Installing Virtual Server on Windows Vista Beta 2

People have been asking me how to install Virtual Server on Windows Vista Beta 2. There are a couple of things to know in order to do this:

1. The default install of IIS on Windows Vista Beta 2 is missing several components the Virtual Server needs to run. Most importantly it does not support CGI applications or Windows authentication. You can either manually select these components under the Windows component installer - or you can run the following command (all one line):

   start /w pkgmgr /l:log.etw /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-HttpRedirect;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ASP;IIS-CGI;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-ServerSideIncludes;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ODBCLogging;IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-URLAuthorization;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-IPSecurity;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;IIS-ManagementService;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;IIS-LegacyScripts;IIS-LegacySnapIn;IIS-FTPPublishingService;IIS-FTPServer;IIS-FTPManagement;WAS-WindowsActivationservice;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI

   (I have attached this command in a text file to help with running it)

   Once you have done this you should be able to install Virtual Server (remember to launch the installer 'as administrator').

   UPDATE1: If you do a manual installation of IIS (rather than using the script) you will also need to select to install everything under the 'IIS 6 Management Compatibility' section under 'Web Management tools' (and the already mentioned CGI and Windows authentication support).

   UPDATE2: The above command line seems to not work on some systems. If the install does not work - try using the manual method.

2. In order to access Virtual Server, you will need to launch Internet Explorer 'as Administrator' and manually go to the Virtual Server website (https://localhost/VirtualServer/vswebapp.exe)

With these two simple steps - you should be able to use Virtual Server on Windows Vista Beta 2 with no problems.

Cheers,
Ben

vistaIISInstall.txt

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 05, 2006
  I followed the same process (even went into the Windows Features to enable relavent IIS features) but the setup still complains that the IIS admin service is not running (when I install the website application).
  
  Any ideas?
  
• Anonymous
  June 05, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 05, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 06, 2006
  I am having the same issue as Keeron, I have ran the commandline first as Admin, it didnt install with the same meassage as Keeron.  Then I installed IIS - no good, then ran the commandline again - no good.  Any other suggestions?
• Anonymous
  June 06, 2006
  Are there any issues reported about installing VPC 2004?
  
  I installed VPC 2004, applied SP1, but I am not able to apply FIX described in Article ID:889677. Any ideas?
  
  George J.
  
  
• Anonymous
  June 06, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 07, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 08, 2006
  I have added some updates with feedback I have received from people...
  
  Cheers,
  Ben
• Anonymous
  June 09, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 10, 2006
  Hi Ben,
  
  I have successfully installed and configured Virtual Server 2005 R2 on Vista Ultimate edition - thanks for the tips! Unfortunately, the performance of the VM is substantially less than when running on XP - specifically the screen updates seem to be very sluggish. Any tips on any tweaks? Do I need to reinstall VM additions? The VM is running with emulated SCSI.  Thanks.
• Anonymous
  June 10, 2006
  I have now successfully got Virtual Server installed; however, now I can not add my wireless adapter to any of the virtual devices.  When I enable the virtual networking on the wireless adapter I loss connection to the internet, but not the local network.  Any ideas?
• Anonymous
  June 13, 2006
  Thanks for the tip Ben, I've finally got VServer2K5R2 installed on Beta2.  Created a new VM, started it and switch over to remote and black screen.... CPU is up to 70% (P4-3GHz) and after 5 minutes, still the same old boring black remote screen, any tip's for this issue?
• Anonymous
  June 14, 2006
  Hi Ben,
  
  Is the process similar to achieve the same thing on Vista x64?
  
  Andrew
• Anonymous
  June 15, 2006
  For anyone else who had my problems above...
  
  - WinSAT decided Glass was "too good" for my computer.  A registry tweak set it straight.
  - Bluescreens don't happen when I use my keyboard to sleep.  They do happen when I try to use the start menu to do it.  Weird.
  - I had to take ownership of both drives and then give myself full control access rights.  I decided the benefits of restricted access to virii and malware was outweighed by the sheer annoyance of not being able to access MY OWN FILES.  (Also I have never really gotten infected on XP.  I think maybe I did once or twice, but I was never quite sute.)
• Anonymous
  June 15, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 19, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 27, 2006
  I have followed everything and things appear to be installed. However when I bring up the management console for VS I get this error message:
  
  An error occurred accessing the website application data folder.
  
  The virtual machine folders are located in "\UsersPublicPublic DocumentsShared Virtual Machines, different from the XP or Win 2003 folder but semantically equivelant.
  
  Any Ideas?
• Anonymous
  June 29, 2006
  I installed Virtual Server but when I open the admininstration page I have the same error
  The following error occurred:
  An error occurred accessing the website application data folder.
  
• Anonymous
  June 30, 2006
  You must disable the User Account Control in order to allows the virtual server users to access the \UsersPublicPublic DocumentsShared Virtual Machines directory
  Alternative you can change the right on that directory
• Anonymous
  June 30, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  July 03, 2006
  David Merrell -
  
  Yes - there is a known incompatibility with wireless networking.  No work arounds are available today.
  
  Andrew B. Longdale, MCSE -
  
  No idea - sorry.  It should work.
  
  Andrew A -
  
  Yup - I have been doing this on x64 and x86 Vista.
  
  GW -
  
  Are you launching IE eleveated?  What error message do you get?
  
  Paul Divan -
  
  Are you launching IE as administrator?
  
  Francis -
  
  I have never needed to do this.
  
  Tony Ko -
  
  Probably the easiest thing to do is to uninstall IIS and Virtual Server and then reinstall both.
  
  Cheers,
  Ben
  
  
• Anonymous
  July 04, 2006
  GW-
  
  Try to add the user you are using to the local "Distributed COM Users" group. worked for me.