Saving the state of a guest PC

When you shut down a guest PC with no undoable hard disks, Virtual PC presents a dialog with three shut down options:

• Save PC state
• Shut down <OS>
• Turn off PC

When you shut down a guest PC with undoable hard disks, Virtual PC presents a dialog with four shut down options:

• Save PC state and keep changes
• Shut Down <OS> and keep changes
• Turn off PC and keep changes
• Turn off PC and undo changes

Note: The process of shutting down or starting up a guest PC is not modal. You may work on another guest PC or another host PC program while you are waiting for a guest PC to start up or shut down.

Shut Down Options

Save PC State
Save PC State and Keep Changes

When you shut down a guest PC using one of these options, Virtual PC does not shut down the guest PC operating system. Instead, it pauses the operation of the guest PC, and stores the information necessary to resume the PC at a later time.

When you restart the guest PC, the PC will resume operating as though it had never been shut down. There is no need to reopen files, start programs, or reboot the PC.

Some resources that were in use while the guest PC was running are not released when the PC is shut down in this manner. The C disk, for example, is considered "in use" by the saved PC, and cannot be used by another PC. Other resources, such as parallel and serial port devices, are released.

Note: The information necessary to resume the PC is stored in a file on the host PC hard disk. The maximum size of this file is determined by the PC memory setting. For example, saving a PC with a memory setting of 32 MB may require up to 32 MB of hard disk space.

Shut Down <OS>
Shut Down <OS> and Keep Changes

When you shut down a guest PC using one of these options, Virtual PC shuts down the guest PC operating system. The effect on a guest PC shut down in this manner is the same as the effect on a host PC when shut down in this manner.

When you restart the guest PC, the PC will reboot.

Any resources that were in use while the guest PC was running are released, and may be used by another PC.

Note: This option is only available on a Windows PC which has the Virtual PC Additions installed.

Note: This option is not available for a guest PC running DOS, since DOS does not provide a means to cleanly shut down.

Note: This option is also not available for Linux. To cleanly shut down a guest PC running Linux, shut down from within the context of the Linux operating system.

Turn Off PC
Turn Off PC and Keep Changes

When you shut down a guest PC using one of these options, Virtual PC discards all the information in the guest PC memory. Any changes that have not yet been transferred from memory to the hard disk are discarded. Changes that were previously transferred from memory to the hard disk are retained.

When you restart the guest PC, the PC will reboot.

If the guest PC is running with Windows, you will see a message stating that Windows was not properly shut down and that the system is now checking the integrity of all its files.

If the guest PC is running with Linux, Linux will begin the fsck process. This process requires a great deal of time.

Warning: This option is not recommended, and may potentially damage your hard disk image. The effect on a guest PC shut down in this manner is the same as the effect on a host PC shut down by turning off the power.

Turn Off PC and Undo Changes

When you shut down a guest PC using this option, Virtual PC discards all the information in the guest PC memory, and discards any changes that have been written to the hard disk since the guest PC was started up.

When you restart the guest PC, the PC will reboot.

Warning: Although this option will prevent damage to the hard disk, it will not prevent loss of data. If you made changes to any files after starting up the guest PC, those changes will be lost.

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