.

Important to note: By selecting a fixed hard drive, you will automatically create a file of the specified size on your real hard drive. The dynamic hard disk will grow in proportion to the Windows XP installed on it (with the installation of new programs and so on).

After clicking on the “Create” button, the virtual machine will be ready.

You can look into the settings by clicking on the “Configure” button.

For example, in the Display section of the Display tab, you can add video memory to the virtual machine or enable 2D or 3D acceleration to improve video quality or use 3D applications. But usually the default settings are enough to run Windows XP.

Now make sure that the OS disk is in the drive or the disk image is in some folder. Click the “Run” button. The following windows will open:

If you are using a disc in your drive, just click Continue. If the image is in .iso format, then go to the folder icon and select your image and also click the “Continue” button. The installation of the operating system will begin. It is no different from what can be produced using real hardware. For those who have forgotten, here are the highlights.

Next, the virtual hard disk will be formatted, installation files will be copied, and the reboot will begin, during which you DO NOT need to press any buttons. This is the only way to guarantee that the actual installation of the OS on Virtualbox will open, and the preparation for installation will not begin again, as in the screenshots. Ideally, after rebooting, you will see something like this:

Entering the key, computer owner name, time zone and other information varies depending on which Windows XP you have, so this question will not be considered.

There is only one point worth noting. The Virtualbox window may capture the mouse cursor (not always) and it becomes unavailable for other actions. To “return” it, hold down the right Ctrl on the keyboard and click the left mouse button.

After the installation of the system on Virtualbox is completed and you see the desktop, install guest OS add-ons for better screen resolution and full operation of the “guest” operating system.

Install and reboot.

Additionally, if you need shared folders between the host and guest, follow these steps.

Select the desired folder. For example, this is a folder called Downloads, located in Documents. Save the result and open a command prompt in the guest system. Enter the command:

net use x:\\vboxsvr\Downloads

where x is the drive letter and Downloads is the name of the folder created in the previous step. Press Enter. If successful, network drive X will appear in the “My Computer” section, through which files located in the Downloads folder of the host system will be available.

This completes the installation. You can use Windows XP in parallel with your main operating system.

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Nowadays, new programs and new operating systems, such as Windows 7, are increasingly being installed on computers. There is nothing wrong with this, except for one BUT! Some of your favorite games or necessary programs may stop working. To solve this issue, there is special software that allows you to work, say, in Windows 98, right in the Windows 7 window, the same as if you had some kind of Internet explorer running. This miracle allows you to do - What is it?

Virtual PC virtual machine

This is a program that emulates a physical computer. A great variety of virtual machines have already been created; in our article we will consider one of the best - Virtual PC. It is not surprising that the virtual machine, like the physical one it emulates, has:

Bios
CD- Rom – could be a simple iso image, or your real CD-Rom
HDD – The hard drive space will be the allocated space on your actual drive.

Just like on a real PC, you can install any operating system, any programs on a virtual machine, in general, conduct any tests and tests. Even in case of unforeseen situations, the most that can happen is that your virtual machine will stop working. It’s all about reinstalling...

Installing and starting a virtual machine

Installing a Virtual PC virtual machine is no different from other various programs. It's simple: download, unpack, run the setup file, reboot the PC. If everything was done correctly, then in the lower right corner of the screen there should be such an icon:

Double-click on it with the left mouse button, and the following picture appears:

In the picture above, 2 operating systems are already installed in the Virtual PC virtual machine. And so let's move on directly to installing some operating system in a virtual machine.

We are going to install some operating system. To do this, we need to first configure the virtual machine. Let's show with an example how this is done.

We launch our Virtual PC virtual machine and click on the new button.

Click next and see the following picture:

Select the Create virtual machines item and move on. On the next screen we will be asked to enter a name, for example, I enter the name of the operating system that I am going to install. In our example, Windows 98.

Then a list of operating systems appears before us, with pre-installed settings. In general, you need to select one from the list, the one you are going to install (in our case, win98) and click next.

Don't change anything in the next picture, just click next.

We indicate the storage location of the disk and its size.

Finish. This is how we finished the preliminary setup of Virtual PC, before further installing Windows 98.

The first thing you need to do is download an image of the operating system, or have an installation disk. In our example, I will show how Windows 98 is installed from an image, which can’t even be counted on various torrent trackers. So…

Select a pre-configured system (read above) and press start.

Then click on CD/Capture CD Image. Here you need to select your image, which you downloaded (in advance) to install the system on a virtual machine.

