viBoot can be switched between Hyper-V and VirtualBox mode using the ‘Tools’ menu:
Note: VirtualBox less than v6.1.4 cannot be run on Windows where Microsoft Hyper-V service is running.
Microsoft Hyper-V feature must be disabled for VirtualBox 6.0.xx to function. Please run "bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off" after disabling Hyper-V feature from "Turn Windows features on or off"
Macrium viBoot will be restarted after changing Hypervisor mode. This doesn’t affect the state of existing VMs, whether they are running or not:
Performance Warning
If VirtualBox v6.1.4 (or later) is installed alongside Microsoft Hyper-V, VMs will not run with optimum performance.
See the VirualBox Change Log for more information on this.
The current hypervisor type is shown in the application title bar:
Booting an image directly from Macrium Reflect
An image that contains the Windows System and Boot partition(s) can be directly booted from the 'Restore' view in Macrium Reflect.
Boot architecture |
|
|---|---|
| MBR - Master Boot Record | Boot partition: This may be the same partition as drive 'C:' but is likely to be a separate small (100 to 300 MB) partition named the Microsoft System Reserved partition or MSR. Windows partition: This is the partition that contains the Windows OS and will be drive C: |
| UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface | UEFI System Partition: A small FAT32 LBA formatted partition that doesn;'t have a drive letter. Windows partition: This is the partition that contains the Windows OS and will be drive C: |
If an image contains the partitions required for booting then the 'viBoot' option will be available in the toolbar and in the context menu:
Otherwise the option will be disabled:
To boot an image directly with viBoot.
- Click the 'Restore tab.
- Select the image.
Click the 'viBoot Image' toolbar button or menu option.
- If viBoot can launch, the viBoot Hyper-V settings dialog will start.
- Make any changes to the VM properties and click 'Finish'
The VM will now start and boot directly into Windows.
Starting the viBoot create Virtual Machine Wizard from Macrium Reflect.
Take the 'Restore' > 'Launch Macrium viBoot' menu option
Or, click the 'Launch Macrium viBoot' task link on the Restore tab.
This will start the the viBoot Virtual Machine User Interface.
Launching viBoot as a standalone application
viBoot is installed by default during the standard Macrium Reflect installation and can be started using the installed shortcut:
Main Window
The “Virtual Machines” view (1), displays the name of the viBoot created virtual machine, the current state of the virtual machine (Off, Running, etc) and the current CPU usage of the virtual machine. Selecting a Hyper-V virtual machine in the “Virtual Machines” view (1) will update the “Mounted Images” view (2) to list the Macrium Reflect images that are being referenced by the virtual machine.
The “Mounted Images” view (2), displays the path of the image file(s) used to create the virtual drive(s), the physical drive number assigned to the drive by Windows, the partition type of the drive (MBR or GPT) and the drive capacity.
The "Log" view (3), shows a record of the actions taken by viBoot.
Main Window Commands
Menu Item | Sub Menu Item | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Machine | Connect | Connect to a virtual machine. |
| New... | Display the viBoot Wizard to create a new virtual machine. | |
| Backup... | Create a Disk image of the selected virtual machine. | |
| Delete... | Delete the selected virtual machine. | |
| Start | Start the selected virtual machine. | |
| Shut down | Shut down the selected virtual machine. | |
| Turn off | Turn off the selected virtual machine. | |
| Pause | Pause the selected virtual machine. | |
| Reset | Reset the selected virtual machine. | |
| Exit | Exit the Macrium viBoot application. | |
| Tools | Log | Toggle the Log window display, |
| Options... | Configure the virtual machine repository folder, and logging options. | |
| Refresh | Reload virtual machines and mounted images. | |
| Hypervisor |
This menu option is only available if VirtualBox 6.1.4 (or later) is installed on a PC running Hyper-V. | |
| Help | Contents... | This help content. |
| About Macrium viBoot... | viBoot version and copyright notice. |
Tip
You can right-click on the virtual machine pane to display the "Virtual Machine" menu as a context menu.
Macrium viBoot toolbar:
| Displays the viBoot Wizard which allows you to create a new virtual machine. |
| Create an Image of the currently selected Virtual Machine. |
| Deletes the currently selected virtual machine. |
| Refresh the list virtual machines and states. |
| Configure the virtual machine repository folder, and logging options. |
| Displays this help content. |
New VM Wizard
The "Welcome" page provides a brief introduction and explains some of the limitations of virtualization.
Select Image Files allows you to add one or more Macrium Reflect image files to be used for the virtual machine.
The first boot-able disk will be marked as the boot disk. If there are multiple disks that are boot-able, these can be set to be the boot disk by selecting the disk and clicking the "Set as Boot" button.
Hyper-V VM & VirtualBox Settings allows you to configure the virtual machine. The RAM and CPU are limited to match the host computer. If the number of processors is set to "Automatic", viBoot will interrogate the Windows settings from the image files to set the correct number of processors. A Virtual Switch of "<None>" ensures that the new virtual machine is not connected to the network.
VirtualBox VM settings are similar to Hyper-V except that NAT and Bridged Adapter options are supported. These can be changed later via VirtualBox Manager.
Please see VirtualBox documentation for more details.
Please note that no changes whatsoever, are made to the original image files.
Options
The “Options” button on the Macrium viBoot main toolbar, will display the “Options” dialog box. From here you can modify some of the behavior of Macrium viBoot.
The “Virtual Machine Repository” specifies the folder that Macrium viBoot will use to store Virtual Machine configurations and the virtual machine drive cache.
Macrium viBoot writes a log of actions taken by the application. This file is saved to "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\Macrium". The log file is configured by the following options:
Log level - Controls type of information written to the log file:
- Critical
- Error
- Warning
- Information
- Debug
Maximum number of files - Number of log files to keep before purging. A value of zero will disable this check.
Days to keep - Log files older than the specified number will be purged. A value of zero will disable this check.
Maximum log file size(MB) - Maximum file size for the log file, before a new log file is created. A value of zero will disable this check.