how to program Virtual PC 2007 to automate tasks?

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how to program Virtual PC 2007 to automate tasks?

I have virtual machine that has windows 7 + visual studio 2010 setup, and my plan is to test some VS SDK development. Now I want to automate following tasks...

Detach existing VHD
Delete VHD
Create a new Differencing VHD with base VHD as already good setup
Attach it to the VM
Start VM

I tried to look for any OCX or COM control to do these tasks automatically but no luck, I didn't find any COM library to do this.

However, if I can only delete and recreate a differencing VHD that also should be fine..., I know I can write to batch file to copy a backup of new VHD and do all these kinds of things, but I am looking for much more sophesticated solution where I can program in scripts and do more with it.

+1 A:

There's an extensive automation interface for Virtual Server, but not for Virtual PC. I don't have it installed on my machine to help you find it. But you can probably find it yourself. Fire up regedit.exe and navigate through HKCR. There should be a ProgId named some similar to "VirtualMachine.Application". Note the CLSID guid. Navigate to HKCR\CLSID\{guid} and note the InProcServer32 key value. That should be the DLL that you can browse to in the Browse tab of the Add Reference dialog.

Hans Passant 2010-09-21 13:46:35

Hi, thanks for the info, this is what exactly I am looking for but can you tell me from where I can get TLB or how to I get everything in C#?

Akash Kava 2010-09-21 14:35:13

Erm, that's what I did.

Hans Passant 2010-09-21 14:36:38

Well the msdn help specifies GUID and interface information, I have to actually type everything in order to get into C#, but I want to know how can I import any DLL that will generate C# interfaces.

Akash Kava 2010-09-21 15:12:54

Did you start Regedit.exe yet?

Hans Passant 2010-09-21 15:14:29

I found typelib GUID that is "{CEF63746-AD34-42D0-9138-39D83ECB77CB}" after going in regedit, and tried navigating couple of guids mentioned there and in msdn, but no luck, you cant find dll easily for windows components, i remember, even for directshow there was none and somebody created project in sourceforge that had all interfaces documented, its quite painful job, however it says in windows SDK i can find tlb, let me try downloading that.

Akash Kava 2010-09-21 16:51:00

I downloaded and installed it, no dice. Then found a feature comparison, the scripting interface is only available for Virtual Server, not Virtual PC. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=8ed0a6cb-0f24-408e-af8f-51edf508d361

Hans Passant 2010-09-21 17:22:51

ansaurus

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