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Good news - the Virtual PC 2007 Beta is now available. You can sign up for it here: https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=874.
Major changes include:
- Support for hardware virtualization (Intel and AMD)
- Support for Windows Vista as a host operating system
- Support for Windows Vista as a guest operating system
- Note: No support for Aero Glass though - just Aero Basic
- Support for 64-bit host operating systems
- Note: Virtual machines are 32-bit only
- Improved performance
There are also a plethora of bug fixes. Some notable ones include:
- Lots of work to allow Virtual PC to play better with laptop power management
- Fix for IntelPPM issue (https://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/24/484461.aspx)
- Virtual PC now supports greater than 2.2GB ISO images
Plus there are some minor UI changes.
Cheers,
Ben
Comments
Anonymous
October 11, 2006
We use VPC and VS for test and demo purposes. We recently switched to VS2005 because it allows for static MAC Addresses, a requirement for our Macrivision licensing software. Any Idea if VPC 2007 will have the ability for Static MAC addresses?Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Larry, have you ever tried to edit the vmc file in notepad? it's an xml and it has an ethernet_card_address property in it. Ben, so there won't be any changes in emulated hardware? no usb and no aero glass in guest by rtm?Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Is side by side installation on a host with VPC2004 and/or VS2005 supported?Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Just downloaded it and starting to play. Here are some bits from the info doc I was interested in: "The following are supported host operating systems: ·Windows® XP Professional ·Windows XP Professional Tablet PC Edition ·Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition ·Windows Vista Business ·Windows Vista Enterprise ·Windows Vista Ultimate" (comment: No Windows 2000 Pro--not that I expected that..but no XP Home edition either. Bummer!) "Installation notes This section provides information about installing Virtual PC 2007. There are two installation scenarios: ·Upgrade in place. Install Virtual PC 2007 on a computer on which Virtual PC 2004 SP1 is currently installed. ·New installation. Install Virtual PC 2007 on a computer on which Virtual PC 2004 SP1 is not currently installed." (comment: Doesn't seem to allow both VPC2004 and VPC2007 to co-exist on same machine...I did an upgrade and it wrote directly into the same VPC2004 program files folder...) "Make sure that all virtual machines are turned off, including any virtual machines in a saved state. Saved states are not compatible between Virtual PC 2004 SP1 and Virtual PC 2007." (comment: Um. Yes. Should have read this doc before installing ;) Anyway, it allowed me to delete the saved state file and reboot. On reboot I got the Safe-mode boot menu and just continued with a normal boot. Worked fine from there. I had to uninstall my original add-on's then reboot, then install the new add-on's package.) Too soon to tell about performance/function. Seems a little snappier... Got to go play!Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Hm... I think I found a bug... If you have Virtual PC 2004 installed and then you install 2007, it will overwrite your 2004 regardless of where you tell it to install. :X I wanted to save 2004 for my XP install, grr. Now I'll have to reinstall it.Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Hey, back in 2004 you gave us some DOS tweaking tips: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2004/10/21/246136.aspx The last EMM386 one doesn't appear to work anymore (it hangs DOS)... :(Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Does anyone know if USB support was added to Virtual PC 2007? I really need USB dongle support and I am not ready to switch to VMWare.Anonymous
October 11, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 11, 2006
Can someone please explain what "hardware-assited virtualization" is? All the documentation I've found simply says that its supported, but what the heck is it? ThxAnonymous
October 11, 2006
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October 11, 2006
On starting it, I get - VPC2007 has expired! What the heck? Any pointers?Anonymous
October 11, 2006
