Making Windows 7 XP Mode VM copying easier with XP-More

Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog - XP More on CodePlex for Free Download

“Have you started to utilize Windows 7 XP Mode to get past Application Compatibility issues? This is a great tool for SME customers but one of the issues some people experience is setting up the VM’s for each user with the required applications on them, installing virus scan, etc.

A great little application was released on CodePlex that will allow for the simple duplication of the VM’s for distribution around the office to all the users. With a couple of quick clicks, you have a copy of the VM ready for use. XP More is a great example of the open source community for Microsoft products at work!

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CodePlex - XP-More

“Project Description
XP-More is a tool that helps manage Windows 7 Virtual Machines (XP Mode and any other). Specifically, it makes duplication of VMs a no brainer - no more raw XML editing and manually duplicating files.

What is Windows 7 Virtual Machine?
Windows 7 comes with a built-in virtual machine. Its first use is to provide backward compatibility by making a Windows XP SP3 VM available (known as XP Mode). However, other virtual machines can be created as well. The management of the virtual machines is done from a special folder, where virtual machines can be created, configured and launched.

Why is XP-More needed?
The built-in VM management capabilities are quite basic. If all you're looking for is an XP environment, you can make do with that. Whoever, if you'd like to duplicate existing VMs, there's some delicate manual work you'll have to do. That is, unless you have XP-More.

XP-More is a free and portable tool, which helps you manage your virtual machines. Want a new environment where you can test-drive the latest VS2010 RC? Want to create a backup of an existing installation before you make some changes? Just click a button, and your done.

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I’ve recently started using XP-Mode (well a copy of the original VM) as a legacy production code platform (i.e. for our VB6 code stuff) and have been thinking of creating some backups/additional copies of the VM for my team. Looks like I’m not the only one with this kind of need/desire…

And of course I love that the code was made available too… :)