Open VHD File

VHD extension files can acquire various kinds of formats with varied applications.

Virtual PC Virtual Hard Disk

A VHD extension file, in this particular application, contains a virtual hard drive image used by Microsoft Windows Virtual PC, a Windows virtualization program.

More about Windows Virtual PC

Windows Virtual PC is a virtualization technology, which allows you to run many productivity applications in a virtual Windows environment, directly from the Windows 7 version.

The VHD file stores the contents of a virtual machine (VM) hard drive, which can include disk partitions, a file system, files, and folders.

VHD files, in the context of a virtual machine, can be used to install multiple operating systems on a single computer, test software programs, or run older applications.

It is important to note that the VHD image format specification has been available as a royalty-free license since June 2005.

You can browse the contents of a VHD file manually using 7-Zip as it is a compressed file, however, this is not recommended, since you can damage the content of the file.

VHDL Source File

In this section, a VHD file is a source file written in the VHDL language, which is the hardware description language (HDL) for very high-speed integrated circuits (VHSICs).

It is similar to the VHDL file, however the latter is more usual and common.

More about VHDL

It was created in the 1980s to develop a high-speed integrated circuit.

It has since become an industry standard language for describing digital systems at the structural or behavioral level in a text-based format.

There are a variety of electronic design software that make use of the VHDL standard, for example the Xilinx ISE Design Suite.

Xilinx ISE is a software tool developed by Xilinx for the synthesis and analysis of HDL designs, the main purpose of which is the development of embedded firmware for Xilinx's FPGA and CPLD integrated circuit product families.

Xilinx was already discontinued, but was succeeded by Xilinx Vivado.

The VHD file can be used to build a physical circuit, motherboard, processor, or memory module.

Software to open and work with a VHD file

How to open VHD files

Typical VHD mime types:

  • application/x-virtualbox-vhd

Frequently associated Windows objects:

  • progId_VirtualBox.Shell.vhd
  • Virtual.Machine.HD

Related extensions