The title pretty much says it all - we’ve released updated VM Additions that are compatible with the July EDW build of Windows Vista that was released recently (it’s build 5472.5, for those of you keeping score at home).  As an added bonus, these Additions also work with Beta 2, and the June EDW build.

The updated Additions are available over at Connect, under the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 beta. 

Enjoy!

If anyone has tried syspreping Windows Vista Beta 2 inside a VM, you may have noticed that the VM Additions are still installed but not functional afterwards (this only happens if you use the /generalize switch).  This is because of the way that the new Sysprep Generalization phase works.  The idea here is that the system starts with a totally clean slate, and PnP detects the “best” driver for the hardware all over again. 

For some reason, the drivers included with the Additions are not detected as the “best” fit.  I’m not on the setup team, so I’m not sure why, but that’s what seems to be happening. 

There are a few ways to work around this.  The first, and most obvious way, is not to use the /generalize switch on Sysprep.  While this has the pro of not breaking our Additions, there are a lot of cons involved with doing this.  The big one is that the unique information about the system’s identity (the system’s SID, for example) aren’t reset if you don’t generalize, which causes a boatload of problems if you want to deploy the VM to multiple people/places. 

The other - and preferred - way

…

We’ve finally released the Microsoft Virtual Machine Additions for Windows Vista Beta 2! 

You can download the additions here:
http://connect.microsoft.com

Log into the site, and sign up for the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta if you’re not already in it.  In the downloads section, you’ll see the Additions for Beta 2.

To install them run the MSI installer from the download site (yeah… that should be pretty obvious, actually).  The installer will ask you where you want to put the new Additions, but will default to %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Machine Additions.

To install the Additions in your Vista VM, just mount the VMAdditionsforVistaB2.iso file in your Virtual Machine, and run the installer as normal.

Enjoy!

Update  -  It’s been confirmed that these additions do not work on the Beta 2 Refresh that was released recently.  We’re looking into this.