How to enable Hyper-V and run Windows 7 on Amazon’s cheap laptop.

The laptop mentioned previous article successfully became 24H2. The touchpad was risen because the battery was swollen, so I couldn’t use it. This time, I replaced the battery and adjusted the position of the touchpad. So I can use it now. However, suddenly the mouse cursor stops working, and I have a BSoD. The stop code is DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. The same symptoms occur with a wired USB mouse, so I think it might be related to the driver. Though I tried dism and sfc, there were no problems.

When I look in “Settings>>Windows Update>>Advanced Options>>Optional Updates”, I find the four updates in the image below. One of them is HID-related, and even after reading the program descriptions, I’m not sure if they are related. But I install all four anyway.

Since then I haven’t experienced any BSoDs. It means the result is certainly ok?

Now, enable Hyper-V and run the virtual machine.

This laptop has Windows 11 PRO, so I can use Hyper-V if enabled. Go to “Control Panel >> Programs and Features >> Turn Windows features on or off”, check Hyper-V and click OK. Then follow the instructions on the screen and restart the laptop.

After rebooting, launch Hyper-V Manager and create a virtual machine. Go to “Right Pane >> Quick Create >> Virtual Machine” and made some decisions. I was planning to install the 32-bit version of Windows 7, so I chose the first generation.

Also I left the network configuration as not connected.

In the installation options, I specified the ISO file. I had to search all over for this ISO download. Windows 7 is no longer supported, so I can’t download the ISO from the Microsoft site, and I couldn’t get it from the archive.org link either.

By the way, the relevant page on archive.org is garbled. Try to access the next URL, you can see it. https://web.archive.org/web/20190512035955/https://www.microsoft.com/ja-jp/software-download/windows7

Where can I change the encoding in recent browsers? Well, I managed to fix the garbled text at the URL below. https://web.archive.org/web/20190512035955id_/https://www.microsoft.com/ja-jp/software-download/windows7

We will go back to the question of where to get the ISO…… I searched and searched. In the end, I found one that a volunteer had uploaded to archive.org. Thank goodness. https://archive.org/download/win-7-home-prem-sp1-japanese

I got a Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit machine.

I started it up and was surprised. The mouse cursor moves reversed up and down, though left and right are normal. On the internet I found, “if there are any disabled services in the list of integrated services, you can fix it by enabling them all”. But that didn’t work. I tried the method of using vmguest.iso from “Mouse vertical movement is reversed in Hyper-V for older OS’s” and it worked. Very impressed.

When I installed vmguest.iso, the article said to install it from the “Virtual Machine Connection” Action menu, but in the media menu there was a “DVD Drive” option, from which I could select the ISO file on the external USB hard disk connected to the host OS. At the time, this hard disk was not visible from Windows 7, but that didn’t matter.

Opening the ISO file, an autoplay window will appear as shown below, so install from here.

After the installation completes, reboot the guest OS, Windows 7.

Some trouble activating Windows 7.

Now a Windows 7 virtual machine on Hyper-V. But if I use this machine forever, I have to activate Windows 7 on it. Otherwise I’ll often have problems with it not working……That’s in trouble.
I originally chose not to connect in the network configuration on the guest OS, so I was going to use Microsoft phone authentication, but I ran into a problem before that.

I had error code 0xC004F061. I was trying to do it with the Windows 7 key I used on the server a long time ago.

Thinking about the key, I think the Windows 7 I used on the server was an update from Windows XP. Now I don’t have Windows XP anymore. Obviously the Windows 7 installed from the downloaded ISO is clean install. Mm, I’m in trouble.

But, we’re in a good age. I searched for the error code and found a helpful article. “FIX Activation Error 0xC004F061 on Windows 10, 8, 7 & Vista (Solved)“. It said that changing the MediaBootInstall value in the registry would work.

Open the Windows 7 Registry Editor and change the value of MediaBootInstall in the right pane of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE to 0. Close the Registry Editor.

If this value is 0, it will be judged as an upgrade installation.

Run Windows 7 cmd.exe as administrator. Type slmgr /rearm and press the Enter key. Reboot Windows 7.

After rebooting, proceed to activation from “Computer” property. I call 0120-801-734 from my smartphone and hear an announcement. I follow the instructions and receive a link via SMS. Connect to the link and enter the displayed confirmation ID into Windows 7, and activation completed successfully. Phew.