Jim Guckin

I recently ran into a weird problem with my Windows XP mode program in Windows 7.  While trying to turn on the virtual machine, I kept getting a pop up with the following error:

“windows xp mode could not be restored because of either host processor type mismatch”

Regardless of what I tried to do, I couldn’t get the Windows XP Mode virtual machine to start back up, yet I had another virtual machine (running Windows Vista) that I could get working.  I tried to reinstall the virtual machine, but it wouldn’t let me, and didn’t make the first version worked.  But I did the following steps to get this working again:

1. I went to the following location:C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines
   *replace {UserName} with your username
2. and in this directory I saw the virtual machines, backup of the machines and .vsv files (these are the ones you want)
3. Rename the .vsv file (i recommend changing it to .old)
   i.e.: If the file name is Windows XP Mode.vsv, rename it to Windows XP Mode.old
4. Now Restart  the virtual machine and now it should come up without any problems!

Now the important thing is to make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future, you should change the machine to shutdown of the Virtual PC and not the default of hibernation.  To do this, it’s just as simple as the fix:

1. Open the Virtual PC
2. On the menu click on Tools and then click on Settings.
3. Under the Close tab, change the option from Hibernateto shutdown.
4. Then finally restart your computer (my suggestion) and then start your Virtual PC.

Ever since I’ve done the above steps, I’ve never had another problem.  Of course I’ve never really liked Hibernation mode anyway, this is a smart move.