Windows7 on virtual pc

I would like to check out Wi开发者_如何学编程ndows7 and install all of my developer programs on it just to test if everything works fine. In the mean time I want to continue my work on my Vista os. Is it possible, using Virtual PC, to install Windows7 and afterwards replacing my Vista installation with this Virtual PC Windows 7?

---

Take a look at using a bootable VHD. I have one with Windows 7 and use this as my "playground" for testing things like VS2010 Beta 2, Office 2010, etc. The VHD is a single file so it's portable and the performance hit for the virtualization is minimal.

Instead of running a Windows 7 VPC inside Virtual PC inside Vista, you are booting into a Windows 7 VPC - no Vista. works great for multi-booting. Once you're ready to move to Windows 7 as your primary OS, you can still use it in a VHD.

This link may help out... http://4sysops.com/archives/how-to-add-a-windows-7-vhd-to-vistas-boot-manager-menu/

---

In theory, yes. Back up the virtual image, then restore it to your hard drive.

In practice you may find issues with drivers, specifically video, as effectively you're moving a Windows image from one "computer" to another.

You'll also need to make sure that the Windows license comes over properly - best to not activate it while it's virtual.

If it were my box I'd probably want to do this to a fresh hard drive, so I can fall back to Vista if all goes wrong. So rather than virtualize, I'd just buy a new hard drive and use that for Windows 7 straight away.

---

Have you considered dual-booting?

Also: Windows 7 was designed to be compatible like Windows Vista, unlike how Vista was sometimes incompatible with XP. You probably shouldn't have any problems with compatibility.