Virtual PC 2007 Released
We released Virtual PC 2007 today, and as promised, it's completely free. The biggest improvement (at least for me) is that this version of Virtual PC works with Windows Vista as both a host and a guest operating system. Ben Armstrong provides more feature detail in his blog post. The 30MB download is available in both 32- and 64-bit versions.
If you haven't tried a virtualization product before, you might wonder why you'd use one at all. Here are just a few things that I do with Virtual PC, and I seem to find new uses all the time:
- Use it to run incompatible applications. For example, I have a digital photography tool that doesn't work on Windows Vista yet. So, I've setup a Virtual PC image with Windows XP SP2, and I fire it up whenever I need to use the application. If you can't imagine what I'm talking about, I literally see a window on my Vista desktop that behaves like another machine. The screenshot to the right shows Windows Vista, its start menu, and Word 2007. In addition, you can see a Virtual PC 2007 window running Windows XP SP2 and 3D Pinball.
- Use it to test applications. Since the Virtual PC machine is indeed virtual, so are its "hard drives." In actuality, the hard drives are stored as files (with a .vhd extension) that you can browse to via your host operating system. This means that any changes you make to the virtual machine are done in isolation. So, if you're testing your software against multiple operating systems, why not have a different virtual machine setup for each possible configuration? It's much more convenient than maintaining a bench full of physical machines. And, if you've setup an undo disk, hard drive changes are written to a separate file so that when you shut down the virtual machine, all of those changes can be discarded. This is an extremely easy way to revert back to a known configuration. Undo disks are also useful for trying out internet downloads in a safe environment.
- Use it to demo "servers." If you frequently demo software that requires a backend server, it's possible to setup a virtual machine to host your server process. Then, you can run the client application in the host operating system and connect to the server running as a Virtual PC. It's certainly better than lugging around a bunch of extra hardware!
I'm sure there are other uses, and I'd be curious to hear what you do with Virtual PC. Feel free to leave feedback or drop me a note via e-mail.
Comments
Anonymous
February 19, 2007
I've just installed VPC2007 with Win XP. I must say I'm finding it a bit "slow". I have a AMD Athlon 62 X2 Dual Core with 2GB ram and 10,000 RPM Sata150 drives. I've assigned 1024 MB ram to the VPC image and its not very responsive (on vista). I've even used the following urls to speed things up (they do help) but is there some other way you know of to make things faster? (short of getting more RAM) http://tinyurl.com/37bn2q http://tinyurl.com/32ykqk Thanks.Anonymous
February 19, 2007
I am a Computer Science student and I need to use Fedora Linux for a university project. I can install it in a vm under Virtual PC 2004 but the issue is that I cannot easily move data from my Windows XP os into the Fedora vm and vice versa because:
- USB Memory Stick support is not provided in Virtual PC 2004 and
- No Virtual PC additions were provided for a Linux guest os. Have these issues been fixed in the latest version of Virtual PC 2007? Specifically, is Memory Stick supported for moving data between host and guest oses? Are Virtual PC additions available for Linux guest for Virtual PC 2007? If not why not, since the Virtual PC Additions are already provided for Virtual Server, why not for Virtual PC as well? I haven't found any link on the Virtual PC 2007 home page to download the PC Additions for Linux, so I suppose that they are not available. Why is that? Can I use the Virtual Server ones with Virtual PC 2007?
