Opening a VMCX File to Run a Windows XP Mode VM from Windows 10

Enable Client Hyper-V:

1. Press Windows Key
2. Type (i.e. search) for “windows features”
3. Select “Turn Windows features on or off”
4. Press enter
5. Enable the following:

Go install Windows XP Mode for Windows 10 from Microsoft.com:

• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8002

Download the WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe and using 7-zip extract this executable to  folder: “WindowsXPMode_en-us”

Once that is done, use 7-zip to open WindowsXPMode_en-us\sources\xpm and extract: VirtualXPVHD

Rename VirtualXPVHD to VirtualXPVHD.vhd

Start “Hyper-V Manager”

Connect to local server if you are not already, you can tell by checking if you see “Import Virtual Machine…” then you are already connected and can ignore this step.

Action > Virtual Switch Manager > Create New > External Network > [X] Allow management operating system to share this network adapter > Apply > OK

Action > New > Virtual Machine > Next > Name it your preference:

• WindowsXPTestVM

Generation 1, 1024 MB of RAM is sufficient, configure network to same one you created earlier.

That VM should run and work like a fresh install of Windows XP.

Now we need to open the VMCX file with a text editor and read through it to understand what VHD file and VMC files were loaded for the VMCX file.

Select network “New Virtual Network”

I generally copy these files (which can be several GB) to my local disk so they run faster.

Then I modify the Test VM and add a secondary IDE connection to a new drive which has the older VHD file.

Or you can just try to boot directly into the VHD file:

Action > New > Virtual Machine > Next > Name it your preference:

• MyVMFromVMCX

Use the VHD file from your VMCX (preferably a local copy).