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For quite a while, I've had a problem with Microsoft Virtual
PC, which sets up a pretend computer that runs in a window of
your own Windows computer. Whenever I started the program, I
would see it running in the taskbar, but the console itself would
not show up on the screen.
Clicking on the icon in the task bar caused the icon to disappear,
but no window appears.
There is an icon in the system tray, however, that shows Virtual
PC is still running; you can activate a pretend PC from there
and exit the program, but you can't get the console back.
Right-clicking the taskbar icon brings up this menu:
But if you click the line "Show Virtual PC Console",
you don't get the console window displayed, you just get the
icon in the taskbar.
Sigh. Crappy programming.
To fix this, you need to find the parameter file used by Microsoft
Virtual PC. Microsoft Virtual PC stores its configuration in
the following file:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Virtual PC\Options.xml
This path is normally hidden. To see it, you have to go to
Windows Explorer or My Computer, click on Tools,
then the View tab, then check the option:
[X] Show hidden files and folders.
Then click the OK button.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Virtual PC and right-click the Options.xml
file, and open it with Notepad.
You will find many XML lines, and about halfway down, you
will find something like this:
<window>
<console>
<height type="integer">246</height>
<left_position type="integer">4294935296</left_position>
<top_position type="integer">4294935296</top_position>
<visible type="boolean">true</visible>
<width type="integer">359</width>
</console>
<new_pc>
<left_position type="integer">261</left_position>
<top_position type="integer">191</top_position>
</new_pc>
</window>
This is the window size and location definition for the console
and the window created for a new PC.
Note that the console left and top positions are ludicrously
large. Change them both to 0, as follows:
<window>
<console>
<height type="integer">246</height>
<left_position type="integer">0</left_position>
<top_position type="integer">0</top_position>
<visible type="boolean">true</visible>
<width type="integer">359</width>
</console>
<new_pc>
<left_position type="integer">261</left_position>
<top_position type="integer">191</top_position>
</new_pc>
</window>
Now save the file and run Virtual PC again. Its console should
be visible again.
Why did these locations change? I have no idea. It's yet another
undocumented and unfixed "feature" (OK, bug) in a Microsoft
product. It's a very simple process to check the screen size
and location specified in the parameter file against the actual
screen dimensions, but Microsoft's programmers couldn't be bothered,
and their quality control group, if they have one, did not catch
it, or if they reported it, the programmers did not fix it.
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