Can the built-in XP-mode virtual PC in Windows 7 be converted to VMWare using the vCenter convertor?

Question

We're using XP mode on Windows 7 for software development on Visual Studio 6.0. Got it all installed and it's working fine but now we've realized that MS Virtual PC has no support for USB HID devices which is a deal-breaker.

Now looking at moving our existing XP-mode VM over to the free VMWare Player.

We downloaded the vCenter converter which claims to be able to convert a Virtual PC image.

However we discovered that the converter will not work on the .vmcx file, and when we point it at the underlying .vmc file, it gives us a File IO error. I'm wondering if either this XP Mode is set up to specifically disallow this conversion, or the VMWare converter doesn't work with the new Windows 7 version of Virtual PC.

Has anyone tried to do this or had any luck?

Answer 1

I've used Converter to convert from Virtual PC -- you just have to tell converter that it is a "physical" PC and point it to the running virtual PC.

The problem is that XP detects the underlying hardware has changed and wants to be re-activated. That was a show-stopper for me.

Answer 2

Import Windows XP mode from the VMPlayer File menu does the job!