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jdhindes · Feb 18, 2003, 10:51 PM

Has anyone used Virtual PC for Windows XP with a 12" Powerbook with 640 mg of RAM? I am purchasing a new 12" Powerbook with maxed out memory and wanted to run Virtual PC for Windows XP on it. I have heard that it runs slow. Anyone with experience? I also heard I would be better off with the Virtual PC for Windows 2000 product. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am a "switcher" and must continue to use some Windows software that is not available for my new Powerbook.

Mr. Blur · Feb 18, 2003, 11:29 PM

yes, vpc will be slow but depending on what the software you need to run it may be acceptable for you. most users find w2000 runs better than xp though. i would suggest searching this forum and the software forum (where this really should be....) for more opinions as there have been many threads about vpc with many opinions of speed/os/hardware and they'll probably give you a good idea of what to expect.....

b11051973 · Feb 19, 2003, 01:14 PM

I installed VPC 6 with XP Pro on my 12" PB Monday. I have 640 megs of RAM. I found it to be unbearably slow. I would imagine this is what it would be like to run XP on a 66 MH PC. I don't know if I didn't install it correctly, but it seems like garbage to me. From my experience, I wouldn't waste the money. Then again, for all I know, I don't have it setup correctly or something.

I don't need it anyway. I've got a 2.4 GH Dell running XP Pro.

pmcd · Feb 19, 2003, 11:01 PM

Originally posted by jdhindes:
I am purchasing a new 12" Powerbook with maxed out memory and wanted to run Virtual PC for Windows XP on it. I have heard that it runs slow. Anyone with experience? I also heard I would be better off with the Virtual PC for Windows 2000 product. I am a "switcher" and must continue to use some Windows software that is not available for my new Powerbook.

You would be far better off with win2k which does run fine. The weak point would be anything that is really graphics' intensive. Otherwise (browsing, communications, word processing, etc...) it is actually quite nice. I have used it with both XP (that to me was unbearably slow) and win2k (fine) on G4 450 and 500 systems (Cube and upgraded bw). .

philip

sniffer · Feb 20, 2003, 05:05 AM

One side note. Win 9x is very stable under VPC. Win 95 is fast and 98 have more matured underpinnings. The ultimate solution is to take the overlaying GUI from win 95 and use it with the 98 core. There is a software to make this hack work, but unfortunatelly I've forgotten the details. I highly suggest users who have performance issues but can live without NT to check this out. I know it has been mentioned e.g. on these boards in the past. The only drawback I can think about is that you need both 98 and 95 cds to make this work. Perhaps some one around here have more details to fill in on this issue. Just my 0.2 (�%# where's the freaking "Euro" key on windows keyboards?)

pmcd · Feb 20, 2003, 07:36 PM

Originally posted by sniffer:
One side note. Win 9x is very stable under VPC. Win 95 is fast and 98 have more matured underpinnings. The ultimate solution is to take the overlaying GUI from win 95 and use it with the 98 core. There is a software to make this hack work, but unfortunatelly I've forgotten the details. I highly suggest users who have performance issues but can live without NT to check this out. I know it has been mentioned e.g. on these boards in the past. The only drawback I can think about is that you need both 98 and 95 cds to make this work.

The software to do this is called 98lite and 98lite pro. Interesting stuff actually. Nevertheless win2k seems to be quite fast and for some reason faster than win98 (though not faster than win95) using VPC6.x

philip

vsurfer · Feb 20, 2003, 09:27 PM

I'm using Win 2K VPC 5 on a Ti 1Ghz with
1024MB RAM. It's fine for ordinary stuff, some routine things are even almost 'quick' and even apps like ACE HTML work swiftly.

For me it's just something I use to check applets and web sites cross-platform, and to help trouble shoot my friends' and my dad's PC when they go Kaput.

Boot ups and save states are pretty quick. Closing and rebooting in the same session can be rapid even, but...

...apps like Adobe Acrobat in particular, are like dentistry without anaesthetic.