[Ham-Computers] Virtual PC

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

I forgot to mention in my last post that Microsoft made Virtual PC 2004
a *FREE* product a few months ago (was $149).  So you can now download
"play" with it to your hearts content for FREE.  Officially, it only
supports Microsoft operating systems in the virtual sessions; but, in
reality, any OS that runs on x86 hardware should work.  However, you may
not have the drivers available for the virtualized hardware (although
the virtualized hardware is pretty common...Intel 440BX chipset and S3
Trio 32/64 video).  Sorry, no virtual USB support in VPC2004...maybe in
the next version.

Link to Microsoft Virtual PC 2004:
  http://www.microsoft.com/virtualpc

It's an 18MB download...pretty small, especially by Microsoft standards.
But, then again, Virtual PC wasn't originally a Microsoft app.  The
original version was written for MacOS by Connectix.  MS swallowed them
a few years ago to have a product to compete with VMWare.

Make sure you have enough RAM and CPU horsepower to run the virtual
session(s).  Otherwise, the emulation will be a bit on the slow side.
For those who have apps that won't migrate to Win2K/XP/Vista, this is a
good way to run them without having to configure a dual-boot type system
(or having a dedicated PC).  Just create a Vitual PC session with 128MB
RAM (or 256MB) and a dynamically sized virtual HD.  Then install Win9x
(or what have you) and run the old app.  If the session doesn't need
network support, then disable the virtual NIC (or make it "local" only)
and you don't have to worry about malware in the virtual session.
However, if you do need network connectivity, then the virtual sessions
will also need anti-virus and spyware precautions just as if it were a
stand-alone computer (technically, it is a stand-alone computer).

And, if you're really daring, the Virtual PC 2007 Beta is also available
for downloading.

73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O