This is what I had to go through to get Virtual PC 2007 working on Windows 8:

First I downloaded the Virtual PC 2007 SP1 for 64bit Windows from ***Microsoft***.

It seemed to install without a problem.
However it wouldn't run -- it produced a box saying it wouldn't work on my operating system (and little else).

Following some suggestions I found on the Internet, I tried renaming the exe file to vpc.exe and setting vpc.exe to run in XP SP3 compatibility mode.

It started. I was able to create a virtual machine. But when I tried to start the Virtual Machine to install Windows 98, it spewed an error about vmm.sys and said I had to reboot Windows 8. Gyaaah!

So following a suggestion in the ***Technet forum*** I attempted to download and install Windows Phone SDK 7.1
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27570
and the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 Update
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29233

However the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 refused to install. The download (vm_web2.exe) was a web install, so I found a complete, non-web installer for Windows Phone SDK 7.1 and attempted to install that both with and without compatibility mode. Same thing happened -- It copied files to the Temp folder, but then refused to install.

I found an .iso for Windows Phone SDK 7.1 and tried downloading that, burning it to DVD, and installing. However I ran into the same problem installing from the DVD. And the Windows Phone 7.1.1 update wouldn't install if you didn't already have Windows Phone SDK 7.1 installed.

So I looked for how to solve a problem with Windows Phone 7.1 not installing, and found this site
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2012/02/29/10274694.aspx
They suggested installing the latest version of "Games for Windows - Live Redistributable." It sounded like a scheme to get you to install the Games for Windows client. But I'd made my restore point before installing Virtual PC, so I gave it a try. And surprisingly, after installing the gfwlivesetup.exe, the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 setup started worked properly without needing any kind of compatibility setting.

Of course the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 had one of those installs where you leave the computer and come back in an hour to see if it's finished. And the update was no slouch in the installation length department either.

After both were done, I rebooted the computer, just in case it was necessary.

Then I inserted my Windows 98 CD... and... it didn't crash. It gave me an argument about where the CD drive was, which I didn't remember from last time I installed Virtual PC. But it was easy to fix by selecting "Use Physical Drive" in the toolbar. Windows 98 installed as usual, taking less time than it took to install Windows Phone SDK 7.1. After the Windows 98 install completed, I did the usual configuring I do with Windows 98 -- getting rid of excess desktop shortcuts, setting IP to use Windows Logon so I don't have to log in every time, and changing the desktop background to black. It remains to be seen whether Virtual PC will be as stable as it was on XP. But so far it works.

But what a lot of fuss to go through to install something that used to work right off the bat with XP, Vista, and even Windows 7. I found VMM.sys in the
C:\Windows\System32\drivers folder. The "VMM" is in capital letters for some reason. I don't know whether simply replacing the old vmm.sys (if it exists) with the updated version will work.

Examining details for VMM.sys by right-click\Properties provides this info:

File description Virtual Machine Monitor
Type System file
File version 1.1.663.0
Product name Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
Copyright Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserv...
Size 395 KB
Date modified 3/19/2012 4:27 PM
Language English (United States)
Original filename vmm.sys

Fix for Windows 95 on fast computers

If you try to install Windows 95 in a virtual machine on a fast computer, you may run into a problem with Windows 95 failing to start after installation, with an error looking something like this:

I had this problem when attempting to install Windows 95 in Virtual PC 2007 on a computer with a 2.5GHz AMD quad core processor.

There is a fix made by a Windows 95 user and described at

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/141402-windows-95-21ghz-cpu-limit-broken/

The direct link to the fix is ***here***

I have used this fix and managed to get Windows 95 installed and working properly in Virtual PC 2007 on the 2.5GHz AMD computer described earlier. Without the fix, the installation failed on every attempt due to the CPU speed problem.

Note that the fix has to be applied during the install process, before the final reboot, in order to work.

According to ***the Virustotal scanner*** the FIX95CPU_V3_FINAL.ZIP file is virus-free.

The contents of the readme are listed in the first post at

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/141402-windows-95-21ghz-cpu-limit-broken/

so I won't repeat them here as they are rather long.

I'd recommend this fix to intermediate and advanced computer users who want to use Windows 95 rather than Windows 98 and who are relatively comfortable using Virtual PC 2007 or other virtualization software, and know how to (or can figure out how to) boot off of media other than the virtual hard drive when using a virtual machine.

For beginners, I'd suggest using Windows 98SE.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

(Note that the problem at 2.1GHz exists for both Windows 95 and 98FE (first edition), which is why Windows 98SE (second edition) is easiest to use in a virtual machine. For more info on the patch for Windows 98FE, which is no longer available from Microsoft, check ***here***, especially the 12th post.)

Thanks so much for this, Jenny. Great info.

WOW! Jenny I m so impressed with your technical expertise and your ability to explain things so even I can understand! Thanks for being here and offering support to those of us who often don't know where to begin when it comes to tech problems!

Thank you Marian and Kaki's Sister.
I hope the information is useful for someone.
It took me a while to dig it up.

Jenny I'm hanging on to it just in case! I can't say it enough your help and guidance is much appreciated!
Thanks again.

That goes for me, too !!!!