Using Windows Virtual PC

Dess_Aramea

Dess_Aramea

Dess_Aramea

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Joined
3 Oct 2007
Posts
13
Hello all, I was hoping some one could give me tips on how best to use Microsoft Virtual PC. I am studying for my A+ and feel I need to use Virtual PC to practice on some OSs without mucking mine up! :D

I have it installed, but can't seem to get it load past bios stage; even when I tried to install my own version of Windows in it; it won't spin the disk to start up the setup process; any tips?

And since this is my very first post on overclockers, I would like to say hi to everyone; and cheers for any replies to this post!

I run:

Windows XP 32bit SP2
2.5Gb RAM
310 HDD
AMD athlon 64 X2 4200+
 
i'd recommend either virtualbox or vmware server over virtual pc. they are both much better and faster (they're both free also). :cool:

oh and welcome. :)
 
i'd use virtualbox over virtualpc (vbox is far faster)

but since you've got vpc installed, we'll help you get that working first

follow what Zap has said
 
Installed this the other day and used it to run a VM of XP Pro within my Vista 64 build.

As posted above you have to enable the disk to load the operating system. I'm not at home at the moment to get the exact details, but if you go into the help file there is an explanation on how to install the other operating system. I used the help file to walk me through the install and it worked fine.

Taff
 
Seems like a recuring theme on this forum...

VPC is good, I wouldn't bother with any of the others. VMware is just plain rubbish for most people.

BUT to help:
You will need to select "Use Physical CD/DVD" option as said above.
Just remeber to release it after you no longer need it.
 
fumbles said:
VPC is good, I wouldn't bother with any of the others. VMware is just plain rubbish for most people.
Click to expand...

/spits on screen

what makes you say that?

VPC is by far the slowest of the lot. Sure vmware is designed for testing networks, but works perfectly for one system and isn't rubbish for most people

virtualbox is the best for single installs, because it's blindingly fast
 
I knew I'd cop it for that one...

It's very cluncky, wastes space, full of useless features.

The installing of the network interfaces ****** me of and causes all sorts of problems.
Viirtual HDD are allocated poorly, with VPC they grow to how much you've used.
Why are there tabs? Why would I want tabs in VPC?

VMware is like Outlook
VPC is like Outlook Express

For most people Outlook Express is all you need.

I've found VPC has the best mouse/keyboard intergration.

As for speed, I found them the same-ish. Which is possibly just me trying to do too many things at once thus slowing everything down. As VPC only works with one CPU/Core.
 
fumbles said:
I knew I'd cop it for that one...

It's very cluncky, wastes space, full of useless features.

The installing of the network interfaces ****** me of and causes all sorts of problems.
Viirtual HDD are allocated poorly, with VPC they grow to how much you've used.
Why are there tabs? Why would I want tabs in VPC?

VMware is like Outlook
VPC is like Outlook Express

For most people Outlook Express is all you need.

I've found VPC has the best mouse/keyboard intergration.

As for speed, I found them the same-ish. Which is possibly just me trying to do too many things at once thus slowing everything down. As VPC only works with one CPU/Core.
Click to expand...

Meh, that's all well and good but the best range of OS support is in VMWare.
 
fumbles said:
The installing of the network interfaces ****** me of and causes all sorts of problems.
Click to expand...

first thing i do is delete them through the vmware network config tool. they're not needed. :p

Viirtual HDD are allocated poorly, with VPC they grow to how much you've used.
Click to expand...

the virtual drives grow with vmware too. i believe there is an option where you can pre-allocate the size but i don't bother with that.

Why are there tabs? Why would I want tabs in VPC?
Click to expand...

that's just a matter of preference. goto view> tabs to turn them off. you can run vms in separate windows if you want to. :)

the reason i don't like virtual pc is because it performs horribly. do anything cpu intensive inside the VM, and i find it brings the host to a halt as well. admittedly i only have a single core cpu but vmware/virtualbox both run fine.

also try installing a non-ms OS in virtual pc? :o
 
I use both Microsoft's VPC products (at work) and VMWare's freebie Virtual Server (at home). My experience has been that VPC struggles if you don't have a lot of RAM on the host PC (i'm talking 512MB of RAM). But i've used VMWare's Player software on an identical PC and it appeared to run better.

Just my 2 pence.

However, as Bledd has said, if you've got VPC then just stick with that. Having 2.5GB of RAM on the host should mean it'll perform as well as it can :)

As for your problem. When you went through the Wizard to setup a Virtual PC, did it run you through the "Virtual Hard Disk Wizard" ? And as also said previously, check in the settings that you have the "Attach CD or DVD..." option ticked. Then check in the CD menu when you start it that you have the "Use Physical Drive..." ticked.
 
VPC is good, I wouldn't bother with any of the others. VMware is just plain rubbish for most people.
Click to expand...

<spits all over screen and all over bledd.>

You gotta be kidding :D VMware climbs all over VPC then takes a wizz on it, then chucks it into a blender. VMware Server is much more flexible and for someone wanting to learn not just about OS' for A+, but for virtualisation, its much better suited.
 
bledd. said:
VirtualBox is still by far the fastest everyone
Click to expand...

The fastest at what though?

Those of us that run linux VM's for Folding on VMWare have found that there's only a 5-10% hit compared to running native linux.
 
marc2003 said:
also try installing a non-ms OS in virtual pc? :o
Click to expand...

Yep. Fedora Core 4, NetBSD, Ubuntu and Solaris. Sure Solaris didn't work, but I tried it anyway!
Rest worked fine.

the virtual drives grow with vmware too. i believe there is an option where you can pre-allocate the size but i don't bother with that.
Click to expand...

I wasn't able to do that... Maybe a newer version? Or am I missing something?
Also I cannot be bother filling all those forms for VMware, with VPC I can just click download!
 
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