Requirements:
1. Windows 7 DVD or .ISO Image
2. Microsoft Virtual PC (free)
Procedure:
1. Download and install Virtual PC from here.
2. Run the Virtual PC software. To do this, type Virtual PC in Vista Start menu search box and hit enter.
3. Click on “New” option and click “Next” to continue.
4. Select “Create a virtual machine” option from the available three options. Click “Next”.
5. Here, type a name for the new virtual machine. The file is automatically saved to the My Virtual Machines folder. To save it to a different location, use the “Browse” button.
6. Select the operating system that you would like to install using Virtual PC from the drop down box. In this tutorial we choose “Windows Vista” since Windows 7 option is not available in Virtual PC.After selecting the operating system, click “Next”.
7. Use the “Recommended RAM”. If you have chosen “Adjusting the RAM” then, select the amount of RAM you would like to allocate to run Virtual machine (Windows 7) and click “Next”. (By default, it will use 512 MB of RAM, if you like to keep as it is, lick “Next”).
8. In the next screen, select “A new virtual hard disk” and once again “click” Next button.
9. In this step, browse the location where you want to create a virtual hard disk and specify a name for the virtual hard drive. or Leave it default Location with the default name Also don’t forget to specify the size of the Virtual Hard Drive. I prefer at least 16GB (Recommended by Microsoft). But I used 10GB for tutorial Purposes.
10. Click finish button.
11. This will open a small window called “Virtual PC Console”. Click on “Start” button to start the actual process.
12. Insert your Windows 7 DVD in to the optical drive or plug-in bootable USB drive (using USB drive you can install in just 10-15 minutes) or Select an .ISO Image. Click on Action and Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to Restart.
*You will see the Windows 7 installing environment inside the console.*
13. Install the Windows 7 inside the console with the default Windows 7 installing procedure that you know.
14. Now, you can install all the required programs for your Windows 7.
15. You can close the Virtual PC with a simple click on the “close”(top right) button.
16. To open your Virtual 7 once again, type “Virtual PC”(without quotes) in the Start menu and select your Virtual Windows 7 from the box and click “Start”.
17. You are done!!
Video Tutorial:
