Last year I got a nice gift from Microsoft for attending TechEd in the form of a TechNet subscription.  After receiving my activation code I promptly upset my ISP by downloading everything I could get my hands on.  It was enough that I’m honestly shocked I didn’t get a call or get turned off.  Among those downloads was a product I had toyed with in the past but never really gotten in to, Windows Home Server (WHS).

For those not familiar with WHS it’s basically Miscrosoft’s home backup tool based off the Windows Server 2003 SBS operating system.  It includes the ability to backup your home computers, store shared files, stream audio/video, remote control your home machines from the Internet, and much more.  I had never really played with it before because I lacked the spare change to buy the necessary hardware.  Enter virtualization… 

My home computer has a decent amount of storage and a dual boot between Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Data Center Edition (gotta love TechNet).  While I could, and probably should, run WHS from Hyper-V I spend most of my time in Win7 so running WHS from Hyper-V wouldn’t do much good.  That left me two free options for virtualizing WHS on Win7: Virtual PC and Virtual Server.  While Virtual Server is probably the smarter choice I was already using Virtual PC with XP Mode for a few legacy applications and test tools, and I really didn’t want to lose my XP Mode applications.  And here in laid my conundrum and the journey began…because no just isn’t an answer…sometimes.

It turns out that Virtual PC is more powerful than Microsoft wants us to believe, or will support, if you take a little time to learn and expose the VirtualPC.Application com-object.  Or wait for some sucker, like me, to learn it all for you and write a handy UI that exposes a lot of the lesser known features of Virtual PC.  After exposing this underlying functionality I was able to run WHS via Virtual PC with only real issue: WHS only runs while I’m logged on.  Oh, and even though WHS isn’t on the officially supported list it does work, with the integration features and everything, once you get all the Power Packs installed.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd796711(VS.85).aspx

Before I continue let me be perfectly honest with you, while the Advanced Virtual PC Controls (AVPCC) does open some hidden functionality in Virtual PC it is not, and never will be, a replacement product for a serious virtualization suite like Hyper-V, vSphere, Xen or vmware Workstation.  What it does do is open some doors on a free tool to give you some added functionality that isn’t very usable out-of-the-box.

What you need to use AVPCC:

• Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Professional,  Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate
• Windows Virtual PC (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/)
• XP Mode is optional but highly recommended if you use the Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate editions of Windows 7
• PowerShell 2.0
• A little time

What the AVPCC UI does:

• Pause, Hibernate[Save], Hard Restart, Turn Off a virtual machine (VM).
• Resume or Turn On a VM, depending on the current state.  All VMs are started in “headless mode” which means without the console window.  The VM will simply run in the background.
• Open or Close a VM console window.  The Close Console button will close the console window without hibernating, pausing or turning off the VM.  Choosing Open Console on a VM that is not running will bring the VM into a running state.
• Enable/Disable VM Hibernation. By default Virtual PC will hibernate/save an unused VM after 5-10 minutes.  This option disables automatic hibernation or sets it to 10 minutes.  If you want to change that default edit the integer value “600” on line 544.  The time to save is in seconds, so 600 seconds = 10 minutes.  I’ll make that part of the UI if I make a future revision.
• Start at Logon/Remove Auto-Start.  Creates a startup script in the local user startup folder that will start a VM in a headless state when you logon.  Virtual PC does not allow a VM to start before logging on, that I have found.  This script that the “Start ” link points to will be in a sub-directory of the directory the script was run from.  For example, if you ran AVPCC.ps1 from your desktop a folder will appear on your desktop with a startVM.cmd file inside it.  Moving or removing that folder will break the auto-start.  For this reason I recommend you run the installer, detailed below.
• Hibernate All, will save/hibernate all VMs.  Handy before a big online gaming session.
• Resume All, starts all VMs.
• And finally, you can Shut Down or Restart the guest OS.

Console parameters:

-install  - When you run AVPCC.ps1 with the -install switch you trigger, as I’m sure you guessed, an install action. This simple installer shows you some legal mumbo jumbo and then gives you an install screen.

By default it tries to install a copy of the script at %programfiles%\APVCC.  If you have UAC enabled, and/or you are not an Administrator, this may not work.  This gives you two options: 1) run the PowerShell window as the Administrator (right-click the PowerShell icon, select “Run As Administrator”) or 2) click the browse button and point the install to …\Documents\AVPCC or …\Downloads\APVCC or some other user profile folder of your choice.  Option 2 is probably the better choice.

The shortcut options will add a link to the script in the user start menu and/or desktop.  This is a double-click to start kind of shortcut, not a direct link to the PS1 file.

Example, if you extracted the script to your desktop you would use these commands in a PowerShell console to install AVPCC:

set-location  “$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop”

.\AVPCC.ps1 -install

Once installed a shortcut like the one below will appear in any of the two spots you have checked.

[-start] “” – This parameter will start a VM in “headless mode” given a VM name.  The actual “-start” parameter is optional as long as the VM name is the first parameter passed.