Microsoft Virtual PC

[Richardc269]

I have recently installed Microsoft's Virtual PC onto my Windows 7 32-bit system today. I have installed Windows 98SE and Windows XP Professional in this program.

I am wanting to install a couple of games on the Windows XP virtual system (I have already installed Civ4 and BTS on it), however, it tells me that there's no "Direct 3D" available, seeing as it's using "Virtual PC's Additions" installations. My most wanting question: How do I make Virtual PC use my hosts video card instead of the POS they install on the program?

 

[osholt]

Short and sweet.

Using a the host video card is not possible as far as I'm aware in any virtualisation program.

If you are interested in using Direct 3D, Virtual box has an option (still in beta) to make it work.

Oli

 

[Kari]

Just to confirm what Oli already told you, Virtual PC uses emulated hardware and can not use / access your host's GPU. Virtual PC's emulated GPU is S3 Trio 32. Emulated virtual hardware can not be changed or replaced.

Kari

 

[Richardc269]

What exactly is "Virtual Box"? Does this run in Virtual PC or some such?

 

[Kari]

Oracle VirtualBox (former Sun VirtualBox) and VMWare Player are, like Windows Virtual PC, free virtualization applications which allow you to install different operating systems to a virtual machine, and run it as a virtual computer on your Windows (or MAc, Linux) desktop.

More information and free download:

• Oracle VirtualBox
• VMWare Player

Kari

 

[Richardc269]

Okay, thanks. I've used VMWare before, but wasn't really my cup of tea. I'll try the other one.

 

[Kari]

I like VirtualPC, using my Vista Ultimate and XP Mode machines daily.

That said, in my opinion Oracle VirtualBox is a good alternative if you need more GPU power on your virtual machines. When installing Guest Additions, as VirtualBox calls the integration features, you can even choose to install Direct3D support:



When installed, Direct3D support allows virtual machines to access host's 3D capabilities:



Notice that you can also use up to 128 MB RAM for emulated GPU. This allows 32-bit True Color:



(Pics from Windows 2000, I have no XP installed on VirtualBox)

Kari

 

[Klaw117]

This question has been bugging me for a while...are Windows Virtual PC or WMWare Player x64 programs? I know VirtualBox is x86.

 

[Kari]

These three virtualization platforms all run well both on x86 and x64 systems. It seems to be quite difficult to find information about if they are genuine x64 applications when installed on an x64 system.

Only indicator I can think now is that VMWare Player is installed in Program Files (x86) folder where Windows 7 x64 installs all 32-bit software and applications, whereas VirtualPC and VirtualBox are installed to Program Files where Win7 x64 installs 64-bit programs.

Kari

 

[Victek]

This question has been bugging me for a while...are Windows Virtual PC or WMWare Player x64 programs? I know VirtualBox is x86.

.
What difference do you feel it would make? It's hard to imagine wanting to allocate more then 4 gigs of ram to a virtual machine

 

[Kari]

This question has been bugging me for a while...are Windows Virtual PC or WMWare Player x64 programs? I know VirtualBox is x86.

.
What difference do you feel it would make? It's hard to imagine wanting to allocate more then 4 gigs of ram to a virtual machine

I believe the question was not if the virtual machines are or can be 64-bit. Instead, the question was if the virtualization applications, platforms, are x86 or x64. As such, the question is IMO valid.

If I understood the question wrong, thus giving the wrong answer earlier, let's try again: You can not run 64-bit OS's on Virtual PC, but both VMWare and VirtualBox allow it (Can I run 64-bit VM guests on a 32-bit host? - Server Fault and http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/89150-creating-new-vm-cpu-not-64-bit-error.html#post769805).

I can think of several reasonable scenarios to run a 64-bit guest, which has been allocated 4GB+ RAM.

Kari

 

[osholt]

This question has been bugging me for a while...are Windows Virtual PC or WMWare Player x64 programs? I know VirtualBox is x86.

.
What difference do you feel it would make? It's hard to imagine wanting to allocate more then 4 gigs of ram to a virtual machine

I believe the question was not if the virtual machines are or can be 64-bit. Instead, the question was if the virtualization applications, platforms, are x86 or x64. As such, the question is IMO valid.

If I understood the question wrong, thus giving the wrong answer earlier, let's try again: You can not run 64-bit OS's on Virtual PC, but both VMWare and VirtualBox allow it (Can I run 64-bit VM guests on a 32-bit host? - Server Fault and http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/89150-creating-new-vm-cpu-not-64-bit-error.html#post769805).

I can think of several reasonable scenarios to run a 64-bit guest, which has been allocated 4GB+ RAM.

Kari

Just as an observation; Virtual Box has had a few problems with 64bit OSs at the moment, mostly due to installation issues and virtual processor architecture, so it's worth checking to see if the bugs have been zapped yet.

Oli

 

[Victek]

I believe the question was not if the virtual machines are or can be 64-bit. Instead, the question was if the virtualization applications, platforms, are x86 or x64. As such, the question is IMO valid.

If I understood the question wrong, thus giving the wrong answer earlier, let's try again: You can not run 64-bit OS's on Virtual PC, but both VMWare and VirtualBox allow it (Can I run 64-bit VM guests on a 32-bit host? - Server Fault and http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/89150-creating-new-vm-cpu-not-64-bit-error.html#post769805).

I can think of several reasonable scenarios to run a 64-bit guest, which has been allocated 4GB+ RAM.

Kari

.
I didn't mean to imply that the OP's question was invalid. I would be interested to hear about the scenarios where it would be desirable to run a 64bit guest VM with 4+ gigs of ram. And thanks for the link which talks about running a 64bit guest VM on a 32bit Host. I would not have thought it possible.