Many people at this stage have at least difficulties. Here's the thing. Before installing windows 98 they forget that they need to format the disk, even if it is virtual. Let's show it with an example.

The program will be used Partition magic 8.02. Loading it...

After downloading the program, right-click on the disk and select formatting. Next, enter everything as in the screenshot above. Click OK. Next, click on apply, wait for the operation to complete successfully, and reboot.

Next, we start the installation (on the windows ME screen, there is no difference during installation with Windows 98). There is no point in describing the installation, because... Then you just need to select the time, enter the serial number, in general, everything is in Russian and everything is simple. As a rule, installing Windows 98 lasts 10-15 minutes, sometimes faster, sometimes slower - it all depends on the settings, computer, programs and the location of the stars... =)

Well, you've installed it virtual machine, launched it, saw the desktop, and... But the necessary files were not there. What to do? You start frantically rummaging through the machine’s settings, searching in Goggle, Yandex. I offer the easiest way to transfer a file to a virtual machine’s hard drive, or copy any file from a virtual machine’s hard drive to a real physical disk. In general, any exchange of information from a real operating system to a virtual one.

Click start/control panel. Further system and security/administration/computer management/disk management. Here's a picture:

Then on the right click on additional actions and select attach virtual hard disk.

vhd files, which are images (in which the virtual machine is installed) of the Virtual PC program - can be easily opened and connected to Windows 7, like a regular hard drive. Thus, you can easily transfer any file or upload a game to a virtual machine. Next, launch the virtual machine, and voila... you have the necessary files in front of you.

Running games on a Virtual PC virtual machine

Many old games no longer run on new operating systems. This makes me a little sad. Well, you really can’t keep an old computer at home just for one 10MB game, even if it’s your favorite and the only one you play. This problem can be easily solved through a virtual machine, as mentioned earlier. Let's consider launching a game from A to Z, using the example of such a popular game as.

And now you are happy as a boa constrictor, because... downloaded your favorite worms. We launched the installation, it’s already 99%, you’re waiting, you launch it and bang... you see the following picture:

And no emulators or checkboxes in Windows, such as running in win 98 compatibility mode, help. What to do?

Install a virtual machine (read above)
Tune.
Install the system in which the worms are running on the virtual machine
Run the game in a virtual machine

We have already done the first 3 points, they are described in detail (see above). Now we do this:

We copy the fully downloaded game to the hard drive of the Virtual PC virtual machine. How to do this is written in the section above ).
Launch Virtual PC, and already there install the game.
Do not forget install directx in a virtual machine, It is not always there by default.
Remains only start the game, and again enjoy that unforgettable atmosphere.

That's all. This is enough to be able to play an old game, or run a program that suddenly refused to work on the new Windows. Let's end here...

By the way, you can download Virtual PC from the following link:

PS To exit the virtual machine window, press right alt. And in order to launch the virtual operating system in full screen, press alt+enter.

P.P.S. All the best.

Good afternoon.

Time moves inexorably forward and, sooner or later, certain programs and games become obsolete. The operating systems in which they worked are also beginning to be replaced en masse with newer ones.

But what about those who want to remember their youth, or who simply need this or that program or game for work that refuses to work in the newfangled Windows 8?

In this article I would like to look at running old programs and games on new computers. Let's look at several methods, including virtual machines, which allow you to run almost any application!

So, let's begin…

1. Game console emulators

Perhaps the first word in this article should go to game console emulators (Sega, Dendy, Sony PS). These consoles appeared in the 90s and immediately gained wild popularity. They were played by young and old at any time of the year and day!

By the 2000s, the excitement subsided, computers began to appear and somehow everyone forgot about them. But these console games can also be played on a computer by downloading a special program - emulator. Then download the game and open it in this emulator. Everything is quite simple.

By the way! The network is full of emulators for other game consoles. The purpose of this small preview for this article was to show that you can play console games on your computer!

Now let’s move from console games to computer games and programs...

2. Launch using Windows OS Compatibility Tools

If a program or game refuses to start or behaves unstable, you can try running it in compatibility mode for a specific OS. Fortunately, the developers themselves built this feature into Windows.

Is it true, over the entire period of use, this method probably helped me out a couple of times out of several hundred launches of problematic applications! Therefore, it’s worth trying, but you can’t believe in 100% success.

1) Right-click on the desired executable program file and select properties. By the way, you can also click on the desktop icon (i.e., shortcut). The effect is the same.

2) Now check the box next to “compatibility mode” and select the OS you want to emulate.