It's working great for me, but unfortunately my laptop's BIOS doesn't allow for enabling Intel Virtualization Technology support so I can't take advantage of the hardware acceleration! :(Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Ben, I downloaded VPC 2007 and I am very pleased! It addresses all the (many) problems I had with VPC 2004 with Vista as the host OS! However I have some questions.. Is there any support planned for USB in the guest OS? Are there any major new bits of functionality, or is 2007 mostly a performance/compatibility refresh?Anonymous
October 11, 2006
It is a real shame that Microsoft won't "officially" support VPC on the XP and Vista Home Editions. There is zero technological reason. VPC doesn't use any APIs that are only present on XP Pro/Vista Business. (Those APIs are essentially just those related to domain-based neworking.) The only reason is trying to scare people into thinking they need XP Pro, and getting them to pay for it. (With VPC now free, they need to make up the difference in money somehow, eh?) When the truth is, VPC works 100% in XP Home. (I use it myself.) VPC is perfect for home users who still want to be able to play old DOS and Win3.x/9x games, as Ben highlights quite often on this very blog. I would love to see an official MS response on this issue.Anonymous
October 11, 2006
ooh, I forgot a question: Should we re-install the 2007 version of the Virtual Machine Additions when running a VM originally set up in VPC 2004? It works as-is but I am wondering if there are improvements that would merit a re-install of the additions in the guest OS?Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Is the infamous AltGR-bug fixed ???Anonymous
October 11, 2006
Ben, Can this run alongside Virtual Server 2005 R2? And if so, can I share virtual machines between the two? Thanks, Gurbhajan.Anonymous
October 12, 2006
What is up with support for a wireless NIC as a networking option when the host is running Vista (RC1 or RC2)? It but me with VPC04 and I was hoping it would be fixed in VPC07. Am I missing a tweak or something to get it to work?Anonymous
October 12, 2006
Is there a way to add USB support to VPC 2007?Anonymous
October 12, 2006
I was wondering about the VM Additions also. Can the additions for VPC 2007 be installed on top of the ones from VPC 2004? In other words, if I have a VM running under VPC 2004, with the Additions from VPC 2004, do I just install the Additions from VPC 2007, or should I uninstall the VPC2004 Additions first?Anonymous
October 12, 2006
What about UI enhancement? multiple snapshot (diffencing HDD in VPC terms) support?Anonymous
October 12, 2006
That's it? Improved performance, Vista support, and bug fixes? That makes this a major release??? VMWare has 64bit support. I'm running Vista x64 client in a Windows XP (32bit) host with VMWare. Its an awesome way to test run the 64 bit OS's without sacrificing a machine. VMWare has USB support... Imagine if Office 2007 had the same "features"... who would go out and buy a new copy if only for Vista support & improved performance... VMWare is going to eat Virtual PCs lunch... Good luck...Anonymous
October 12, 2006
Whoops, disregard my previous comment. EMM386 loads fine, but it just doesn't play well with VMADD. I forgot to get the latest VMADD stuff.Anonymous
October 12, 2006
Figured it out... I was loading EMM386 BEFORE VMADD386.... oops D:Anonymous
October 12, 2006
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October 12, 2006
Ben, I've got a Sony VAIO SZ260P. After doing some research it looks like other laptops from different manufacturers have the same problem. Really dissapointing. No response from Sony about adding this simple option to the BIOS. Any chance you could use some of that Microsoft muscle to make these manufacturers an offer they can't refuse??? ;) Thanks!Anonymous
October 12, 2006
Hi, I've been trying to work with Virtual PC 2004 and SuSe. I really liked the Virtual PC concept. I am looking forward for the 2007 trial. I found a few links that helped me with several OS's on Virtual PC 2004. I have those links on my blog. AI http://aiinc.blogspot.comAnonymous
October 12, 2006
@Ben -- Thanks for the response. I'm still curious what the "technical" reasons are, because I can think of zero. I've been programming Windows for 10+ years and can't think of anything. Plus I've been using VPC flawlessly on my XP Home for a while. @Johan Ericsson -- Since VPC is free, you can't really argue "who would buy a new copy"...Anonymous
October 12, 2006
I just saw some screenshots of VPC 2007 Beta1 at http://activewin.com/articles/2006/19.shtml and I was saddened to see the same XP-style icons and wizards. Hopefully the final version will have Vista-style icons and use the new Aero wizard style.Anonymous
October 13, 2006
Has VPC2007 any posiblility to run OpenGl or D3D Software? Bye!!!Anonymous
October 13, 2006
Ben, do you plan any major changes by rtm? I want PXE, it is boring to mount my risdisk.vfd :-)Anonymous
October 13, 2006
Well I installed it on my IBM ThinkPad T41 and it now blue screens whenever I try to use my wireless connection. I load up IE and try to go to a web page and it blue screens and reboots. I uninstalled VPC 2007 BETA and the problem has gone away. I think you need to do some more work on this...Anonymous
October 13, 2006
USB?? What is it gonna take to get USB support added? I do a ton of work with Windows Mobile and w/o USB support the only VPC option is to run the Device Emulator which performs horribly (as one would expect) w/in a VPC image. Microsoft regularly states and invests in mobile devices as a major platform. Why can't we get a reasonable way to work w/ Windows Mobile devices w/in VPC? Could you just explain why it seems to be a lower priority then many of these other features. I may be in a minority (but I don't think so) but I'd certainly waited one more VPC release for 64 bit support if I could have USB now.
Anonymous
October 13, 2006
I could probably answer these questions myself by downloading it, but if it's posted here that will help more people. . Any change to the emulated hardware? Is it still a BX chipset, S3 Trio video, SB16 sound and Intel NIC? Any improvements in low-level compatibility that would...say... improve DOS gaming further?Anonymous
October 13, 2006
Still the same emulated hardware. If you are worried about DOS gaming, then use DosBox http://dosbox.sourceforge.net VPC is not designed for playing games.Anonymous
October 13, 2006
It may not be designed for DOS games, but I use it that way all the time. So does Ben, as it appears from his posts.Anonymous
October 14, 2006
Is OS/2 still a supported guest OS ?Anonymous
October 16, 2006
Anax: at least os2 listed in the wizard...Anonymous
October 16, 2006
Are there any plans to add USB Support for VPC ?? Any reason why it wasn't added as part of VPC 2007 ??Anonymous
October 16, 2006
I've about given up on getting USB support in VPC or VS. MS just doesn't seem to think this is important, in spite of how many times this issue has been raised. Also, I don't see what the big issue is for them to come right out and say why it is so difficult to get this done.Anonymous
October 16, 2006
I aspire to comment like JimW. How about some USB support?? You'd think USB support would be a given by now. I also mimic Johan's feelings... it's been ~3 years since VPC2k4... and the added features are 64bit support (which was pretty much already completed in Virtual Server 2k5SP1) Vista support (is it that hard?) Hardware Virtualization (This one came out of left field... what hardware actually does this, and isn't this more geared for the server space?) Bug fixes + Perf (I guess that's a Yay.. I notice IO being noticibly faster in 2007) and... and that's it.. Does the VPC team consist of one person? It's sad too that compatability between VPC2004/VS2k5 doesn't seem to be tested.. that would seem to be a big draw: the ability to take an image from VPC from anyone of the virtual platforms and use it on another.Anonymous
October 16, 2006
I guess as an internal tool to support development, VPC is good... (if you don't do any development with USB devices) But VPC hasn't kept up with the Jones' VMWare, Cough You'd think that the additional man hours freed up by not having a VPC for the Mac anymore would allow for the features that alot of people are asking for...Anonymous
October 17, 2006
I'll second JimW and Sean's comments about USB. Raw performance aside (another reason I use VMWare), USB support is the primary reason I use VMWare Workstation. As a mobile solutions developer, having the ability to connect to USB devices is a must. I'd love to hear more about the reasons USB is low priority. So why not just do device dev on my host and forget about a VM? As a consultant, I am frequently in a number of different customer environments and some of the tools/configurations required I don't want on my host or may not play together nicely.Anonymous
