Fixing broken virtual networking

Periodically I receive emails from people who find them and they start Virtual PC/Virtual Server, it reports that it was unable to initiate virtual networking on any network adapters.  There are two common causes of this problem, though they both seem to be related to something just going wrong during the installation of Virtual PC/Virtual Server's virtual networking:

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.

Cheers,
Ben

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 16, 2007
  One more cause, which is common in at least some environments, comes from obeying instructions for eVC++ 4.0 and emulators for Windows CE .Net systems.  I forgot exactly what the name was for the virtual switch.  I installed it in hopes of getting virtual connections to work properly between the host and the emulated devices, but it didn't work, the only effect was to break the virtual network for Virtual PC. Reinstalling Virtual PC did not fix it.  Installing Virtual Server fixed it for Virtual PC, though still not for emulated Windows CE devices.

• Anonymous
  January 16, 2007
  I've had instances where the VM Network service just isnt installed and requires manual installation. This is present with both VPC 2004 and 2007. Is there anyway to produce a setup.log to see where it fails?

• Anonymous
  January 19, 2007
  I was having problems with VPC so I tried #2 above, and now it doesn't work at all. When I start VPC, I get a message: "Virtual PC could not open the Virtual Machine Network Services driver. Access to the external network and host will be unavailable to all virtual machines using virtual networking. Virtual machines using virtual networking will still be able to access other virtual machines using virtual networking. To fix this problem, re-enable the Virtual Machine Network Services driver on one or more ethernet adapters or reinstall Virtual PC." So I tried step #1 above and it still don't work, and when I tried to re-install, the install program asked if I wanted to un-install. Now what? DanaJ

• Anonymous
  January 21, 2007
  > when I tried to re-install, the install > program asked if I wanted to un-install In some cases, letting it do the un-install and then repeating the procedure in order to re-install can produce working results.  It "probably" doesn't hurt to try. As mentioned, in my case, installing Virtual Server on one machine fixed the networking for Virtual PC.  I don't really use Virtual Server on that machine, but this experiment paid off, just installing the server version.

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2007
  I tryed both but no luck. Some other idea? A note: When I see "properties" of the VM's net services the dialog displays "Driver Provider", "Driver Date" and "Driver Version" labels without values.

• Anonymous
  January 30, 2007
  Same issue as the above post. I upgraded to Vista Enterprise, updated ethernet drivers. Lost the "Virtual Machine Network Services" Followed steps, but had to manually add in the VM Service by navigating to "C:Program FilesMicrosoft Virtual PCUtilityVMNetSrv" all of the values are blank and get the message stated above when trying to open up Virtual PC 2007.

• Anonymous
  February 01, 2007
  Same issue here: repeat uninstall/install have no effect, same message as Dana, same blank tab as Sergio. This is VPC RC x64 on Vista x64.

• Anonymous
  February 01, 2007
  I gave to add that in Device Manager I show an Unknown Device under Network adapters. The Hardware id is Cntx_VPCNetS2_MP. Driver version is 2.6.541.0. This is with Virtual PC 2007 RC uninstalled (and reinstalled and uninstalled) several times. Uninstalling the device has no effect (the device remains in place).

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  Same here.  Did a VPC07 install on top of a clean Vista Business 32-bit load and get the same errors.  Tried multiple reinstalls.  Added the service manually and it looks like it binds to the adapter but still get the errors.  Disabled the wireless adapter and just kept the onboard NIC enabled but no change.  

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  I have the same problem as Kevin. I'm using Vista Business right now. It's really strange because I didn't have this problem with VPC 2007 Beta 2 and Vista Ultimate before. When I look at the properties of the service after re-installing both VPC and the Virtual Machine Network Services service it is still blank. Updating drivers for the NIC didn't help either.

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 06, 2007
  Well, I upgraded to Vista Ultimate and now it is working.  I had a co-worker install VPC07 on the same notebook and he had no problem but he had Vista Enterprise and I had Vista Business.  So I upgraded to Ultimate and reinstalled VPC07 and now it seems to work.  At least I don't have the network services error when I start it and the VM service is bound to the NICs without me having to do it manually (which didn't work anyway).

• Anonymous
  February 06, 2007
  Hi i am running vista business as the host and i keep getting the message Virtual PC could not open the Virtual Machinenetwork services, i have tried following instructions on net forums to install, but when i install manually it seems to got through but it dosent work click properties of Virtual Machine Network Services driver and its just blank ie shows no driver installed. have also tried downloading the xp standalone drivers from microsft they do install but again when you click properties for them its just empty i have two network adapter in mylaptop wireless and lan i have tried disabling wireless and unistalling it, then install drivers just to lan but still dont work really need to get this working for my studys if anyone has any ideas

• Anonymous
  February 06, 2007
  This problem is very annoying. I tested all Virtual Server 2005 under Vista Ultimate RC1 and had no issues. I was forced to rebuild my laptop due to issues that I was unable to resolve so I went to Vista Business thinking I would just use either Virtual Server or Virtual PC to run a XP Guest to support the applications which I need for work but are not support under XP thinking this would give me time to get these applications working on Vista. Without Virtualisation working in some form or another I will have to be forced back to XP. Does anyone know why this works for Ultimate and not Business and Enterprise ?

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2007
  It keeps getting worse: I ran Vista Business @ first and after reading comments that Vista Ultimate installation could solve the problem, did a clean Vista Ultimate install. This didn't solve my problem however: after installing the virtual machine network services according to the steps mentioned in this post, I still get a blank properties window on the service. I recall not having this problem with VPC 2007 Beta 2 on Vista Ultimate...

