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mac_hermit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 17, 2003
8
0
Much as I hate to do it, I have a need to run some windows software, and will end up buying VirtualPC. Any suggestions as to which version of Windows to get with it? There seems to be XP Home XP Pro, and 2000 available.

Thanks
 
I think 2000 is your best bet... its not as much of a ram hog as XP is... its what I am using now, just dont expect blazing speeds with VPC:rolleyes:
 
XP Pro runs fine for me (turning off all the glitz works fine). I do have 512MB of RAM allocated to it though.
 
Use the oldest version you can get away with. VPC emulates a Pentium II 666mhz, so a slow and stupid OS is a good thing. If you can find a Win 98 VPC and it'll support the software you need to use then go that way. Between XP and 2000 take 2000. It's generally considered the superior OS anyway.
 
VPC performance is improved by L3 cache, something my 12" PB lacks. Nevertheless, I find that VPC with XP Pro performs adequately (far from fast) on my PB despite the fact that I have only the bare minimum 128MB RAM assigned to it (I have not upgraded my PB RAM yet). Then again, I only use VPC for a couple apps, neither of which requires much muscle at all. Also, I'm a pretty patient person in general =) .
 
I have Vertual PC 6, and have installed Windows 95 ,98SE, 2000Pro and XP Pro. 2000Pro is by far the fastest is by far the fasterest. I now use a headless PC under the desk networked to my PowerMac. Useing MS Remote Desktop Client I can I get the best of both worlds.
 
Originally posted by Horrortaxi
Use the oldest version you can get away with. VPC emulates a Pentium II 666mhz, so a slow and stupid OS is a good thing. If you can find a Win 98 VPC and it'll support the software you need to use then go that way. Between XP and 2000 take 2000. It's generally considered the superior OS anyway.

Actually a P2 533Mhz
 
XP Pro runs ok on my 1Ghz TiBook, but I have 1Gig of RAM total. It's just a stopgap measure though. If you have serious work to do you should consider building a cheapo PC.
 
Well, if you already have a windows version, just but VPC without Windows and then install what you already have. I bought the PCDOS version ($100), which isn't sold anymore since MS bought VPC, and installed win2k, which I already had. It runs fine for my purposes (1 GHz, 1 GB TiBook).
 
Or instead of taking $250 for VPC, spend $350 and buy a pc. A super cheap PC will kill VPC in everyway. I know it doesnt help if you need it on the go, but if your doing everything at a desk, i think that is the way to go.
 
I just bought VPC 6.1 and I use it with Win 2000 Pro. I have it on a Powerbook 15". I have one Windows program I need for it, an accounting package and it performs marvelously for that. I wouldn't run to much stuff on it though. Like someone mentioned, if you do a lot of Windows work, you may want a cheap dedicated Windows box.

All in all though, I'm impressed. Better than I ever expected.

Frank
 
how safe?

Thanks for the comments on which windows version to use. I agree with the suggestions that buying a real PC would be a better solution, but this needs to be a laptop solution and I sure don't want to carry both my ibook *and* a windows laptop!

One other question: how "safe" is VPC to use? I'm a little concerned about opening up my Mac to the windows world of viruses, etc. Can you configure VPC to live entirely within a single folder so windows can't "see" other files on my Mac?
 
Re: how safe?

Originally posted by mac_hermit
Thanks for the comments on which windows version to use. I agree with the suggestions that buying a real PC would be a better solution, but this needs to be a laptop solution and I sure don't want to carry both my ibook *and* a windows laptop!

One other question: how "safe" is VPC to use? I'm a little concerned about opening up my Mac to the windows world of viruses, etc. Can you configure VPC to live entirely within a single folder so windows can't "see" other files on my Mac?
The short anwer to your question is "yes." Windows on VPC can see only those Mac folders that you allow it to see.
 
Originally posted by Horrortaxi
VPC emulates a Pentium II 666mhz, so a slow and stupid OS is a good thing. If you can find a Win 98 VPC and it'll support the software you need to use then go that way. Between XP and 2000 take 2000. It's generally considered the superior OS anyway.

My Quicksilver G4 emulates a 233MHZ Pentium, seriously, my friends 233MHZ machine is faster than my virtual PC.

