Shaun Cassells at MyITForum.com

Windows 7 does Boot Recovery caused by VPC 2007 Virtual Machine Additions

How Windows 7 does Boot Recovery

The following is based on Windows 7 Beta Build 7000

Follow the following steps to build a Microsoft Virtual PC to cause crashes.

1. Using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (6.0.156.0) on a Windows XP SP2 machine
2. Build a Windows 7 VM
3. Base it on an Vista OS
4. Once you have built you VM go to Actions >> Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions
5. After you complete the install it will ask you to restart
6. When you restart you will get the following BSOD

 

7. The machine will restart again and the default option is to run a Startup Repair

 

8. I choose to cancel the Automatic System Restore to see what happens.
9. Another restart, BSOD, restart
10. Then warns you that VM Additions are not installed

    11. Root Cause Found

12. Advanced Recovery Options
13. Asks for Keyboard Layout
14. Login and password

 

15. Select System Restore
16. Navigate to the last system restore before adding on Virtual Machine Additions
17. System Restore Completes successfully and prompts for Restart
18. Everything Works fine again.

One interesting note: There does not seem to be a specific event in the System Event Viewer.

This is an interesting Windows 7 repeatable crash recovery test.

Update: Brian Keller pointed out that the SP1 for Virtual Machine prevents this issue with the VM additions.  However, we are both curious how well the recovery will work in each of the following scenarios

1. Machine user lacks admin rights
2. GPO is set to disable System Check Points
3. Enterprise administration to maintain homogenous environment