Problems with Virtual PC 2004 Virtual Machine Additions

I received my retail upgrade (not beta) of Microsoft Virtual PC 2004. I'm
upgrading from Connectix Virtual PC v5.2. Following the directions in the
readme.htm file, I first used Connectix Virtual PC v5.2 to remove the
Virtual Machine Additions from each of my virtual machines. When I
installed the new Virtual Machine Additions, it hosed up my Win95, Win98,
and WinME virtual images.

Win95:

Upon rebooting, before the GUI starts, I get a message complaining "Error
loading hostmaus.drv. You must reinstall Windows". The file was in the
\Windows\System folder, so what's the problem? I rebooted in Safe Mode and
removed the new Virtual Machine Additions, but Win95 will not boot and tells
me I must reinstall Windows. It boots in Safe Mode, but not Normal Mode.

Win98:

Upon rebooting, before the GUI starts, I get a message complaining "Error
loading hostmaus.drv. You must reinstall Windows". The file was in the
\Windows\System folder, so what's the problem? I rebooted in Safe Mode and
removed the new Virtual Machine Additions. I am not able to boot in Normal
mode, but without the additions, however my network connection does not
work.

WinME:

Upon rebooting, the GUI starts, however the screen is stuck on 640x480x16.
I booted into Safe Mode and removed the video adapter and monitor and then
rebooted. The monitor now works properly and I can adjust the resolution.
The network connection does not work.

I've spent all day attempting to recover these three virtual machines. My
other virtual machines, MD-DOS 6.22, WFW 3.11, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, Win2K, and
WinXP appear OK on face value, but I haven't had an opportunity to test
them. I used the DOS Virtual Machine Additions for MS-DOS 6.22, and WFW
3.11. There is not network driver for WFW v3.11. The Virtual Machines
Additions no longer supports NT 3.51.

At this point I feel rather abused by Microsoft, feeling they sent me a "not
ready for prime time beta" packaged as the retail upgrade. I need a working
Virtual Machine Additions, advise on how to recover my Win95 image, and how
to reestablish the networking. All of which was working with previous
versions from Connectix.

 

In follow-up to this ongoing problem:

Prior to upgrading Connectix Virtual PC v5.2 to Microsoft Virtual PC, I had
virtual machines for MS-DOS 6.22, WFW 3.11, NT 3.51, Win 95, Win 98, Win ME,
NT 4.0, Win 2K, Win XP. Each of these Virtual machines were clients to my
(NT 4.0 based) Small Business Server 4.5. They had network access to my LAN
and to the Internet (as SBS clients).

Following the Readme instructions with the upgrade, I first removed the
existing Virtual Machine Additions from all machines, and applied the new
Virtual Machine Additions. The Readme indicates by omission that WFW 3.11
and NT 3.51 are not supported with Virtual Machine Additions. By repeated
trial and error, I find that Win 95, Win 98, and Win ME are not usable (or
recoverable) once Virtual Machine Additions are installed. For those
virtual machines, I had to go back to my backups (from before the upgrade),
and remove the old Virtual Machine Additions while booting in Safe Mode.
For MS DOS 6.22, NT 4.0, Win 2K, and Win XP, the new Virtual Machine
Additions did install. However, ...

My virtual machines can see my network-based HP G95 printer, but none of
them can see my SBS server. They cannot see the domain controller during
logon, and they cannot connect to any of the network shares. On the Win 95,
Win 98, and Win ME virtual machines, the logon do longer even attempts to
log into the domain server and the My Network desktop icon no longer exists.
On the NT 4.0, Win 2K, and Win XP virtual machines, the login shows the
domain-based login and the My Network desktop icon exists, but I cannot
communicate with the domain.

These are serious problems, which I don't believe I should need to
experience with a retail product. Please advise on how to recover from
this.

-Michael Faklis