Windows

Compact or Resize your VHD file

If you are using dynamic disk for your virtual machine you will soon find out how annoying it is when it grows in size, but when removing the files the disk does not shrink back down. VirtualBox provides tools for compacting a vhdi file but not for vhd. Hyper-v claims to be able to compact, but this often does not work and is

Windows 7 Product Key not available

Without a windows 7 product key, windows disables functionality. This could be because of corruption of the license store, or because your current trial of windows has expired. To fix this first recreate license store. Press start, then type cmd. Right click on the application that is found, and select Run As Administrator. Then type net stop sppsvc (this will stop the Software

Run Virtual PC in Windows 8 bypass compatibility assistant

Windows 8 no longer allows Virtual PC 2007 to be installed. Attempts to install Virtual PC 2007 will bring up the Program Compatibility Assistant saying This program has compatibility issues which prevent installation. Virtual PC 2007 has been removed because Windows 8 now comes with its own inbuilt virtualisation software Hyper-V. However this requires your CPU to support SLAT, which many older processors

Reset Windows 7 Rearm Count

An install of Windows 7 without an activation key allows for 30 days of usage. This can however be extended up to 120 days by using the following slmgr (Software Licensing Management Tool) command to rearm or reset the 30 day trial. slmgr /rearm(Remember to run this command, you must right click on cmd and select “Run as administrator” for this to