A VHD is a large container file that simulates the file structure of a hard drive. Think of it as a fancy ZIP file, but without the compression. VHDs are single files and are most commonly used as
hard drives for virtual machines, but they can also be mounted so they act like real hard drives. When mounted, they appear to Windows as a real physical hard drive. You can add, remove, and edit files on them, or create a fresh installation of Windows to a new, bootable VHD. If you need to use more than one operating system, often the best choice is installing secondary (or more) operating systems to a VHD. But there can arise minor difficulties, for example:
1. A virtual hard drive can disappear after a restart (the most common problem)
2. Sometimes you need to add an entry to the boot menu
3. The process of of attaching and detaching, etc
Simple VHD Manager is portable freeware which helps VHD users simplify some of these operations:
– You can attach and detach VHD/VHDX/ISO files via drag and drop
– You can permanently attach a virtual hard disk in Windows 11 – 10 – 8,1 – 8 and Windows 7
– You can easily add and/or remove VHD/VHDX/ISO files to the boot menu
What is new on version 1.5 (Thursday, 21 September 2023)
1. [FIXED] – VHDX added to boot menu in UEFI/GPT fails to start automatically
2. [FIXED] – Options/Boot Menu Policy section doesn’t allow to choose Legacy
3. [FIXED] – The text and icons on the interface are too small
6. [ADDED] – Many improvements in coding
How to use :
After downloading, extract Simple VHD Manager to your desired location, then run it. To add VHD, VHDX, or ISO files, you have two choices – using the ‘Add’ button, or via drag and drop (recommended)
To Attach a VHD file, you can right-click, or use the Edit menu
The right-click menu also offers other choices, such as Attach, Detach, and Add to Boot Menu. After attaching a VHD file, that entry will turn green, and the Detach choice will appear.
Permanently Attach a Virtual Hard Disk
To create a permanent attachment, inside Simple VHD Manager, select the virtual hard drive file, and click ‘Options’, then “Attach Marked to System Startup”. Simple VHD Manager will then add a service to keep that VHD file attached on every startup.
How to create a VHD or VHDX
To create a VHD or VHDX ; choose the Wizard icon (Create and Attach VHD), select Virtual Hard Drive size , Format and Typ that is all
Add VHD/VHDX/ISO Options to your Context menu
Click the “Add to Context Menu” icon and select desired option , there are 3 options , a) Attach- Detach to right click menu b) Attach- Detach to sendto menu c) Attach with double click function.
Add a Bootable VHD or ISO File to the Boot Menu
To add a file to the boot menu, right-click it and select “Add to Boot Menu”. A dialog will appear allowing you to enter your desired name for the boot entry.
NOTE 1 : Simple VHD Manager can only read its own boot menu entries, not all of them
NOTE 2 : If you add a bootable ISO image to the boot menu, be aware that it can only boot from the MBR partition, but not from a GTP partition
NOTE 3 : You cannot add a VHD/VHDX which contained within another VHD/VHDX to the boot menu.
You can also change the mounted VHD file’s drive letter by using the right-click menu (the file must be selected), but please be careful; if you use a VHD image as a main system or you have booted from a VHD, do not change the (C:) partition’s drive letter. “C:” will be the windows partition currently in use, and changing it to a different drive letter will very likely cause Windows to become unstable.
Simple VHD Manager has CMD support, as shown below:
After adding VHD or ISO files to the boot menu, you might later delete the VHD/ISO file (intentionally or by mistake) and wish to remove Simple VHD Manager entries from the boot menu. To do so, click “File”, then “Remove Entries in Boot Menu”.
Feel free to make suggestions or comments. We use this feedback to further improve Simple VHD Manager
Supported operating systems: Windows 11 , Windows 10 , Windows 8.1 ,Windows 8 , Windows 7
Supported languages: English , Turkish , German , Português-Brasil , Greek , French , Hungarian , Korean , Persian , Polish , Russian , Chinese , Italian , Japanese ,Finnish , Spanish , Bulgarian , Slovenian , Indonesian , Hebrew , Romanian , Arabic , Dutch (Netherlands) , Ukrainian
File: VhdManager_x64.exe │ Virustotal
MD5: baec66b076d2a6a476ebe81a955c2610
SHA1: 96d936af34bfb18821a189be73a7f457c18d1e2d
File: VhdManager.exe │ Virustotal
MD5: 9ffcf45ce65219a59cb4213eb73a9eaa
SHA1: 0a11a2307c13b19e0a028531c1496b8b1e952ad1
I attached 3 .vhd files to dirve letter X/Y/Z. Each time after reboot, 2 .vhd are correctly mapped to drive X and Z. Another .vhd file always mapped to drive F (the first leasure dive letter in my pc).
ps.
Simple VHD Manager version 1.4
Windows 10 Home x64 (latest update till 20200708)
seems to be a great tool, but before i install and try it: is it possible to use it with user-rights permission on windows 10 ? not the installation but the mount and dismount process ? also a VHD with bitlocker encryption ?
Thanks , Which ISO did you added to boot menu and what kind or error did you get ?
Loved this tool portable, simple, VDH mounting.
But…
I can load ISO but not mount it…
Hi,
it is possible to add a Passwordmanager on it ?
for set up passworts and crypting at the virtual drives and open in the User ram and mout in it..
because i work in the S&S with Humans and Objects, on the computers sit in the net Administrators, for this need i am a User releated Solution to be not possible for open this file/drive over the network and hold the informations save for the User. As example a portable Firefox, or torbrowser on a usb-stick with the whole cache and so on.. to hold all save .. also over the network..
This error indicates that ; there is problem in VHD Mounting process , but VHD manager transfer this mounting process to windows , it mean this is a system error , please try to Mount the newly created VHD manually also you can try the same process in another windows pc (Probably you will get no error)
I try to create 25GB VHD Dynamically expanding but error code: 76 “An error occured. Check your setting and try again!
What additional step I need. Thanks
No other files will not damaged.
what about my guestions second part?
-?- When I will transport vhd to a disk ( D:\ disk, free 51 gb on total 300gb disk), my other files will damaged in D:\ ?
If it is a Fixed one yes , with dynamic you may need less space.
I have a vhd file which has virtual size: 40 GB. So, is it need 40gb free real disk space? When I will transport vhd to a disk ( D:\ disk, free 51 gb on total 300gb disk), my other files will damaged in D:\ ?
Congratulations this site was the only one that can download without error, top update.
Please try again
A problem with windows server 2012 R2, after a reboot it will reattach the vhd, but in read only mode
This should be a rare condition , in our test there is no such error , but we guess the Problem and will fix it next version , thanks
Great tool, but the permanent attachment option doesn’t seem to work on Win 7 Pro. The service is installed but when you go to start it, it stops right away. Therefore the VHD is never reattached after a reboot. I have to manually run the program to attach the VHD. Thanks!
When creating a new image, can you add choices for read-only: yes/no, removable: yes/no?
Thanks!