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2007
  thanks for the heads up i was about to upgrade to solve the problem to ultimate, its really annoying me but i think i'll hold off for now to see if this problem gets resolved my microsoft roll on christmas lol

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2007
  Finally got it to work by doing a clean install (Vista Business) and loading no network drivers except my LAN & wireless NIC (detected by Vista). Immediately after the clean install, instead of loading drivers for all my unrecognized devices, I installed VPC 2007. No error messages whatsoever, and working like a charm. So it's not true that it does not work on Vista Business. Haven't tried loading drivers for unknown devices though.

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2007
  Well I finally managed to get VPC 2007 also working on Vista Business. In the VPC settings I changed the network adapter to use shared NAT. This works fine for what I need and you don't have to have the Virtual Machibe Network Services installed. When VPC loads I told it to ingnore the errors about the service.

• Anonymous
  February 08, 2007
  folowed another posters advice did a clean install of vista business installed virtual pc before any microsoft updates it now works fine hope this help

• Anonymous
  February 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 08, 2007
  Thanks for the tips, Ben. Unfortunately, I must have been in the ohter 10%... I had this problem with VPC2K4 SP1 (build 5.3.582.27) freshly installed on WinXP SP2.  I tried both of your suggestions but neither worked.  Until I added the following steps before "Number 2," that is: 0.1 Uninstall VPC2K4 SP1 0.2 Reinstall VPC2K4 SP1 but do not run it!! Continue with step 1. Before I did this, the Virtual Machine Network Services Properties were all blank.  Afterwards, they had a date of 2/4/2004 and a version of 2.5.452.0 Cheers, Ed

• Anonymous
  February 08, 2007
  Great tip Darren. The registry key on my Vista Ultimate RTM (MSDN edition) was also wrong. Changes c:inf to c:windowsinf and now it works. Now on earth did you find this out?

• Anonymous
  February 13, 2007
  I found the following setting in the registry: HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesVPCNetS2ImagePath system32DRIVERSVMNetSrv.sys and changed it to: %SystemRoot%System32DRIVERSVMNetSrv.sys After trying all of the above to no avail, this registry change finally solved the problem for me (XP Pro SP2, corporate domain user with local admin rights).

• Anonymous
  February 13, 2007
  I'm having the same problem as above.  I've tried several ways to get networking going but nothing works.  NONE of the above works. In Virtual Machine Network Services properties all driver fields are blank. I'm running XPPro SP2.

• Anonymous
  February 14, 2007
  I ran into the same issues reported by others here.  I am also complicating matters vby running it on Vista Enterprise 64 and had already had some Virtual Server related files installed. Here's what fixed it for me: Manually copied the 2 INF files from the utility folder in C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Virtual PCUtilityVMNetSrvx64 to c:windowsinf I copied the remaining dll, sys, and cat file to c:widnowssystem32.  I think the DLL was already there so I skipped it and allowed the others to copy. The next time I opened it it had the usual complaint and I selected Yes. When it aked for the location of the vmnetsrv.dll I aimed it at system32 instead of the utility folder. This time it actually prompted me for permission to allow the unsigned driver to install and it worked fine. Not sure which part in the chain of events fixed it or why, but it seems ok now.

• Anonymous
  July 25, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 25, 2010
  Thank you very much, you saved my life

• Anonymous
  September 14, 2010
  I have a same trouble. After Install VirtualBox, and install Virtual PC... Then I uninstall VBox, and reinstall VPC. When I launch VPC next time, I receive message "Virtual PC could not open..." I delete all (VPC), and install VBox, then VPC. I have not a trouble now!! Sorry for me broken language.

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 22, 2010
  Dude you saved me hours of looking around trying to figure out this simple yet annoying problem, big time thanks!

• Anonymous
  October 24, 2010
  I use windows 98 and I have a problem in network Windows 98 can not identify the network It is strange that after i format win Xp more than three times the program runs neamati@kuwaitairways.com

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2010
  Darren and David Stower - cheers combination of both solved my problem. Just copies files from the C:Program FilesMicrosoft Virtual ServerDriversVMNetSvx64 and pasted in windows/inf folder. Disabled and re-enabled the adapter and restarted virtual server service, and worked like a charm! thanks.

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2011
  Hi, I have a even worst problem with the VPC, Nortel VPN and the wireless network on my Dell E6500 notebook running Windows 7. With VPC 2007 installed but not running at all, whenever I start the Nortel VPN V10.04.16 using the wireless connection, the Windows 7 will crash. I have tried on a couple of E6500 notebooks in the office and they all behaved the same. All these notebooks works fine as long as I don't start the VPN. Also, they works fine if I use a cable for LAN connection and start the Nortel VPN. I wonder if anyone has seen this before? Thanks.

• Anonymous
  December 05, 2011
  My problem get resolved(XP SP2 and VPC2007), thanks to David Stowers. Step1. Manually copied the 2 INF files from the utility folder in C:Program FilesMicrosoft Virtual PCUtilityVMNetSrv to c:windowsinf Step2. Disabled the Virtual Machine Network Services driver. Enabled the Virtual Machine Network Services driver.(Will install the service again)

• Anonymous
  October 06, 2012
  Thanks! This really solved the issue, I can keep working!

• Anonymous
  January 27, 2014
  Hi guys! I faced the same problem with my windows 7 work pc trying to connect the emulator for debugging. I've tried almost everything found on Internet with no results. Finally watching the system event log I found an error which droved me at the following link support.microsoft.com/.../555395 where I found the solution!

• Anonymous
  August 18, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2017
  What about for Windows 7?