Your questions:
VPC is the manager. It presents a standardized hardware emulation on which
you install an OS. It also interfaces with the host computer.
There are no preinstalled OS's involved.
You can reinstall Win98 and Win2k on your XP partition and reclaim the old
partitions. Within memory limits, of course, you can run Win98 and W2k at
the same time and utilize all three OS's as you wish. You would not need a
multiboot manager and you can use your hardware resources to benefit XP
without sacrificing anything to run the other OS's. No booting to switch.
No separate partitions to manage.
VPC is just as meaningless without an OS installed as a computer network
without any computers. By itself, VPC cannot do anything. VPC itself is
not even as useful as Notepad. It is the power of virtualization you get.
Example of using VPC:
Suppose you are running XP on your host computer using NTFS. You start VPC
and check off some choices in a wizard to create a 128mb virtual machine
with a 16GB virtual hard drive. You then start the virtual machine and
install Win98 like you would on any real box. Setup floppy, cd, and all.
When setup is done you have a Win98 pc with 128mb ram and a 16GB virtual
drive (formatted FAT32 even though the host is NTFS) using only as much real
hard drive space as the data stored in the vm's virtual hard drive file, say
2GB. The amount used on your real hard drive only grows as you add programs
and data.
When you want to use the Win98 machine you start it like any other
application. It runs in a window on your XP host desktop and you can move
files back and forth with the mouse from window to desktop and back. You
can share folders and all the rest. The Win98 surfs the web and can join a
home network you are using.
Performance:
Win98 runs much faster on my XP host than it ever ran on the older machines
I used in the old Win98 days. It saved me keeping an old computer around to
run Win98 because my present machine has 2GB of ram and multibooting doesn't
adjust the ram, so Win98 on this box was out any other way.
Choices:
Presently I run vm's with DOS(2), WFW, Win95, Win98, Win98SE(4), WinNT4,
Win2000 Pro, XP Home, XP Pro (2), and Win Server 2003 plus SUSE 9.1 Pro, Sun
Java Desktop 1 and 2, Vector Linux SOHO 5, Red Hat 9, Linspire 4.5, and
Amiga Forever 4. (Not all at the same time, of course!)
What works and what doesn't?
See:
http://vpc.visualwin.com/ for the list of tested operating systems so
far (820), most of which work.
--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
Vic said:
OK Colin, you peaked my interest in MS Virtual PC.
Looked at MS's web site but descriptions of how the software works is
unclear and there are many questions:
Is VPC an 'OS' itself, or a 'shell'?
Does VPC require OS's to already be installed?
I have Win98 and 2K already installed (dual-boot). How would VPC help, or
be beneficial?
Can an OS (eg Win95 or DOS) be installed IN VPC?
Does an OS HAVE to be installed in VPC?
Thanks for any clarification
Vic
___
Colin Barnhorst said:
You mean activation. Registration is just registering yourself as an XP
user for Microsoft's database. It has nothing to do with any changes you
may make and is optional at the time you install. Activation ties XP to
the
computer and is affected if you make enough hardware changes. However,
activation is a simple process and you can make many changes before
reactivation is required. You will have no issues even if you do have to
reactivate. See:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302806
and
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302878
One caveat you may run into is that Win9x/ME does not handle more than
512mb
of ram correctly. I suggest that you consider Virtual PC 2004:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx
Which enables you to run all of your operating systems without
partitioning
or reboots to switch. It would allow you to have more than 512mb on your
computer and control how much is used by Win98. You can also run other
Windows systems and Linux systems.
--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
Vic said:
Thanks to Carey and Patti for your responses! Patti, the detailed
response
really helped me understand the technical aspect of the
boot process (which I like).
My only other concern (for now) regards Xp's requirement to 'register'.
I
CONSTANTLY fool around with hardware changes including
hard drives. On the multimedia PC with W2K & Win98 I've changed HD's
about
four times within the last three months!
If MS looks at what HD it's installed on, will I have problems?
If MS looks at MOBO's (which if they HAVE to check something, it makes
sense to me to check MOBO's) then there will be no problem (I
seldom change MOBO's). Do you know what MS checks so one doesn't have
to
constantly register?
Lastly, what version of XP would be best?
UPGRADE (from 98)?
FULL RETAIL?
OEM?
Home or PRO (I use W2k PRO)?
Thanks again
Vic
Would someone please explain the sequence of installs for a multi-boot
system for the following:
Win98se
W2Ksp4
WinXP
I have win98 and W2K installed already. W2K installed a boot loader so
I
can choose either OS via its boot-loader. Will XP install
a
boot loader which allows me to select between the three OS's? Is it
NECESSARY to use a third party boot manager (which I prefer
not
to use)?
Thanks,
Vic
