I have been using VPC for a few years now and I am still learning lots about using it. After upgrading to Vista I was unable to connect my VPC images to the Internet to activate the OS and download system updates. I was scratching my head changing my VM network adapter settings to Shared Networking (NAT) or to my wireless adapter but no matter what I did I couldn’t get an Internet connectivity from my VPC.
So I went to the person I always go to when I am stuck (this is the person after google) Mr Mark Daunt. He solved it in about a minute asking me if I have installed the Virtual Machine Network Service on my wireless adapter….the what???
So he showed me where to install it and wholla…I could connect 🙂
My LAN adapter had the Virtual Machine Network Service installed but my wireless adapter didn’t.
1/ Navigate to your physical network adapter that you want your VPC to use and click the Install button
2/ Highlight Service and click Add
3/ If you don’t see the Virtual Machine Network Service click Have Disk button (mine displays as I had already added it).
4/ Navigate to the following directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Utility\VMNetSrv and select the VMNetSrv.inf file and Ok your way back out.
5/ This should install the service and you should now see the service in your connection properties
6/ In your VPC make sure you set your network adapter to the adapter that you just installed the Virtual Machine Network Service
7/ Internet connection from VPC 🙂
Here is a good blog post for a couple of other issues if Virtual Machine Network Service is installed but you still can’t get network connectivity.
Another good article by Microsoft explaining the virtual machine network settings.
CJ 