a good VM?

[DWFII]

Is there a VM that will work reasonably flawlessly...that has support for USB devices including printers and external hard drives and actually will give me access to older apps that cannot run on Windows7 without so many problems I spend more time tweaking the settings or fiddling with the VM than actually using the apps?

That might, in other words make migrating from XP to Win7, if not pleasant at least painless (or vice versa).

 

[kado897]

Win 7 Pro has its own VM for XP but VMWare Player works well although I have not tried it with XP. VMware Player: Run Windows 7, Chrome OS - Free Download for a Virtual PC

 

[DWFII]

Thank you for responding.

the reason I ask is that I have two machines. One is an XP machine and the other is a Win7x64 Pro. I migrated a lot of my XP apps (or tried to)to the Win7 machine when I first got it. Many such as Wordperfect and Microsoft Access wouldn't work.

So I downloaded and installed a VM. I think it was VMlite.

There was a lot to recommend this VM but I never could get it so see and initialize the printer (USB) consistently...sometimes it would work sometimes it would not...and this seemed the case with all the USB posts.

After waiting for promised upgrades and fixes, eventually I just gave up, uninstalled the whole thing, and bought new apps to replace my legacy apps.

But legacy macros won't work in the new software and...well, I won't list the catalog of frustrations.

Long and short of it, I'd like to upgrade the XP machine to Win7 but I really don't want to loose access to my old apps or have the same sort of hassles and disappointments I encountered first time around with a VM.

Is VMWare ready for prime time right out of the box?

 

[kado897]

VMWare Player is a good and easy to use VM manager. I would recommend it although as I said I have not used it for XP.

I presume that you have tried the compatibility options for your XP programs? You may also need to run the installer in compatibility mode.

 

[pparks1]

Is VMWare ready for prime time right out of the box?

Considering that VMWare is 1 of the pioneers in the virtualization field, I would say they are ready for prime time. They released their first version of VMWare Workstation in 1999. They are nearly the defacto standard for enterprise class virtualization with their vSphere product line.

VMWare Player is the product that I use for my desktop virtualization needs. I don't have a need to pay for the VMWare Workstation product. For my production work needs, we use a mix of their free ESXi hypervisor and licensed copies of vCenter server with shared SAN space so we can use features like HA, DR, vMotion and Storage vMotion.

 

[Arc]

To run a VM Flawlessly with Mouse integration, USB working ,network working and Guest -Host file sharing, it is to install the vmware tools in the guest OS .

 

[kado897]

To run a VM Flawlessly with Mouse integration, USB working ,network working and Guest -Host file sharing, it is to install the vmware tools in the guest OS .

. In VMWare Player they are automatically installed by the VM creation wizard if the guest OS is recognized (XP is).

 

[DWFII]

I uninstalled VMLite from my Win7 machine some time ago. I can find no vestiges of it although there may be a registry entry.

Do you think I could download and install VMPlayer and run XP in it without any leftover conflicts between it and the previous VM?

 

[kado897]

I would think so. It's just another program. I run it and VirtualBox on my PC

 

[DWFII]

Whats this business about having to activate virtual machines in the bios? I never had to do that with my Win7 machine.

Do computers with newer processors come with the bios setting automatically turned on?

 

[kado897]

You need to activate Virtualization Technology (VT) in the BIOS for VMWare Player to work properly. It is a technology built into modern processors which allows VM to work with near native performance. It is disabled by default as it is only needed if you use VMs. It won't have any adverse affect on anything else.

 

[pparks1]

Whats this business about having to activate virtual machines in the bios? I never had to do that with my Win7 machine.

Do computers with newer processors come with the bios setting automatically turned on?

If you have virtualization support in your processor itself, you will want to turn it on within the BIOS. When you do that, applications like VMWare Player which can take advantage of it, will run the VM with near native machine performance.

 

[DWFII]

How do you get into the Bios on a Win7 machine? During boot-up I assume?

Edit: Nevermind, sorry for the dumb question.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
VMWARE for running the virtualisation software.

For 32 bit Guest systems you don't need to enable the Virtualisation in the REAL machine's BIOS -- you only need this if you are using MS'es XP MODE or you want to install a 64 Bit guest.

