Need a Windows Guru! - Virtual PC

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So, following from my other problem in this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18200416 (allowing concurrent RDC connections to a W7 machine) - I have a related (but very different issue)

I have installed Virtual PC, and created 2 versions stemming from it (one for IE6 & one for IE7)*

Works great, and for the first time I feel I have a solid practical way of testing all the old IEs even if it was a pain to set up :)

Anyway, when another user logs into the machine, they cant run these machine as it says they don't have permissions... does anyone know how I get around this? do I have to create different users within each Virtual PC maybe?

*how ridiculous is it that entire virtual OSs are required for each old Microsoft browser that needs testing! - why oh why oh why won't Microsoft release a proper, rock solid version of IETester as an apology for all the **** we have to put up with due to their mickey mouse browsers!
 
Where are the VMs stored on your machine? If they are in your Users folder, other users wont have access permissions.
 
I'm confused.....

If other people need access to a virtual machine via RDP. Why not just give them a copy of the VHD files for their own machine and just change the hostname?

I am confused to why they are called micky mouse browsers when they have been producing all this time with plenty people using them. ???
 
I'm confused.....

If other people need access to a virtual machine via RDP. Why not just give them a copy of the VHD files for their own machine and just change the hostname?

Any changes to one may need to be replicated to others. Having it in one location makes it less hassle. More importantly it wouldn't be license legal. Two VMs with the same copy of Windows is just the same as two physical machines trying to run the same Windows, i.e. not license legal.

I am confused to why they are called micky mouse browsers when they have been producing all this time with plenty people using them. ???
They're considered bad because they don't stick to the XHTML/CSS and other web standards, meaning more work for developers to accomodate IE. IE is so popular because it has been a part of Windows forever. Many people don't know about other browsers.

IE8 is much better than previous versions, and IE9 could be set to be one of the best browsers out there on release.
 
Slightly OT but I recently found Spoon which lets you run IE5.5/IE6/IE7 etc (as well as a tonne of other apps) from your browser (Firefox in my case). Works much better than IETester too:


 
Any changes to one may need to be replicated to others. Having it in one location makes it less hassle. More importantly it wouldn't be license legal. Two VMs with the same copy of Windows is just the same as two physical machines trying to run the same Windows, i.e. not license legal.

They're considered bad because they don't stick to the XHTML/CSS and other web standards, meaning more work for developers to accomodate IE. IE is so popular because it has been a part of Windows forever. Many people don't know about other browsers.

IE8 is much better than previous versions, and IE9 could be set to be one of the best browsers out there on release.

you can download demo VHDs of IE6 / IE7 / IE8 browser......
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en
 
Ok, so we have a new spin on the problem now (using those browser specific VHDs from MS - I didn't know about them) but they will be run from a RDC (can't install them on our own computers since they're all Macs)...

So... we can all log into our own user areas, do we all need separate copies of those VHDs or can we somehow share them which would seem more sensible?
 
OK let's clear some things up.

1: You need various VMs for testing older versions of I.E.
2: You are all on Macs
3: You have a Windows 7 machine you would like to use to host the VMs

You have two options as far as I can see.

A: Create a single user account for the Windows 7 machine, set up the VMs and let everyone use the same account details for RDP. This will only work of course if only one person at a time needs to use the VMs. You could also simply RDP into the VM machines directly if they have network access, but again - no use if multiple people need access at once.

B: Use the IE VMs in Virtual Box on your Mac machines. VirtualBox is free and very good. Each user can then simply run the VMs locally whenever the hell they want.
 
I hear you, however...

We don't want to be virtualising on the macs, we have used VMWare and Parallels in the past and they are just a resource hog, we are on MBPs and iMacs no super duper Mac Pros or anything... The speed of RDC just suits us basically :)

Regarding logging into the PC, I am currently working out how to do concurrent connections so need a solution that allows this, so far I'm thinking creating 1 new virtual os via differencing for each user...
 
I run Parallels all the time on my MBP with Windows 7 running. Doesn't slow it down one bit. XP would use even less resources.

Try your idea out, I just think it is a lot of fiddling when local VMs would be more efficient if all it is for is IE testing. I found this link for concurrent sessions in 7 [http://www.blogsdna.com/2336/enable...sessions-for-remote-desktop-on-windows-7.htm] I can't vouch for it's suitability though.

You are going to be hammering that machine if several people are going to be running their own VM on it at once.
 
Indeed

Might be better off setting up remote desktop INSIDE the VM installs of XP, then give people access to these
 
Ok, so we have a new spin on the problem now (using those browser specific VHDs from MS - I didn't know about them) but they will be run from a RDC (can't install them on our own computers since they're all Macs)...

So... we can all log into our own user areas, do we all need separate copies of those VHDs or can we somehow share them which would seem more sensible?

If they are all MACS get virtual software installed. What spec MACS are you talking about here?
 
VirtualBox natively supports VHDs. Make sure you get networking setup before you reboot the VM, as you will be required to activate [it will prevent you from doing anything until it activates]. I don't know if phone activation will work with the IE images.
 
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