Virtual PC

Microsoft/Windows Virtual PC is a popular virtualization program for running different operating systems on top of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.

History

Virtual PC was originally manufactured by Connectix for PowerPC Macintosh computers. Connectix Virtual PC 1.0 was released in June of 1997 specifically for PowerPC based Macintosh Computers running Mac OS 8.1 or older due to compatibility issues with Mac OS 8.5 and newer. The first version of Virtual PC to run on Windows was Connectix Virtual PC 4.0. The last version of Virtual PC to be manufactured my Connectix was Virtual PC 5.2 for Windows.

After Connectix went broke, they sold out most of their products to other companies. Virtual PC and Virtual Server were sold to Microsoft Corporation, which released Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 a year later. In 2006, Virtual PC 2004 SP1 was released and Virtual PC 2007 the next year. Service Pack 1 for 2007 release followed in 2008. Some betas of Virtual PC 2007 are available on Daniel's Area 13 site.

In 2009, along with Windows 7, Microsoft released a totally re-worked version od Virtual PC named Windows Virtual PC. The main window (VPC console) and floppy support were removed, but XP mode and USB support were introduced. You can't have Virtual PC 2007 and Windows Virtual PC installed at the same time and use them. Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) will prevent you from running Virtual PC 2007 and Windows Virtual PC has anti-MSVPC code built-in. A tutorial was made by DeFacto on how to bypass these limitations and use both.

Virtual PC for Mac

Virtual PC for Mac has always been slow. The reason why is it has to emulate an entire x86 PC, as the PowerPC architecture cannot virtualize x86 software.. It was for this reason that Virtual PC for Mac wasn't a huge hit. It did however have some compatibility with running some programs that would only run on Windows, such as some DOS games that wouldn't natively run on a mac.

Connectix Virtual for Mac:

Virtual PC 1.0 & 2.0 for Mac ran only on PowerPC based Macintosh computer running Mac OS 8.1 or older due to compatibility issues with Mac OS 8.5 and 8.6. One of the compatibility issues with Mac OS 8.5 is whenever you launch the program it freezes the computer. Another is that the Virtual Hard Disk won't mount when you double click on it like it does in OS 8.0\8.1.

Virtual PC 3-5 are other versions of Connectix Virtual PC. They ran on various versions of PowerPC Macs but would never run on Intel macs for there weren't any at the time and when Intel macs did come some time later Rosetta wouldn't run Virtual PC for Mac (tested on 2.26 GHz C2D iMac running OS 10.5.8).

Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac Microsoft bought Connectix's Virtual Technology in February of 2003 they released Virtual PC version 6 for Macintosh. It would only run on Mac OS X 10.2.8+ and require at least a G3 PowerPC processor. It was still quite slow because it still had to emulate the entire x86 PC architecture in software. Microsoft also released Virtual PC 7 for Mac in 2004. It added support for PowerPC G5 Macs and added support to print from a VM without needing to install special print drivers on your host computer.

This Article is still under construction, this is not finished

Please stay tuned while the Windows section is added...