P2V conversions are always interesting. I don't think that I have ever seen any two go exactly the same way, and each one always has something unique about it. The most recent Windows 2003 Server P2V I ran went relatively smooth, with one exception. On every Windows startup, I would receive the following error:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Description:
The Parallel port driver service failed to start due to the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.
After entering the "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" command, I could see a device listed as "Direct Parallel" under the "Network Adapters" in Device Manager. This device could be disabled, but to uninstall it was not possible. At least not initially.....
After a few quick Google searches for "Direct Parallel", I ran across a post at the WinDrivers forums that appeared to have a fix for a similar issue. The suggestion there lead me to try a registry search for "Direct Parallel" under the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class key. Once the correct key was found, it was a simple matter of locating the REG_DWORD named "Characteristics" and changing the binary Hexadecimal value from 29 to 09. Apparently this change clears the "not user removable" value from the "Direct Parallel" device. Returning to Device Manager, I was now able to remove the "Direct Parallel" device from under "Network Adapters" without issue.
A subsequent reboot for another issue revealed that even though the "Direct Parallel" device was now gone, there was still a problem. The Event ID 7000 message was still present. The final fix was to disable the ParPort service, which required one additional registry edit. Under the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parport key, there is a REG_DWORD named "Start" and changing this value from 1 to 4 disabled the service. Now the virtual machine boots right up and starts Windows 2003 with no errors.
I have quite a few P2Vs in my immediate future, so there will probably be more things to share very soon!
