Q. How can I boot from a CD with Windows Virtual PC?

A. The default order for Virtual PC is to boot from the hard disk, then the CD. On most machines, the BIOS portion is so fast that you can't even read the text. In this configuration, if the hard drive has no OS, then the virtual machine (VM) will boot from the CD. If the hard drive does have an OS, you can't boot from the CD.

Turn the VM on and press the DEL key straight away. This will open the BIOS configuration. Select the Boot menu then select the Boot Device Priority. Select the top item and set it to CDROM and set the second to Hard Drive, as shown below. Now when you boot the machine, if there's a CD in your drive you'll have the option to boot from it before the hard disk.

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