Anonymous
February 19, 2007
Download does not work for me (404) :(Anonymous
February 20, 2007
The comment has been removedAnonymous
February 20, 2007
As Mike Swanson mentions in his blog, Virtual PC 2007 was released this week as a free download. ThisAnonymous
February 20, 2007
Any chance you could use a more relevant name other than setup.exe as my download directory is cluttered with many setup.exe files MikeAnonymous
February 21, 2007
Architecture/SOA Blaine Wastell has posted that PAG planning an update of the Smart Client Software FactoryAnonymous
March 15, 2007
The comment has been removedAnonymous
March 16, 2007
Back to USB support. I was hoping to run a Linux based app under VPC07 but it requires a hasp to function which plugs into the USB port. Will this function or is there a workaround?Anonymous
March 29, 2007
I haven't done any work in Linux, but for those who are running Windows in VPC, there's an inexpensive application ($80) that allows any hardware USB port to be shared over a network connection, it's called "USB to Ethernet Connector 2.4" I've used this with VPC07 and it works great. The host OS captures the port and the virtual OS sees any devices plugged into it as being connected to a "Virtual USB Hub". Since it's TCP/IP, I'm sure a client could be implemented for Linux.Anonymous
April 03, 2007
Hi, I am in need of help. I have Windows vista ultimate installed and i thought id install virtual pc 2007 and use it for downloads on a windows based os *win xp.I thought it will be secure since is 1 file thing.Also some games work on xp and the only use virtual pc 2007 is if i can use internet.I have a usb wireless adapter.Its not even detected on Vpc2007.Please help. Thanks.Anonymous
April 14, 2007
The 64-bit doqnload would not work for me and gave the reason that it was not a win32 system.Anonymous
April 29, 2007
Please help me i have a windows 3.1 boot images on isos fore each disk of win 3.1 but VPC2007 keeps saying "reboot and select proper boot device or insert proper boot media" BUT i have it in why wont it work please help me Chrisworld31390@aim.comAnonymous
August 07, 2007
I installed Vpc 2007 on vista ultimate amd x2 64 bit and a dell laptop with vista 32 bit. both have 2 GB 667 ddr2 ram and I have no problems at all. I have installed xp windows server 2008 beta windows server 2003 r2 with no hassles at all. If i had a complaint it would be that i have 2 network cards but Virtual pc only gets internet via shared access not on both cards (Unlike VMWARE). But overall very impressed and it is free....Anonymous
December 16, 2007
What about usb. The reason I used vpc2007 was to run my jamcam in win98. After two installs it runs great. But I need usb. Any plans for its support?Anonymous
February 02, 2008
I have Virtual PC 2007 and MS-DOS 6.22fr, Windows 3.11 VGA(3) driver. I Search a SVGA driver 256 colors for Windows 3.11 and Virtual PC 2007. Vincent.boAnonymous
February 06, 2008
Pfft. I'm gonna carry on with VMWare till this works properly. At least then I can share most things between host and guest, including USB, serial ports and proper graphics handling. Disk space mapping between host and guest works too, so copying from one to the other is trivial. Maybe in Virtual PC 2093?Anonymous
March 22, 2008
I am trying to get better than 640x480x16 graphics on Win98SE VM hosted by Win XP Pro SP2 (2.GBy RAM). VM Additions have not helped. I have found two "homemade" drivers for my NVIDIA PCIe Ge 8500 GT card, but they cause error protection faults at boot. Is there a major problem with PCIe cards under Virtual PC 7? Is there a known workaround? All comments most welcome. --GAnonymous
May 05, 2008
to run windows server 2003, you need to press control atl and delete, this however also brings up task manager in windows xp (the computer's main software) is there a way to do this (get into 2003 in either full screen or little screen) without bringing up xp's task managerAnonymous
June 06, 2008
Hi dwgjr330, As per ur question(Ctrl+Alt+Del) u need to go for Actions menu which is availble in VPC 2007. Coming to ur full screen just press Alt+Enter it will show u the full screen as well as small screen what ever u want. screen will adjust depending on ur resultion. ThanksAnonymous
June 06, 2008
Hi mswanson , I have one question that I need to connect Internet for my VPC 2007. I have wire less net connection. If I want access net from my VPC 2007 how Can I. I installed Win Server 2003 in my VPC. Please help me regarding this. ThanksAnonymous
December 03, 2008
Architecture/SOA Blaine Wastell has posted that PAG planning an update of the Smart Client Software Factory to be released in late April of this year. They are encouraging feedback at http://www.codeplex.com/smartclient and enter critical items into the