VirtualBox networking for second domain

My laptop is configured to be part of the Furore domain, where I work. However, I frequently work at a customers' location. With my current customer, your machine has to be on the domain, say 'ABC', otherwise al kinds of services are unavailable.

Since my laptop cannot be configured for two domains, I set up a virtual Windows XP with VirtualBox. For the network I used the default NAT setting connected to my physical ethernet connection. Worked fine, for a while.

Today a network monitoring tool apparently saw a local IP address on the network, the one from the VirtualBox Host. Therefore they automatically shut down my network connection. Problem...

This can be prevented by using the Bridged setting (according to the documentation). So I tried. Didn't work. I suppose because the Hosts' MAC address is unknown to the domain controller, and therefore does not get an IP address from the DHCP server. I could try to contact the servicedesk to register this MAC address. But instead I will ask for a separate laptop from ABC. I'm done with administering things I cannot fully control myself.

Outlook Express can compact messages...

Interesting message I get the past few days after each startup. Funny thing is that I do not even use Outlook Express, I only use Outlook. So there is exactly 1 message in there, the default welcome message. Makes sense to compact that ;-)

However, I found the solution, accidentally on an Outlook forum. The crucial part:

It is related to desktop search - right-click the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar menu and choose Windows Desktop Search Options from the menu. If Microsoft Outlook Express is listed under 'Included Locations' then left-click on it and click on the 'Modify' button'. You should see an Indexed Locations popup where you can 'uncheck' the Microsoft Outlook Express: Main Identity entry and you will no longer receive the message.

Edit: Next startup the message reappeared! So I just gave in and pressed OK. It will probably be silent for some time now. In short:

Resistance is futile. We are Microsoft

Windows 7 needs memory on VirtualBox

Today finally time to install Windows 7 on a virtual machine. Only it ended fairly quickly with a "failed to start" message. Without any clue as to what might be wrong. Searching on the internet did not reveal the answer directly, but someone had made a description of his own installation, mentioning the amount of memory allocated. That rang a bell. VirtualBox's default is 192 MB. That's not enough. I raised it to 1024 MB and now Windows is installing happily.