(Note to people who like to try out stuff -- you CAN certainly run a 64 bit GUEST os on a 32 Bit HOST -- you can run W7 X-64 on XP if you like - your host machine must have a 64 bit CPU of course --- the limitation here is that the MAX ram both the HOST and the GUEST cvan see is 4 GB).

It's a fun exercise actually to get a W7 X-64 VM WITH AERO running on an XP Host. !!!

For the actual GUEST OS I'd suggest EITHER XP PRO or W2K3 Server with the mods on this site (easy to do all standard windows stuff) to run a Server as a desktop -- a server has all sorts of notifications etc that you can turn off so it behaves like a desktop OS.

both of these are EXCELLENT for running almost every known legacy pieceof hardware that you can't get W7 drivers for and apps that for one reason or another won't run on W7 even in Compatability mode.

I prefer W2K3 server myself if you can get it -- it's a ROBUST INCREDIBLY fast efficient OS and it will still be supported until around 2018 or so --unlike XP which is entering "End of Life" phase.

If you CAN get a copy of W2K3 server - here's the link on how to customise it so it behaves like a desktop OS -- it beats XP hands down and is especially suitable for running as a Guest OS -- depending non your requirements a guest RAM size of 512Mb - 640 mb would be MORE than sufficient. (For EITHER of these guest systems).

How to convert your Windows Server 2003... to a Workstation!



If you stil have the physical machine running the legacy system the easiest way to create the basic GUEST is to use the vmware converter tool to create your OS - this saves having to install a guest OS and the applications again.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TBoyd]

Is there a VM that will work reasonably flawlessly...that has support for USB devices including printers and external hard drives and actually will give me access to older apps that cannot run on Windows7 without so many problems I spend more time tweaking the settings or fiddling with the VM than actually using the apps?

That might, in other words make migrating from XP to Win7, if not pleasant at least painless (or vice versa).

Have you tried Windows Virtual PC XP Mode? It may work fine for your purposes.

I used VMware Player for quite a while until SP1 was released for my Win 7 64 bit OS. Then I had a lot of problems with VMware. They may have worked it out by now, but I then tried Virtual Box & had issues with it also. I know that both of those programs are highly recommended by many, but it just wasn't for me - Possibly cockpit errors!? :sarc:

Anyway, I installed Windows Virtual PC XP Mode a few months ago & have had no problems. It has never had issues with recognizing my USB devices - which was my main problem with the other programs.

 

[DWFII]

My first impulse would be to go with Windows XP Mode but I am a visually oriented person and I cannot stand the idea of being limited to 16 bit colour. I know there is a workaround but from what I understand, to implement it cripples other features.

Why, for all love, did Microsoft limit XPMode like this? It makes no sense to me.

 

[TBoyd]

Check HughShaw's 4th post here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/32942-i-got-xp-mode-display-24-bit-color-integration.html

This method works & is easy to do.

I do professional photography. I convert & edit image files in my Win 7 64 bit OS, but often must use XP mode to print to a couple of printers that only have 32 bit drivers. When I pull up the images in XP Mode (now 24 bit after following HughShaw's instructions) I see no real difference in color than when viewing in Win 7 with 32 bit color.

When I had only 16 bit color in XP Mode, I could definitely see the difference.

 

[kado897]

Is there a VM that will work reasonably flawlessly...that has support for USB devices including printers and external hard drives and actually will give me access to older apps that cannot run on Windows7 without so many problems I spend more time tweaking the settings or fiddling with the VM than actually using the apps?

That might, in other words make migrating from XP to Win7, if not pleasant at least painless (or vice versa).

Have you tried Windows Virtual PC XP Mode? It may work fine for your purposes.

I used VMware Player for quite a while until SP1 was released for my Win 7 64 bit OS. Then I had a lot of problems with VMware. They may have worked it out by now, but I then tried Virtual Box & had issues with it also. I know that both of those programs are highly recommended by many, but it just wasn't for me - Possibly cockpit errors!? :sarc:

Anyway, I installed Windows Virtual PC XP Mode a few months ago & have had no problems. It has never had issues with recognizing my USB devices - which was my main problem with the other programs.

VMPlayer works well with USB for me on SP1 VirtualBox is still iffy.