Virtual PC Could Not Open the Virtual Machine Network Services

We run virtual machines to test our POS Software on different OS platforms. After some recent Windows updates on my Vista SP1 system, some of my Virtual Machines started giving an error upon starting stating ‘Virtual PC Could Not Open the Virtual Machine Network Services’.

I found several solutions online, but none worked in my case. What worked in my case was to do the following…

1. Open the Settings for the VM with the error
2. Select the ‘Networking’ entry
3. Change all the adapters (I only had 1) to ‘Not Connected’ (make note of the assigned entry)
4. Change the adapter(s) back to their original entries
5. Select OK to close the settings window
6. Start the VM

If this did not resolve the issue for you, try the following…

1) Reinstall Virtual PC – check to see if issue is resolved.

2) Disable/Remove and Enable/Add ‘Virtual Machine Network Services…

1. Right Click on ‘My Network Places’ in the Start Menu and select Properties or Open
2. Right Click on your network connection and select Properties
3. Uncheck the entry for ‘Virtual Machine Network Services’ and select OK
4. Right Click on your network connection and select Properties
5. check the entry for ‘Virtual Machine Network Services’ and select OK

Note if ‘Virtual Machine Network Services’ is no longer listed, you will need to ‘install’ it by Selecting Install – > Services -> Virtual Machine Network Services