Solved Win 7 virtual pc kinda lame

[MtGr]

After I installed windows 7 visual pc. I noticed it wasn't for playing old xp games. Lots of the drivers from my hardware was not right. Is there NO way too change the (virtual)drivers. Without the ability to change drivers that come close to your hardware. Windows virtual pc is kinda lame I had hoped this time to go without a second boot system.

Why don't they just make an emulator for xp, vista etc like they did with the Atari,C64,Amiga 500 etc.

Hopeful I can run some old xp games with changing compatibility. Though this never worked before

 

[Digital Life]

What program are you using to virtualize Windows 7, Another question would be if you were never able to get the XP games working in compatibility before in Windows 7 what makes you think it would work when the OS is virtualized

 

[LMiller7]

Welcome to the forum.

Gaming in a virtual environment has always been problematic. VirtualPC was never really designed for gaming so it should be no surprise that it has problems doing so. VirtualBox and VMWare are better but they too have issues. Hyper-V from Microsoft is also but it does not run on Windows 7.

VirtualPC runs an OS on virtual hardware, not what your computer actually has. The emulated hardware was chosen for best compatibility with older operating systems, not optimum performance. You have no choice of emulated hardware.

The comparison with Atari, C64, and Amiga 500 is not fair to modern virtualization platforms. The C64 was released more than 35 years ago, a very long time in the computer industry. All of these systems ran on hardware that was very simple by modern standards and matching it's performance is easy. In many cases developers must take active steps to hold performance back to original standards or the game becomes unplayable. Emulating hardware capable of running XP is much more difficult. Emulating hardware capable of running XP era games is even more difficult.

 

[MtGr]

I'm using the official Windows Virtual PC https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=3702 ( other languages are possible ) Install the Update for Windows (KB958559) when asked. Why call it virtual xp Why should it not? You have the memory and disk space ?. Why should I even use a virtual environment if old software/games not work on it. And is multitasking not better than turn your pc off to go back too xp. It's the first time I tried to do it this way. I always had multi boot xp and win7( never problems this way btw). To answer sml156.

Lmiller7 I know and your right those platforms are very old. Though amiga 500,1000,500+,600,1200 etc. Where one of the best platforms of their time imao.

Only Macintosh was better (used a lot in the graphic world) 386,486 pc's with Windows 3.0 where graphic laughable and slow. But your right about the difference compared to modern platforms. Just I had hoped I could adjust virtual xp to mine specs. I have a very old system bought 7 or 8 years back when xp was the main system. But I bought it with better hardware then needed. Because windows released every few years a new os .

Just that windows virtual don't take over your hardware configuration is a pain in the behind . Because what I would like is truly multitasking between different systems. And creating multi tasking between different os is possible. Mac os X works perfect with parallels. I don't have Mac os X but a nephew of mine has. He can switch from Linux to windows and back without turning off his system. And although he has a Linux system. He still can play pc game if he wanted.

In this light imao windows virtual system is laughable. And not worth the time I wasted on this.

And I still don't understand why this changing compatibility don't work (never did on every win os). Because if it did I wouldn't need a virtual system. BTW if I put win xp back on my system all hardware get found and those games work perfect so it's not my hardware. The only thing xp will not do. Is installing it on my newest HD because its format gpt (win7 will ether)

 

[wasnotwas]

I agree with Lmiller7 - give VMware a go. The free version is quite good - known as VMware Workstation Player nowadays. Download page here. Since it's treated as an OS install, every VM guest needs a serial and activation where appropriate.

One problem I've found with very old games in VM, is when the timing was dependent on the old cpu speed, and so runs too fast on modern hardware in VM.

