Ths article was written when I tried to install the CiscoVPN client on windows 7, and found that many other instructions out there were either based on a version of XP Mode that no longer applies, or were never checked to see if the instructions actually worked.

Firstly, you will need to install Windows 7 XP Mode to your PC. As of today (late September 2009), it is the RC. You will need a copy of Win 7 Ultimate or Professional, which is unfortunate for the Home users not willing to fork out the mre than doubling of cost between Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Select your installation type – here I selected 64 bit system, and English language (A generic English).

Step 2 is a 7 meg msu file (the new hotfix installer file type created since Vista), but XP Mode is a slightly larger 470 meg executable. Thank you ADSL 2+.

Install the two packages, and start “Windows Virtual PC” “Windows XP Mode” which is a pre configured Windows XP virtual machine.

The machine kindly maps all your local drives as networked drives.

The default browser installation is IE 6 ... yuk. Not too secure, although I would recommend using your host machine to do the heavy browser lifting.

I then navigated to my host c:\ drive (C on THUNDER) and tried to install the Cisco client ... The following error message came up when I ran the installer: “The Windows Installer does not permit installation from a Remote Desktop connection.”

Trouble in paradise.

I copied the entire Cisco folder that was extracted from vpnclient-win-msi-5.0.04.0300-k9, and pasted to the Virtual PC’s c:\ drive. 

I then tried running the cisco vpnclient_setup.exe, which just seems to launch vpnclient_setup.msi.

SUCCESS ! Lucky break. Not very obvious, Microsoft.

The client software is installed into the start menu under “Cisco Systems VPN Client”.

The application that was installed under the XP Mode VM automagically is installed into the Win 7 Menu under the “Windows Virtual PC” folder, in a new folder called “Windows XP Mode Applications”. Nice blend of terminal server 2008 style remote desktop serving an application, with a back end VM server.

Rebooting your machine after installing the Cisco VPN Client

Some weird windowing issues still in the RC. This is a truncated WGA installation that popped up automatically after the reboot.:

I tried running the “VPN Client (Windows XP Mode)” menu item.

Running an XP Mode application whent he vm is running is verboten, and results in the following message: “To open a virtual application, the virtual machine must be closed”

I then closed down the XP Mode VM, which hibernated it.

And ran the Cisco client again.

Which resulted in a new message: “’Windows XP Mode’ was closed with a user logged on”.

Clicking Continue will log the user off and run the application.

And the application starts. The windows have Win XP borders – not Win 7, so are easy to spot the difference.

When connected, the Cisco icon appears in the taskbar as a normal application.

Remote Desktop is already installed on the XP Machine, but does not show up as a “Windows XP Mode Application”. This is because of a new exclude list in the registry of the XP VM.

Start regedit, and navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtual Machine\VPCVAppExcludeList". Delete the mstsc.exe key.

Reboot the VM (I used the “Ctrl+Alt+Del” menu at the top of the VM)

And the menu shortcut automatically appears in the Win 7 machine.

Some automagic stuff performed when the XP Mode VM reboots creates a shortcut in the “C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Virtual PC\Windows XP Mode Applications” folder. Here’s a shot of my folder – the Remote Desktop connection was not there a moment ago.

Start the VPN client, then start the remote desktop from XP Mode. Not sure why it has the window scheme of Vista / Win 7, but it just does.

Some outstanding issues

On my XP VM, the Cisco client kept on being uninstalled whenever I rebooted.