Microsoft Virtual PC - PC Software Help

Virtualization is a technology that is gaining more and more popularity and a very fast rate. It is used by many companies to save on hardware and power costs by running multiple servers on one piece of hardware. Some of the top virtualization software companies are VMware, Citrix and Microsoft.

Microsoft Virtual PC allows you to create and run one or more virtual computers with their own operating system on one physical computer. This allows you to use different operating systems on one computer for testing purposes or in order to run programs that will only run on certain operating systems.

Virtual PC 2007 allows the following supported guest operating systems:

      • Windows Vista Ultimate 
      • Windows Vista Enterprise 
      • Windows Vista Business 
      • Windows XP Professional
      • Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
      • Windows 2000 Professional
      • Windows 98 Second Edition

Virtual PC (the successor to Virtual PC 2007) allows the following supported guest operating systems:

      • Windows 7 Home Basic
      • Windows 7 Home Premium
      • Windows 7 Enterprise
      • Windows 7 Professional
      • Windows 7 Ultimate    

You can also run other operating systems such as Linux etc and they will work fine even though they may not be supported.

Once you have Virtual PC installed you can run the wizard to install your virtual machine (VM). The wizard will allow you to create a new VM or add an existing VM to your console. You choose a name for the VM, choose the operating system, adjust the amount of RAM allocated to the VM from your host computer's RAM, add a virtual hard disk and then begin the operating system installation. If you are not using one of the default operating systems and want to install something like Linux you can point the console to your CD drive or to an ISO file that contains the guest operating system installation.

After the installation of your virtual machines you will see them listed in your Virtual PC console. From here you can start, stop, remove or edit their settings.

Once it is running you can use the OS as if it was installed on your physical computer.

Virtual PC 2007 requires a 400 MHz Pentium-compatible processor with a 1.0 GHz or faster recommended and requires 35 MB of disk space. It can be downloaded here for free.

Virtual PC will run on Windows 7, Vista and XP with a 1 GHz processor or higher (32 or 64 bit) and at least 2GB of RAM and can be downloaded here for free.

Related Tips:
VMware Workstation Virtualization Software
Real VNC (Virtual Network Computing)
Windows Versions and Features
CrossLoop Remote Access Software
Using Windows Remote Desktop Connection

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