A vhd file extension is commonly used for virtual hard drives for Microsoft Virtual Server. A vhd file contains disk image used in virtual machines. Several programs can work with .vhd files including Microsoft Virtual PC, or ISOBuster.

There is one other file type using
the VHD file extension!

empty icon.vhd - Quartus II VHDL design data

Detailed description

Software that open vhd file

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VHD file extension - Virtual Hard Disk file

What is vhd file? How to open vhd files?

File type specification:

Virtual machine, virtualization software related file type icon Virtual machine, virtualization software related file type

vhd file icon: vhd filetype icon

File extension vhd is associated with Virtual Hard Disk. A disk image for Microsoft Virtual Server. Microsoft has set the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file format as the standard for running and managing virtual machines using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005.

The VHD file format provides for a range of disk types, including dynamically expanding, linked, undo, and different disks.

The Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format is a publicly-available image format specification that allows encapsulation of the hard disk into an individual file for use by the operating system as a virtual disk in all the same ways physical hard disks are used.

These virtual disks are capable of hosting native file systems (NTFS, FAT, exFAT, and UDFS) while supporting standard disk and file operations. VHD API support allows management of the virtual disks. Virtual disks created with the VHD API can function as boot disks.

The vhd file extension is also associated with Windows Vista complete PC backups.

The vhd files are used to restore whole system or only certain directories back from the backup. Microsoft has added several new features to Windows Virtual PC to make it easy to use and to help you run many older Windows XP applications in Windows 7.

Updated: December 1, 2023

The default software associated to open vhd file:

Windows Virtual PC (Microsoft Virtual PC) icon

Microsoft Corporation logoWindows Virtual PC (Microsoft Virtual PC)  Microsoft Windows software

Company or developer:
Microsoft Corporation

A virtualization application for Windows, Virtual PC let's you to run multiple desktop operating systems on one physical computer. Virtual PC officially supports virtualizing of Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS and OS/2 operating systems, but it is able to set custom settings for run Unix based operating systems.

Microsoft Windows icon

Microsoft Corporation logoMicrosoft Windows  Microsoft Windows software

Company or developer:
Microsoft Corporation

A family of operating systems developed by the Microsoft Corp. The first Windows was released in 1985 as a GUI add-on to MS-DOS. MS-DOS based Windows versions were developed to 2000, when was released the last version called Windows ME. Windows based on NT core started in 1993. Windows NT family are developed to these days, the latest version is called Microsoft Windows 11.

Related articles:

Run Acronis TIB as virtual machine

Run VirtualBox machine in Virtual PC

Run Virtual PC machines in VMware Workstation

Run VMware virtual machines in Virtual PC

How to backup and restore files in Windows 7

How to mount VHD in Windows 7 and Vista

Help how to open:

VHD is the default format of Microsoft Virtual PC that can be downloaded from free from Microsoft Internet servers.

Another application that can open and work with *.vhd files are Microsoft Virtual Server, VirtualBox and ISOBuster.

How to convert:

Various virtualization software is able to import *.vhd files and export them to other disk formats.

Find conversions from vhd file:

vhd to hdd

vhd to iso

vhd to ova

vhd to ovf

vhd to tib

vhd to vdi

vhd to vmdk

Find converter to vhd file type:

iso to vhd

ova to vhd

ovf to vhd

pvm to vhd

tib to vhd

vdi to vhd

xva to vhd

Related links:

Microsoft Virtual Server at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of software applications associated to the .vhd file extension

Recommended software programs are sorted by OS platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android etc.)
and possible program actions that can be done with the file: like open vhd file, edit vhd file, convert vhd file, view vhd file, play vhd file etc. (if exist software for corresponding action in File-Extensions.org's database).

Hint:
Click on the tab below to simply browse between the application actions, to quickly get a list of recommended software, which is able to perform the specified software action, such as opening, editing or converting vhd files.

Software that open vhd file - Virtual Hard Disk file

Programs supporting the exension vhd on the main platforms Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile. Click on the link to get more information about listed programs for open vhd file action.

Microsoft Windows:

Main software associated with vhd file by default:
Windows Virtual PC (Microsoft Virtual PC) small icon Windows Virtual PC (Microsoft Virtual PC)
Microsoft Windows small icon Microsoft Windows
Other suggested software:
Parallels Workstation small icon Parallels Workstation
VirtualBox small icon VirtualBox
Simple VHD Manager
7-zip small icon 7-zip

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