Dual Boot versus Virtual PC 2007

[ColTom2]

Not knowing anything about either dual booting or Virtual PC 2007 it looks
as if Virtual PC 2007 would be much simpler to accomplish, as I assume that
you do not have to do anything to partition HD's. Looks as if you could
download and install Virtual PC 2007 and you would be ready to upgrade to
Vista or am I missing something? If this is the case why would anyone want
to do otherwise?

What are some of the Pro's and Con's of Virtual PC 2007 and also can you
use the work around to use the Vista Premium upgrade version rather than
full version? Can you at some point uninstall either XP or Vista at a later
date?

Also do you have to install separate applications for each i.e.Anti-Virus
etc?

I would like to be able to upgrade to Vista in the simplest manner while
retaining XP MCE because of the many application problems.

Thanks

P.S. This is somewhat a repeat posting that I never received an answer too.

 

[Gabriel Lozano-Moran]

You could install Windows Vista than in Windows Vista install Virtual PC
2007 where you create a new Virtual Machine running Windows XP to run the
applications that are not compatible with Vista.

I am not sure whether or not you understand the virtualization technology?
You need a host where you install Virtual PC 2007, within this host you can
run multiple virtualized guests, so these are NOT operating systems running
side by side.

Gabriel Lozano-Moran

 

[Malke]

Not knowing anything about either dual booting or Virtual PC 2007 it looks
as if Virtual PC 2007 would be much simpler to accomplish, as I assume that
you do not have to do anything to partition HD's. Looks as if you could
download and install Virtual PC 2007 and you would be ready to upgrade to
Vista or am I missing something? If this is the case why would anyone want
to do otherwise?

What are some of the Pro's and Con's of Virtual PC 2007 and also can you
use the work around to use the Vista Premium upgrade version rather than
full version? Can you at some point uninstall either XP or Vista at a later
date?

Also do you have to install separate applications for each i.e.Anti-Virus
etc?

I would like to be able to upgrade to Vista in the simplest manner while
retaining XP MCE because of the many application problems.

Dual-booting (or multi-booting) means that you install another operating
system onto a separate partition or - preferably - a second hard drive.
When you want to use the other operating system, you restart your
computer and choose the other OS from the boot menu. Note - there are
issue dual-booting XP and Vista, do a search in this newsgroup for that
topic with Google Groups Advanced Search.

The disadvantage to dual-booting is the inconvenience of restarting
every time you want to run the other OS. This can be annoying if the
only reason you want the other operating system is to run one program.
The advantages are that you are using the real hardware (see below for
explanation) and you only need the amount of RAM in your system that is
optimal for both operating systems.

Virtualization is done by running software such as Virtual PC, VMWare,
or Parallels (Mac) and then creating virtual machines. Each virtual
machine runs its own operating system. When you want to use another OS,
you simply start the virtual software from within the host system as you
would any other program. Then you run whatever virtual machine you want.
No rebooting is necessary.

Some of the advantages of virtualization are that you can run many
operating systems that would not normally be supported by your computer.
For instance, on my XP host running VPC 2004 I have virtual machines of
DOS, Win3.1, Win95, Win98, and OS/2. You need licenses for all the MS
operating systems you run because the VM's are real installations and
you need drivers for all the emulated hardware.

Some disadvantages are that the host machine needs to have a fairly
hefty amount of RAM in it. The hardware that the VM OS sees is emulated;
it is not the hardware that is actually in your computer. For example,
on my older VPC we can't play Win98 games that require a joystick
because that hardware isn't emulated. VPC 2007 may emulate more
hardware; I haven't played with it yet.

I hope that answered some of your questions. Any further questions about
VPC should be posted to its newsgroup - microsoft.public.virtualpc.


Malke

 

[mikeyhsd]

from my experience you will need over 1gb of ram if using vista as host.

also other than keyboard and mouse usb devices are not available.

if you use Vmware the usb devices are supposed to be available.

you can run VPC2007 on top of your xp and then run vista 32 bit as a guest within VPC 2007.


(e-mail address removed)@sport.rr.com

Not knowing anything about either dual booting or Virtual PC 2007 it looks
as if Virtual PC 2007 would be much simpler to accomplish, as I assume that
you do not have to do anything to partition HD's. Looks as if you could
download and install Virtual PC 2007 and you would be ready to upgrade to
Vista or am I missing something? If this is the case why would anyone want
to do otherwise?

What are some of the Pro's and Con's of Virtual PC 2007 and also can you
use the work around to use the Vista Premium upgrade version rather than
full version? Can you at some point uninstall either XP or Vista at a later
date?

Also do you have to install separate applications for each i.e.Anti-Virus
etc?

I would like to be able to upgrade to Vista in the simplest manner while
retaining XP MCE because of the many application problems.

Thanks

P.S. This is somewhat a repeat posting that I never received an answer too.