Then save the settings and try to start the program. There is a chance that it will work.

3. Running games and programs in the DOS environment

Even the oldest programs can be run on a modern OS, although this will require special programs that emulate the DOS environment.
O days of the best DOS emulators in Windows environment is DOSBox. You can download from of. site programs.

Installing DOSBox

Installing the program is not difficult. Only I would recommend that when installing, be sure to create an icon (shortcut) of the executable file on the desktop. Check the box next to “Desktop Shortcut”.

Running games in DOSBox

Let's take some old game that needs to be launched on Windows8. let it be Sid Meier's turn-based strategy Civilization 1.

If your program requires Windows 98, for example, then you will no longer be able to do without a virtual machine. Next we will talk about them!

4. Running old operating systems in new versions of Windows

It is possible to run any old program on a new OS only using virtual machines. They are ordinary programs that emulate, as it were, the operation of a real computer. Those. It turns out that you can run an OS in Windows 8, for example, Windows 2000. And already in these running old OSs you can run any executable files (programs, games, etc.).

We’ll talk about how to do all this in this section of this article.

4.1. Virtual machine. Installation

This is a free virtual machine that will allow you to run dozens of operating systems on your new computer, from Windows 95 to Windows 7.

The only thing is that this type of program is quite demanding on system resources, so if you want to run Windows 8 on Windows 8, you need to have at least 4 GB.

Works in both 32 and 64 bit systems. The installation takes place in a standard way, personally, I don’t touch any checkboxes, everything is by default.

The only thing I leave a checkbox for is for the installer to create a shortcut on the desktop to launch the program (Create a shortcut on the desktop).

In general, after installing VirtualBox, you can begin installing the OS into it. But more on that below.

4.2. Setting up a virtual machine

Before you begin installing the OS, you need to configure the virtual machine.

1) After the first launch in VirtualBox, you can click only one button - “create”. Actually, we press.

5) The virtual hard disk that you create in this program is a regular image file. It will be located in the folder that you specify during setup.

There are two types of virtual hard disk:

Dynamic: means that the file will grow in size as the disk fills up;

Fixed: The size will be set immediately.

6) This, as a rule, ends the setup of the virtual machine. By the way, you should have a button to start the created machine. It will behave as if you turned on the computer without the OS installed.

4.3. Installing Windows 2000 on a virtual machine

In this post, we will use Windows 2000 as an example. Its installation will not differ much from the installation of Windows Xp, NT, ME.

To start you need to create or download an installation disk from this OS. By the way, the image is needed in ISO format (in principle, any image will do, but with ISO the entire installation procedure will be faster).

1) Start the virtual machine. Everything is simple here and there should be no problems.

2) The second step is to connect our image in ISO format to the virtual machine. To do this, select the item device/select optical disk image. If the image is joined, then you should see a picture like the one in the screenshot below.

3) Now you need to reboot the virtual machine. This can be done using the command of the same name. See screenshot below.

4) If the image is working and you did everything correctly in the previous 3 steps, you will see a welcome screen and the installation of Windows 2000 will begin.

5) After 2-5 min. (on average) copying installation files, you will be asked to read the license agreement, select a disk for installation, whether to format it, etc. - in general, everything is the same as during a normal Windows installation.

The only thing. You don’t have to be afraid to make mistakes, because anyway, everything that happens will happen on a virtual machine, which means it won’t harm your main operating system in any way!

4.3. Sharing files with a virtual machine (hard drive connection)

Many users do not experience big problems with installing and specifying basic settings for a virtual machine. But difficulties may begin when you decide to add a file (or, conversely, copy it from the virtual machine disk). Directly, through “edit-copy-paste” the trick will not work...

In the previous section of this article, I personally recommended that you make disk images in VHD format. Why? They can simply be easily connected to Windows 7.8 and work like a regular hard drive!

To do this, we will take several steps...

1) First go to the control panel. Next, go to administration. You can find it, by the way, through a search.

5. Conclusion

In this article, we looked at all the main ways to run old games and programs: from emulators to virtual machines. Of course, it’s a pity that once-favorite applications no longer run on new operating systems, and is it justified to keep an old computer at home for one favorite game? Still, it is better to solve this issue programmatically - by setting up the virtual machine once.

Personally, I would not have bothered to figure it out if I had not encountered the fact that the program needed for the calculations was not so ancient and would not refuse to work in Windows XP. I had to install and configure a virtual machine, then install Windows 2000 into it, and then carry out calculations in it...

By the way, how do you launch old programs? Or don't use them at all?