Virtual PC software...

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adventure_of_link
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Virtual PC software...

Post by adventure_of_link »

So. anyone got any recommendations on this? Since getting that Windows 7 PC for dad/family, I've been wanting to get back into VM software.

I've tried VMware server; works okay in Linux when it plays nice, but sucked ass in win7 (even lagging the login portion :evil:).

Does MS still have their free Virtual PC software, and/or are there any free/open source alternates to VMware/MS stuff? thanks!
<Nach> so why don't the two of you get your own room and leave us alone with this stupidity of yours?
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odditude
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Re: Virtual PC software...

Post by odditude »

it's amazing what the first hit on Google for "virtual pc" is.
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kode54
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Re: Virtual PC software...

Post by kode54 »

There is Microsoft Virtual PC, which you get with a free licensed Windows XP Professional hard drive image if you are running Windows 7 Professional or higher. It also automatically difference images the original, so it remains untouched in the Program Files directory it is installed to.

Of course, that virtual machine is geared more toward business software and such, and only emulates a really weak S3 SVGA chipset, and defaults to displaying through a Terminal Services / Remote Desktop interface instead of the actual SVGA emulation.

If you want fully accelerated video, including WDDM drivers for Windows Vista and newer, you'll want either VMWare Player or Virtualbox. Both solutions are free for non-commercial use, as far as I know. VMWare is probably the most efficient for Windows guests, while Virtualbox is preferred for Linux guests.
diminish

Re: Virtual PC software...

Post by diminish »

VMware Player 3.1.5.
paulguy
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Re: Virtual PC software...

Post by paulguy »

vmware player is nice, but vmware server was absolutely worthless when I used it. Many things would be very buggy, and it performed poorly overall. It even gave me an ERROR 200 OK in the process of using it. What crap.
Maybe these people were born without that part of their brain that lets you try different things to see if they work better. --Retsupurae
adventure_of_link
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Re: Virtual PC software...

Post by adventure_of_link »

paulguy wrote:but vmware server was absolutely worthless when I used it. Many things would be very buggy, and it performed poorly overall. It even gave me an ERROR 200 OK in the process of using it. What crap.
Agreed. As I said in the OP, it's okay in Linux if you get it to play nice but GL on windows, especially 7 (and maybe any 64-bit windows version?).

Thanks Kode and diminish, forgot how bad MS virtual PC got. will be giving VMware player a shot, assuming I can make my own virtual HDD images and such.
<Nach> so why don't the two of you get your own room and leave us alone with this stupidity of yours?
NSRT here.
franpa
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Re: Virtual PC software...

Post by franpa »

I thought VMWare Player didn't support the ability to create virtual machines, it only supported running existing virtual machines. Last time I tried it a fair few months ago it crashes whenever trying to run a Virtual PC virtual machine via it (A supposedly supported process).
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adventure_of_link
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Re: Virtual PC software...

Post by adventure_of_link »

Yes Franpa, VMWare player does in fact, allow you to make your own virtual machine drives.
<Nach> so why don't the two of you get your own room and leave us alone with this stupidity of yours?
NSRT here.
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