> Caution: this is a pain to read and think about - you
> are warned ;-)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
> The following happens and is new. I have installed
> VPC 2007 under XP Pro/SP2. I have two accounts,
> in XP, one for administrative tasks and my normal
> account, which has no admin rights.
>
> Shortly I had to recover an - slightly - earlier image
> of my system partition, due to some software testings
> that I wanted to perform in my normal work enviro-
> ment (that is, not in a VM).
>
> After the restoration I installed VPC 2007, since on that
> image VPC 2004 was installed (it was the same thing on
> the former setup, so that's not the reason for the trouble
> described later on!).
>
> After installation of VPC 2007, I logged off from my ad-
> min account and switched over to my restricted account.
>
> On my restriced account, I started VPC 2007, the console
> came up as usual and I started adding my VMs (instead of
> just double clicking the vmc-files). When trying to add (not
> starting!!) a VM, I received the quoted error message:
>
> <qoute>
> The virtual machine "w98" can't be started because it is
> being used by another program, or marked as read-only.
>
> To start this virtual machine, blabla not used blabla or
> read-only blabla.
> </qoute>
>
> W98 is just an example, it's the same with every VM I
> try to add, and neither does it work to just double click
> a vmc-file.
>
> ------------ Analysis-----------
>
> Well, as I said, I did /not/ use fast user switching to get
> to my restricted account, instead I logged off from my
> admin account first, as usual, then logged onto my res-
> tricted account. Therefore, no other program I'm aware
> of is using the VMs nor are the rspective files marked as
> read-only.
>
> Of course, when the setup of VPC 2007 asked whether
> to install the app just for my admin account or for every-
> one using the computer I advised it to perform the latter
> option, as before on my former setup.
>
> ---------Workarounds-----------
>
> One workaround so far is to launch VPC with admin rights.
> I did /not/ have to do this before, on my former setup, which
> - to my best knowledge - is in no way different to the one I
> restored and that I am using now. I could add/start VMs "as
> usua"l, no problem.
>
> The second way is not to add an existing VM but instead to
> create a new one, and let it use an existing virtual hard disk.
> Anyway, this works for a Windows 98 VM but not for a
> Vista VM - for whatever reason.
>
> I'm puzzled as to what might cause the error and have
> absolutely no idea what I might miss.
>
> What I haven't tried yet, is to create a new VM from
> scratch within my restricted account.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Regards,
>
> Kai-Uwe
>