Double clicking on a VHD to mount it
Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 2 includes 'vhdmount' - a tool to allow you to mount a virtual hard disk directly on your host operating system. While vhdmount is provided as a command line tool - a very small amount of work will allow you to mount VHDs by just double clicking on them. By creating a .reg file with the following contents:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesVirtual.Machine.HD]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesVirtual.Machine.HDshell]
@="Mount"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesVirtual.Machine.HDshellDismount]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesVirtual.Machine.HDshellDismountcommand]
@=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\vhdmount.exe" /u "%1""[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesVirtual.Machine.HDshellMount]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesVirtual.Machine.HDshellMountcommand]
@=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\vhdmount.exe" /p "%1""[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.vhd]
@="Virtual.Machine.HD"
And then double clicking on the .reg file (to load it into your registry) you will be able to double click a VHD to mount it, and right click on it to dismount it.
Cool...
Cheers,
Ben
Comments
Anonymous
September 02, 2006
Awesome tip, thanks a lotAnonymous
September 02, 2006
Very Nice.Anonymous
September 03, 2006
I want to customize the Microsoft virtual server, what i want is the admin gui page it shows I want to customize that like I want to create 4 VirtualMachine at a time by running a VB script ,can u provide that script to me which take input for creating many VMs at atime.
please provide me the script. thanks
mithu_manoj@yahoo.comAnonymous
September 04, 2006
Hi,
how is it possible to use vhdmount with WinXP SP2?Anonymous
September 27, 2006
Very nice, this. Look forward to drv being signedAnonymous
July 05, 2010
what area of a windows 7 reg is this file to go into? That is, will it work within windows 7?Anonymous
July 10, 2011
Just for the record, windows 7 can natevily add (and create) VHD disks. You can do this going to Start -> right click on Computer -> Manage. When the Computer management window opens select Disk management and wait a second. Afterwords go to Action -> Attach VHD. Thats it.Anonymous
April 23, 2012
You had better change "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\vhdmount.exe" /p "%1" to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\vhdmount.exe" /p /f "%1" or sometimes you can't dismount the VHD while you just take a look at that VHD and didn't write anything to it.Anonymous
December 03, 2012
For dismount, you need to specify is this is with discard or commit. I suspect you'd want commit. In that case the switches should be "/u /c". For discard, they would be "/u /d".Anonymous
April 27, 2014
Important note : When nothing happens upon mounting/unmounting the VHD, goto C:Program FilesMicrosoft Virtual ServerVhdmount, and change the vhdmount.exe properties to run as administrator (right click vhdmount.exe , choose compatibility tab and select Run as administrator).