October 18, 2006
I am setting up a new notebook and decided to try the beta. I started the first VM and installed the Additions. Everything went OK. I started the second VM and installed the additions but got the following error message: The feature you are trying to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk that is not available. Insert the 'Virtual Machine Additions' disk and click OK. The Use source dropdown contains "1". The VM Additions CD is mounted. I tried running setup.exe off the mounted CD and got the same message. Any idea what is going on here? Thank you, MarkAnonymous
October 19, 2006
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October 20, 2006
I have yet to read anything regarding compatibility w/ VPC 2004 vis-a-vis additions. My laptop is dual boot w/ Vista RC2. I can open my VPC 2004 images just fine in Vista/VPC 2007 but what happens if I then upgrade the additions? Will I be able to boot back to XP and run VPC 2004 with the upgraded additions? There was a "trick" btwn VPC 2004 / VSrv 2005 where you copy over the 05 additions and use them in 04. Does that still work?Anonymous
October 20, 2006
Hey - can you please not do the additions as MSIs? We like to do testing with systems as close to 'pristine' as possible, and installing the MSI runtime just to get the additions seems wrong somehow.Anonymous
October 22, 2006
Two questions:
- why isn't the VHDMount tool part of Virtual PC 2007?
- I know that it is not a "supported" host OS, but why block installation? I've now used the Orca tool from the Windows SDK to remove the CA_CheckIfWeCanInstall row from the CustomAction table in Virtual_PC_2007_Install.msi, and then Virtual PC 2007 installs and runs fine in Windows Server 2003.
Anonymous
October 22, 2006
Gerard, blocking unsupported OSes is a known bug in this beta.Anonymous
October 23, 2006
It was somewhat dissapointing to find that VPC 2007 still doesn't support screen resolution higher then 1600x1200. This does not allow running a guest OS in full-screen mode on wide screen displays like 1680x1050 and 1920x1200. This is the main reason why several people I know use VMWare and not VPC. Any idea on when these larger screen resolutions will be supported?Anonymous
October 24, 2006
is there any way i can get this to run on XP Home, i don't have a xp pro pc and don't intend to get one because theres little difference. if microsoft doesn't get this workin on XP Home i'm givin up on VPC :(Anonymous
October 25, 2006
[quote]is there any way i can get this to run on XP Home, i don't have a xp pro pc and don't intend to get one because theres little difference. if microsoft doesn't get this workin on XP Home i'm givin up on VPC :([/quote] yes, you can use ORCA and remove the installer's restriction.Anonymous
October 25, 2006
Hardware virtualization is virtualization built into the CPU. Search... AMD Pacifica or Intel Vanderpool (VT)Anonymous
October 25, 2006
NO USB? No use for VPC without it...Anonymous
October 26, 2006
which part of the .msi do i edit with OrcaAnonymous
October 26, 2006
Ive installed win95 although it appears to run ok Its not listed in the supported microsoft window versions,also it refuses to install vm additons giving the error message setup.exe linked to kernel 32dll:is dubbing present.Is this a bug or is wind 95 not meant to be supported?Anonymous
October 26, 2006
probally cause win95 not supported. somethin it needs is probally not in the kernel32.dll in win95Anonymous
October 29, 2006
Tried it, Runs great with xp64 as host OS and various others as guest, even FreeBSD. Sadly I can't use any devices with it due to the ridiculous lack of USB support. I would really rather have USB support than any other feature, like sound emulation.Anonymous
November 03, 2006
Virtual PC Guy,
- Does Microsft have any plans to support USB in the future? If so, when?
- If they do not, whom do we contact to get this functionality? Specifically, I would like to have USB Scanner support in a VM. Thank you, Ryan M. Hager
- Anonymous
November 09, 2006
Just wondering if anyone knows why my wireless Nic is not an option when i assign a nic to my virtual computer? Thanks in advance.