Vista in Hyper-V

Apparently it is possible to run Vista SP3 in a Hyper-V, at least according to one web site is visited. Has anyone done it? Does anyone know where I can download a VM or and ISO? Thanks.

Yes, but only briefly. You can certainly run XP in Hyper-V so a 'newer' OS like Vista should theoretically be no problem.

I had a dead XP laptop, the only remaining functional part being its HDD. It had some software installed I wanted to rescue, so I put the HDD in a usb enclosure, took a Macrium image, then booted a Hyper-V machine from a Macrium rescue ISO and restored the XP image to the VM. I then proceeded to upgrade this (in steps) to Windows 10.

One of the steps was to upgrade XP to Vista. As I said, I only had Vista running briefly as a step on the way to W10, but it worked in Hyper-V without apparent problem.

Lifewire said:

Unfortunately, there isn't a single, completely legal way to download Windows Vista.

The Windows Vista operating system was never sold online from Microsoft, nor from other legitimate retailers. Online distribution of Windows didn't start until Windows 7...

Where Can I Download Windows Vista?


There are links here to download a Vista VM vhd direct from download.microsoft.com (it comes as six .rar files). They still seem to be valid links. The vhd is intended for use with Windows Virtual PC, but may be possible to use with Hyper-V.

Download Free Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 VHD Images for Microsoft Virtual PC - AskVG

@Bree, thanks for the info and the links. I have XP running in a VM so I'll give Vista a shot tomorrow, I agree that it should work. I found a VHD download intended for VMWare so I’ll give that a try first. If that doesn’t work I’ll grab one of the ISOs. I’ll let you know if I’m successful.
Bob

Bree said:

The Microsoft VM download links are valid, and the .vhd from the self-extracting .rar files can be used with a Hyper-V VM. Like an XP VM, you need to add a Legacy Network Adapter in the VM settings. You'll need a Vista Ultimate key to activate it as the trial key it comes with seems to no longer be valid. You can dismiss the activation and sign in, but without a key it will stop working after 30 days.

@Bree, thanks again. I’ll definitely use the MS VM Download links.

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
@SoFine409

You can convert a VMWare VM to be used in HYPER-V but you might run into "Mouse / Keyboard" might fail to work. The process consists of converting the vhd's and adjusting the virtual hardware.

You need to boot the VMWare VM first (use free VMWare player) and then uninstall VMWare tools if the package was installed. Now do the conversion process. Ensure appropriate hardware settings after you've converted the vhd's -- e.g you'll need a network switch and specify the actual vhd's (converted from the VMWare VM) .

Of course the question I'd add here is that if you actually have a VMWare image why run on HYPER-V - unless you want to test it and say also use the Sandbox on newer windows releases.

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks for your response jimbo45. Good info to know.
Bob.

Bree said:

My question would be, apart from satisfying curiosity, why run a Vista VM at all?

I never ran it on real hardware when first released. In real life I skipped alternate generations of Windows, first from XP to W7, then W7 to W10.

Vista was reputed to be a nice OS, but lacking support for most real hardware. My first impression, having run it for a day or so now as a VM, is that it feels like a 'first draft' of Windows 7 and has nothing to offer that W7 doesn't already have and do better.

Mostly curiosity. I wanted to see for myself the evolution from Vista to Win10. Like you, I skipped Vista and Win 8, and glad I did. This morning I ran Win 8.1 in a VM. Definitely didn’t like it one bit, too difficult to navigate. I do see that it was an important step toward Win 10, although a bit painful.
Haven't set up Vista yet, I’ll be doing that a bit later today. I did find a download site for the Ultimate x64 ISO and it looks OK so I won’t need to piece together the archived version. I’ll post back about how it goes.

SoFine409 said:

I did find a download site for the Ultimate x64 ISO and it looks OK so I won’t need to piece together the archived version.

Be VERY careful where you get the ISO. That Lifewire link I gave earlier says....

A number of copies of Windows Vista in ISO format exist floating around various torrent directories, all easy to grab with a free torrent client. Unfortunately, you never know which one of these Vista torrent downloads are hacked, full of malware and other issues you don't want to deal with.

The only apparently clean ISO I've found is the one for Vista Home Premium mentioned by Lifewire.

The MS VM download at least is supplied by Microsoft, so should be as clean as you can get.

This morning I ran Win 8.1 in a VM. Definitely didn’t like it one bit, too difficult to navigate. I do see that it was an important step toward Win 10, although a bit painful.

I have had a couple of W8.1 VMs for a while now. In particular the free W8.1 Enterprise (x86) with IE11 from Microsoft here:

Microsoft said:

These virtual machines expire after 90 days. We recommend setting a snapshot when you first install the virtual machine which you can roll back to later.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...dge/tools/vms/

As recommended by MS, set a checkpoint before first use and you can keep it activated forever by applying the checkpoint ever 90 days


With the benefit of hindsight gained from W10 I find it useable, but a little awkward. It confirmed my expectation that had I jumped into it at launch I would have been completely lost