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Recently I had to resume a Windows XP Virtualbox VM, to do some tests. I have added some RAM and CPUs (from 1 to 2) to the VM, but the added CPUs aren’t detected. After some internet surfing, I found the solution. To force the detection, open the Command Prompt and type the following line: rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction ACPIAPIC_MP_HAL 128 %windir%\inf\hal.inf After a couple (in … Continue reading Forcing Windows XP multicore detection
Introduction If you have a VM using dynamically allocated disks, you may have the need to compact them to save some free space. It happened that I have to shrink a Win10 VM after the upgrade to 1809, hosted on my Windows 10 notebook. Using Virtualbox for Windows, actually, this option seems to be available only for VDI files. Round #1 The first step is … Continue reading HOWTO compact VDI disks
Introduction A couple of weeks, a 12-15 year old desktop PC of mine died. After a quick investigation, it appeared to have some sort of electrical problem around the mainboard and the power supplier. I took a full week, to evaluate what to do. From the hardware point of view, it didn’t deserve any replacement. What is annoying me, is the 180€ for the Windows … Continue reading Virtualizing an old broken PC