In previous posts I have knocked the Mac vs PC ads on Tv. Well sure enough someone else has spoofed these ads. Some are quire funny but language and content on a few is for adults. Have fun!
Stephen
Daily Archives: February 28, 2007
Virtual PC 2007
Microsoft has released Virtual PC 2007. It will run on Vista as a Host OS and will run Vista as a guest OS. The product is a free download and is available at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualpc. However you do need a licensed copy of every OS you run as a guest.
What is Virtual PC? It is an application that runs on one OS and allows other OS’s to run as Guest OS’ in a virtual machine, sharing the hardware with the host. It is a great tool for support or backward compatibilty for some applications. For example, although not officially supported, you could install a Linux system as a guest OS. This way you can run Linux and some of it’s applications on a Vista machine. This is a great tool for support people as well as you can have several virtual machines of different OS and start them up as you need them. You do need a fair bit of memory as each guest OS uses memory from the host to run. Here is a great use of VPC. LEt’s say you have an application that you absolutley must have but it does not run on XP or Vista but only Windows 98. You create a Windows 98 Virtual Machine, install the application on there and wehn you need it you just run the VM as Windows 98. This would eliminate the need to have a Windows 98 machie running but you could still use the software you need.
How to start
After you have installed Virtual machine, you create a virtual hard drive for the guest OS you wnat and set up the support you need, for example, DVDROM access or Netwrok access. Save the virtual HD and then start it up. It will look like a brand new PC starting. Next install your operating system, the same way you do on a PC and once it is done you can run the OS at the same time.
Sound confusing.. well really it is not and newer hardware is being built that supports Virtualization right into it (new Intel Processors). My suggestion is to try Virtual PC for yourself and see if it could help you. I have used it for demos in the past and have virtualized servers and workstations to demonstrate how a proposed netwrok will operate for a client. The biggest restriction is the hardware support and ensuring that you have enough Ram to run the guests.
Contact Sysguy if you require any information or want some help in setting up Virtual PC on your systems
Moving to Vista
Well after suggesting to clients that if their hardware supports it they should upgrade to Vista in the next little while… I actually made the move myself last night! I have been using Vista Ulitmate on my new Asus laptop now since the end of December and other than a few issues have been ok. I finally put together my new PC based on an Intel Core 2 Duo to use as my primary PC. When I built the machine the plan was to install XP Pro, install applications then move data. Eventually I was going to go to Vista. Last night I had a thought that this was going to require probably a second imaging of the machine so I decided to upgrade the fairly new XP to Vista Business. The new machine was spec’d with Vista in mind so I knew running it wouldn’t be a problem and the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor confirmed that for almost everything. One piece of bundled software was not supported and may cause a problem but that was about it.
The Upgrade Process
I popped in my Windows Vista Bsiness upgrade disk and indicated that I wanted to upgrade. After answering a few questions, it was ready so I let it go on. About an hour later Vista Business was installed. Hmmm after the first log in I noticed that I had no sound and that there was no sound card installed. This is a fairly new Intel motherboard with the 965 chipset so I knew it wasn’t old legacy hardware. I checked Intels site and there was a Vista Driver for my integrated sound card. Download it and install, no problems yet, reboot…. Still no sound device. Try Windows Update and nothing.
At about this time I also decided that I wanted to try the Vista anytime upgrade process. I was planning on putting Vista Ultimate on this PC anyway. This is a new feature with Vista. Since the OS upgrade is distributed on a DVD, every version is on the disk. Installation is controlled by your product key. I visited the web site from my other PC (http://windowsanytimeupgrade.com) selected my upgrade (Business to Ulitmate), input my credit card information and was sent to a link to download a file to my PC to start the upgrade. Since I had an anytime upgrade disk, I copied the file to my Vista PC and ran it. I got prompted to put my disk in and about an hour later, Vista Ultimate was now on my machine. But still I had no sound! BTW anytime upgrade is only available if you are running a version if Vista on your PC, you can not use it to upgrade XP to Vista.
After Googling my sound problems. I finally found a post that had a solution. It had to unistall my sound card from device manager, reinstall the Vista Drivers, reboot, then from device manager update the drivers and indicate to install them from my pc. I tried it and sound was back!
I still have some devices that will not work with Vista but not many. All of my printers (except my Canon CP220 photo printer) had Vista drivers available to some degree. HP has still not come up with netwrk drivers for my networked 7210 all in one so the scanning functionality only works via the web interface. My Quicken XG 2006 needed a couple of tweaks (run as admin and XP SP 2 compatibilty, shame on you Intuit Canada). I am disappointed with Microtek as they currently do not have drivers for my Scanmaker 4800 scanner and don’t plan support, in fact they will not have drivers for their current products till June of 07. Not good! I haven’t yet tried hooking up some of these devices but I will and then try to figure out if there is some sort of workaround.
For applications that just don’t behave under Vista, I will be using MS Virtual PC 2007 (see my next post). I will be setting up an XP SP2 VM and installing those applications on there. There is limited hardware support but at least thiey will be able to run.
For the most part after a day I have been happy. I like the new Aero interface and wnat to go with the security features of Vista. Stay tuned as I will post more problems and solutions as I come upon them.
Stephen
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