Anyways, I have heard 2000 is the best, thats what I bought.
 
Re: how safe?

Originally posted by mac_hermit
One other question: how "safe" is VPC to use? I'm a little concerned about opening up my Mac to the windows world of viruses, etc. Can you configure VPC to live entirely within a single folder so windows can't "see" other files on my Mac?
There are some networking/folder sharing options that can mess you up, but I think they're off by default. So you can totally hose your Windows install and the rest of the Mac is okay. Your whole Windows (or Linux, you can use any OS that will run on a PC) is treated (by the Mac) as 1 big file. I look at it like an ant farm. I don't know how to better explain that comparison--VPC just reminds me of having an ant farm.
 
Re: how safe?

Originally posted by mac_hermit
Thanks for the comments on which windows version to use. I agree with the suggestions that buying a real PC would be a better solution, but this needs to be a laptop solution and I sure don't want to carry both my ibook *and* a windows laptop!

One other question: how "safe" is VPC to use? I'm a little concerned about opening up my Mac to the windows world of viruses, etc. Can you configure VPC to live entirely within a single folder so windows can't "see" other files on my Mac?
My approach is to do as much in OS X as possible, e.g. email, browsing. I use VPC only for the apps that I absolutely need. This limits your exposure to email viruses, etc. Also, the network is front-ended by OS X, so you get to filter all network traffic through the OS X firewall (turn it on :). This will, by default, close all the Windows-specific ports.
 
Dave,
You may find there aren't to many apps you really need Windows for. I have only 1, my accounting program, and that is because it is the one my accountant uses, and it saves me bookkeeping fees every month to use. I just got back into Mac's a month or so ago, and I'm darned impressed with the amount of software available for the Mac. But I guess it depends on what you do, and what you need it for.
Frank
 
I HIGHLY recommend VPC 6 with 2000 Pro

I just got it and I'm running some MAJOR applications on it just great!

I'm using a 17" laptop with 1 gig of RAM (500 mb of RAM allocated to VPC)

I've used XP --- its alright, but 2K is much better!
 
Mac_Hermit!

I hope that's a relatively new iBook or you will be seriously disappointed.

I use a PMac, and because I didn't want to fork out the dosh for a pro laptop for a short period of work, I used a white iBook 500 & I ended up putting VPC 5.0 on it, which was the first version that ran in OSX. I run W2000 (still do on the PM) and I had 512 MB RAM.

Even just running MS Word on the iBook was a dog, with seconds of delay after you type in words before they appear. The old PM 533 runs OK though, presumably because of the G4 processor.

So I hope you have at least a 700 MHz iBook and 512MB RAM.

Cheers.
 
followup

Just wanted to let people know what I ended up with. Thanks to the advice here, I went for Windows 2000. The application I'm using is the Polar Heart Rate Monitor software that is great for tracking exercise. I'm running it on a 900 Mhz iBook.

Everything seems to work pretty well. There are some glitches with USB handling, but nothing I can't live with. I'm *very* impressed at the performance of Virtual PC. I see a lot of complaints here about how slow it is, but speaking as someone with about 20 years of software experience, including a lot of Unix driver work on PC's, this is a remarkable piece of programming. Let's all hope Microsoft doesn't mess it up.
 
can I install an older OS on VPC with windows XP?

I'm curious about whether it is possible to elect not to install XP on the VPC (6.0) with XP included. A friend of mind is giving me his copy and I would prefer to use windows 98 or 95 (looking to play some of the old 2d adventure games). Is it possible to do this, or do I need to purchase the bare bones version myself?

~ClarkNova

- it seems my question was answered elsewhere on the forums, so no need for an answer now. Sorry about that... :/
 
Virtual PC is Slow

I'm running Virtual PC 6 on an iMac 1 GHZ with 1 GB RAM. I'm running Windows 98 and have allocated 256 MB RAM to it.

It's slow, slow, slow. I didn't expect it to be fast. But, running Quicken is almost painful. I tried the version of Quicken that came with the Mac. But, it didn't have the features I had gotten used to on the PC.

I don't know if Virtual PC is any faster with Windows 2000. If it is, I might pay for the upgrade.
 
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