Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
Microsoft acquired the Virtual PC product line from Connectix in February 2003. Microsoft split Connectix's basic Virtual PC technology into two products: Virtual PC 2004 and Virtual Server 2004. (For more information about Virtual Server 2004, see the sidebar "VM Server Products.") Microsoft markets Virtual PC primarily as a solution that lets XP run legacy applications.
Unlike VMware Workstation, Virtual PC doesn't accommodate a wide range of host OSs—the product supports only XP Pro and Win2K Pro as host OSs. However, although Windows 2003 and Win2K Server don't support Virtual PC, this lack of support doesn't prevent you from installing the software on a Windows server system. When you install Virtual PC on a Windows server system, the product displays a brief warning but lets you complete the installation. I installed Virtual PC on a Win2K Server system and found that the product ran without a problem.
Similarly, although Virtual PC officially supports only Microsoft desktop products and OS/2 as guest OSs, the product can actually run a much wider variety of guest OSs. Most OSs that run on the x86 platform will run as guest OSs under Virtual PC—I successfully installed Red Hat Linux and Win2K Server as guest OSs. However, because Microsoft doesn't support running Windows server systems and Linux OSs under Virtual PC, I don't recommend using Virtual PC for crucial production applications running under those OSs.
Installing Virtual PC was simple and took only a couple of minutes. As with VMware Workstation, I tested Virtual PC on a 1.8GHz system with 1GB of RAM. A nice touch in the installation program is that it asks you whether you want to install the program for all users or just one user. This option is useful for a shared system when you want to make Virtual PC available only to the administrator of the computer that runs it. After the software is installed, you can use the Virtual PC Console, which Figure 4 shows, to create and run VMs. I found the VMware Workstation window a bit easier to use than the Virtual PC Console.
In Virtual PC, you use the New Virtual Machine Wizard to create new VMs. Virtual PC's New Virtual Machine Wizard is similar to VMware Workstation's New Virtual Machine Wizard. Although the wizard screens in the two products differ slightly, both ask you to specify the same information: the guest OS you want to use, disk type, and type of network support.
Virtual PC supports three types of virtual disks: dynamic, fixed, and linked. Dynamic disks are the default type. The host OS sees dynamic disks as regular files, so you can move them between different systems running Virtual PC as you typically move files. Dynamic disks are initially sized to accommodate the size of the installed guest OS and automatically grow to their predefined limit as the guest OS requires additional disk storage space. Fixed disks are similar to dynamic disks, except they're always a predefined size. You create fixed disks with the Virtual Disk Wizard, which you launch from the Virtual PC Console. Linked disks in Virtual PC are the equivalent of raw disks in VMware Workstation. The linked disks feature is handy in multiboot environments because it lets you easily link a VM to a boot partition. Using this feature, you can boot the host OS, then use Virtual PC to start a VM linked to the physical partition, letting both the host and multiboot guest OSs run concurrently.
Virtual PC supports four types of network connections for VMs: Not connected, Local only, Virtual networking, and Shared networking (NAT). You specify Virtual PC's network configuration by clicking the VM's Settings option, then clicking Networking properties. Selecting Not connected disables networking. The Local only option provides networking services to only the VMs and the host, with no external network connections unless you set up ICS or RRAS. Virtual networking lets the VM connect to the outside network. Shared networking (NAT) lets VMs connect to the outside network by using the host OS's IP address. When you specify Virtual networking, Virtual PC assigns a private IP address to each VM. After you've created a VM, you can edit its properties in the Settings dialog box, as Figure 5 shows.
You use the Virtual PC Console's Start button to start VMs. (The Start button appears in the Console when a VM that isn't running is selected.) If no guest OS is installed, Virtual PC prompts you to insert a boot CD-ROM. Oddly, you must manually select the menu option to use the physical CD-ROM before Virtual PC can read from the CD-ROM drive. Like VMware Workstation, Virtual PC has the option of mounting ISO CD-ROM image files and even installing the guest OS from the ISO image. In addition to installing the guest OS, you must install the VM Additions component for each guest OS. VM Additions provides enhanced graphic support, support for drag-and-drop moving and copying of files between VMs, folder sharing, and time synchronization with the host.
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