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Fix broken Virtual Machine Network Services while Virtual PC 2007 install on Vista Ultimate...

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So I was encountered into this problem when trying to install Virtual PC 2007 on my notebook running Windows Vista Ultimate. The installation program finished without problems, but when trying to open Virtual PC console, it will show you warning about that it is not able to use the Virtual Machine Network Services and VPC may not have network support, like this:

vpc2007q1.jpg

after you click yes and let it install the network service, it will happen like this:

vpc2007q2.jpg

When trying to look up if the virtual machine network service exist in your network NIC properties, you'll find nothing there. even if you uninstall and install many times, the problem still exists.

Although I did manually install the network service driver located at "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Utility\VMNetSrv" , it was still not working, and the property page of the service, the Provider, Date, and Version were all blank.

spent hours searching on Google, found Virtual PC Guy's post describing this issue also the way to solve it. I'll also put the steps here for backup.

[via Virtual PC Guy]

Number 1: The Virtual Machine Network Services driver is installed but not enabled.  To fix this:

On a Windows XP system you’ll need to:

  1. Open the Start menu and click on Control Panel.
  2. Click on Network and Internet Connections and then Network Connections.
    If you are using classic mode you just need to double click on Network Connections.
  3. Locate your network adapter, right click on it and select Properties.
  4. Check the Virtual Machine Network Services entry and click OK.

On a Windows Vista system you’ll need to:

  1. Open the Start menu and click on Control Panel.
  2. Click on the Network and Internet and then Network and Sharing Center.
    If you are using classic mode you just need to double click on Network and Sharing Center.
  3. Click on Manage network connections, in the task list on the left side of the window.
  4. Locate your network adapter, right click on it and select Properties.
    You’ll need to approve this action.
  5. Check the Virtual Machine Network Services entry and click OK.

Number 2: The Virtual Machine Network Services driver is installed and enabled, but does not seem to be working.  To fix this you'll need to:

  1. Follow the steps for the first solution to get to the properties display for your network adapter.
  2. Select the Virtual Machine Network Services entry, and click Uninstall.
  3. Reboot the physical computer (this step is critical)
  4. Return to the properties display for your network adapter.
  5. Click Install…
  6. Select Service and click Add…
  7. Select the Virtual Machine Network Services entry and click OK.

A 90% of cases these two processes will get virtual networking up and running.

[End of quote]

I do fixed my problem using Number 2 step. although I did try step 2 for many times and fail, just like what Ben said, the "Reboot physical computer" step is very important. I didn't reboot while my fault trials...

If you still failed by doing those 2 steps, read the comments of Ben's post, got some other good point of references to try out.

I am personally thinking that the cause of this problem maybe that there are some other installed network programs that block something and then caused Virtual PC installation failing to install the network service driver. to avoid happening of this problem, it's better to install Virtual PC 2007 right after a clean install of Windows Vista (or other OSes)...

FYI.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , vista, virtualpc

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2007
    After that Virtual PC 2007 installation problem . this time turns to FeedDemon 2.1 installation problem

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2007
    crosspost from http://blogs.msdn.com/rextang After that Virtual PC 2007 installation problem. this...

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2007
    After that Virtual PC 2007 installation problem . this time turns to FeedDemon 2.1 installation problem

  • Anonymous
    March 26, 2007
    Hi Ben/Others I am facing exactly same problems. I have windows Vista enterprise and i did install Microsoft VPC 2007. Installation was smooth but then "Network Services" didnt come. So i followed the steps given in post and was able to install drivers and i can see network services in adapter configurations. Still when i start VPC 2007, i get same message "VPC couldnt open network drivers, re-install VPC or check drivers?" I did re-install two times and installed again..but i couldnt fix the problem any pointers will be helpful vikas

  • Anonymous
    March 26, 2007
    Hi Vikas: did you use the second method to install the driver? first remove the network service driver, then do a reboot of machine, and then install the network driver again. when you installed the driver, check the property and make sure the vendor, date information is showing, if it's still not showing, that means VPC2007 would still not able to use it. Rex

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2007
    For all those, for which the former solutions didn't work. Here is another tip. Install version 2004 save the Utility's dir. Deinstall version 2004. Copy .dll,.cat and *.sys to the saved Utility's dir. Change the versions in the *.inf files.

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2007
    Howdy: I had the same Virtual PC 2007 problems with Vista Business OEM regarding the error message about Virtual PC Network Services driver. In the blog below http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/01/15/fixing-broken-virtual-networking.aspx see Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:26 AM by David Rand The fix for me also is to correct the registry entry

  • I found the following setting in the registry: HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesVPCNetS2ImagePath system32DRIVERSVMNetSrv.sys and changed it to: %SystemRoot%System32DRIVERSVMNetSrv.sys I can now select my physical nic in the settings - network for each virtual machine, and the information in the properties for Virtual Machine Networking Services is now visible. The information in the above posts was looking around the problem, not at the problem.  It is easy to say after the problem is fixed that if there is a driver problem, look at the registry settings for that driver. Isn't it amazing how some Googleing can lead to the solution for so many problems? Hope this helps someone else Dennis Trafananko