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Thanks for reading this, I need help to complete a project. I am using AutoCad 2006, and it only runs on Windows XP. I run Windows XP Mode aka Windows Virtual PC inside of Windows 7 Pro. I run Windows 7 Pro inside of a physical Windows 10 host, through VirtualBox. When I start VirtualBox, and start my Windows 7 guest, then it goes to the desktop, and then I start Virtual PC, but it says there is an error, "windows xp mode could not be restored because of either host processor type mismatch or lack of hardware assisted virtualization support in the system."

I have started physical host pc in UEFI mode with Virtualization enabled on the 2017 i7 CPU, I have manually performed all updates on host Windows 10. All updates on guest Windows 7 I read on another website some people resolve this by removing the hibernation file of XP Mode, but after I did that, it never even starts up again, even after I restored that file. I reinstalled XP Mode, but after I complete setup, it crashes and disappears. I made sure to enable virtualization in the VirtualBox settings. I have read about using the VHD file directly in VirtualBox, but it is very difficult to get around the Activation, I have tried. Unless someone here has personally done that themselves in 2021, and could explain how. Suggestions?

user1524201
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The problem is the nested virtualization not being supported (meaning: you can't run a VM inside a VM; Windows Virtual PC mode is a VM for all intended purposes, it's even in the name).

You may need to run it in a native Windows XP VM, just don't allow it to connect to the internet, but the same goes for the now defunct Windows 7.

A better solution is to use supported software directly in Windows 10.

ChanganAuto
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-2

The obvious solution is to run Windows XP, not Windows 7, in the virtual machine.

It's perfectly safe to connect your virtual machine to the internet. Your emulated Windows XP is running in a 'sandbox', and, although it's exposed to the internet, if a virus was to run within the virtual machine it could only compromise Windows XP. It couldn't affect Windows 10, because it's isolated inside the sandbox. That's one purpose of virtualisation.

Any virus that did get in might be written to only affect code that it expects to find, i.e. Windows 10 code, so it may be completely useless in an XP environment.

In any case, to cure an attack you simply close the virtual machine. That's always your ultimate solution when using a sandbox. Rebooting a virtual machine is a simple solution which is both fast and effective.

If you're loading programs that run on XP, you should scan them with ordinary current antivirus tools beforehand. No current virus is likely to be present in the sort of very old software that dates from the age of XP, but you might find very old viruses in such software.

No browser that can run on XP is likely to be affected by malware found on a modern website. The browser wouldn't be capable of running the code which the malware would be using, so the browser would likely be immune.

Windows XP and Windows 7 continue to be very popular, and the latter still has a large user-base and is far from defunct.

Ed999
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-2

VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. It might not function correctly on other hardware (e.g. cannot run x64 guests).

Disable hardware acceleration in VirtualBox to fix some problems. That is often (well, sometimes) a cure for virtualization failures.

Both Intel and AMD add dedicated tools for virtualisation into their processors, that software such as Virtualbox can take advantage of. One snag is that you can run into problems if you have options enabled in Virtualbox which the processor doesn't support.

Most of the time the default settings offered by VirtualBox can be left as they are, but if you are getting errors when trying to run virtual machines it may be worth turning them off to see if that will solve the problem.

You can find official help from VirtualBox about hardware virtualisation.

  1. Start VirtualBox, click on the virtual machine giving you problems, and then on the settings button in the toolbar.

  2. Click on the 'System' option in the left-hand column.

  3. Click on the Processor tab and deselect the option 'Enable PAE/NX'.

  4. Click on the 'Acceleration' tab. Deselect both of the options shown, and click on 'OK' to save the changes.

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The ultimate solution, of course, if VirtualBox can't be made to run successfully, is to use VMware Player instead -

https://filehippo.com/download_vmware-workstation-player/5.0.1/

Most likely, you will NEVER fix your problem with Virtual Box, because Virtual Box support for VHD is dreadful. VMware doesn't have those faults, hence is much easier to use.

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Addendum: Your question would more aptly be: "Why don't VirtualBox (and VMware) work inside a virtual machine?" The answer, I think, is: the Intel VT-X instruction set (i.e. the CPU instruction set) is not accessible from the guest O/S within your virtual machine, as only the host O/S has access to it.

Ed999
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