 

[MtGr]

Thx wasnotwas I give it a try. It's not that I play a lot old games Just want to see if it's possible to finally truly multitask between systems. Like one time I bought an old amiga500+ and hook it up trough the com port. Only to see if I could transfer old amiga software. I found about 1Gig old software on the internet. But couldn't transfer it through floppy because pc and amiga drives aren't compatible. The transfer rate was only 8bit/sec so it would take almost 32,5 years to transfer 1Gb. It was easier and faster to use an emulator. Though it worked I didn't try it again lmao

 

[LMiller7]

And I still don't understand why this changing compatibility don't work (never did on every win os). Because if it did I wouldn't need a virtual system. BTW if I put win xp back on my system all hardware get found and those games work perfect so it's not my hardware. The only thing xp will not do. Is installing it on my newest HD because its format gpt (win7 will ether)

To ensure compatibility with future hardware and operating systems application developers must follow the rules established by Microsoft. There are many specific rules but they generally mean not making use of undocumented information and not making unwarranted assumptions about the hardware and operating system the application will be running on. This is necessary because these things have changed over the years, often in very significant ways.

Many well written applications designed for XP, Windows 2000, Windows 9x, and prior will run with no issues on Windows 10, even without compatibility settings. There are even many 16 bit applications that are even older that run on Windows 10 (32 bit). The developers of these applications followed the rules.

Microsoft tries very hard to maintain compatibility with older applications, even when their developers knowingly violated the rules. For such applications even the most trivial changes in the OS or hardware can cause them to fail. Such changes include optimizations and even bug fixes. The only way Microsoft could assure complete compatibility with older applications is to never change anything. That obviously isn't possible. The compatibility settings are provided to help such programs to run. And there is much that is not visible to the user. Windows has a long list of troublesome applications and will often change it's behavior to accommodate such programs. But in many cases there is nothing that can be done.

Microsoft has received much criticism for doing this. It is said that such applications should be allowed to fail, thus forcing the developers to fix the problems and ensure they are not repeated in the future. But Microsoft is realistic and recognizes that many of these problems will never be fixed and that developers will continue in their old ways. The developers of some applications have been known to rely on compatibility features rather than fix known problems.

Of all application types games tend to have the most compatibility problems. The reason, the developers for the most part just don't care about future compatibility. They will do whatever it takes to get the last bit of performance and an edge over the competition. The rules are viewed as suggestions and will be bent or broken if they can get away with it, with the current OS. They care little if the game will run on the next OS and nothing about the one after that.

That is why compatibility features are needed, and why they often don't work.

Note: I have been programming as an amateur since the 1970's and have personal experience with the problems of compatibility.

 

[MtGr]

Yes I agree game developers don't want you to play old games. They want you to buy the new ones. I'm a little younger and I play with hard/software from mid 80's. I know the time, I had to build my own sampler. And burn my own eprom to make it work. Only so I could record samples of music. To make the first house and techno music. Though I used basic,dbase,clipper,etc. It's not my strong point. Hardware is more my thing. Special in the early days when nothing existed. And you could modify mainboards to your likings. Special c64 and amiga. After 386,486 pc's all off this changed and Mircosoft got better and harder to create your own hardware due to the micronization and bilayer systems.

Thx for explaining some things LMiller7. Still I hope Microsoft create a better virtual system. Because I don't want to walk to the apple side for really os multitasking.

 

[LMiller7]

As I mentioned before, Microsoft does have a better virtualization system, Hyper-V, but it does not run on Windows 7. Don't expect it to be ported to Windows 7 which is now in extended support only. If you want something better than VirtualPC you will need to go to a third party solution, such as VirtualBox or VMWare.

 

[Wandering one]

I have just set up VBox over the holidays with my old XP pro. Took a bit of trial and error to get it proper ( Macrium a lifesaver at this project) and it works way superior to the M$ virtual XP. Trial run of the old Combat Flight Europe and it played very well. Also very easy working between guest and host.
Art.

 

[AddRAM]

A Virtual PC is more or less used to check out an Operating System without actually installing it.

 

[MtGr]

Installed VMware. Only now I can't find my orginal xp home NL. The key I found but not the dvd . If I only could download it from somewhere. When I got win7 I only had to reinstall 2 times in 6 years. Imao the best windows version ever (I didn't tested 8 or higher jet) I need it too play Sacred 2 + expansion, and assassins creed (first one). Only play those games a few time. If you look at those dvd's you would say they brand new.