Virtual PC in Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

[equalizeme]

My Acer Aspire 5740G-6979 came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit installed, but it was not compatible with a certain piece of software I absolutely need to use. So, I installed Windows XP and it did not work due to lack of driver support.

Now I am left with only one option--Windows 7 Professional with Virtual PC. My question is, should I get Windows 7 64 Bit or 32 Bit? I have no idea if the Virtual PC can emulate XP in both 32 and 64 bit. I feel like I should just buy Windows 7 32 bit. Also is running Virtual PC identical to running XP, or has anyone experienced any problems? Last thing I need to to spend $150 to have even more issues.

Sigh.. :/

 

[equalizeme]

Actually I was just reading about Virtual Box... is it possible I could get by using this on Windows 7 Home instead of buying Windows Professional? Has anyone had any success with this?

 

[yinan]

Use VMware Workstation it is compatible with everything.

 

[equalizeme]

You are probably right about VM Ware... that being said, it's 190 and Windows 7 Pro is 150, so I'd just go with that. At this point, I'm trying to avoid paying any more money than I have to.

 

[Nothinman]

VMware Server and Player are both free.

 

[tomt4535]

VMware Player is free and will do exactly what you need.

 

[Ryland]

Use VirtualBox, it will work on anything and works really well.

 

[konakona]

for a casual user, vbox seems to be more lightweight than vmware player unless you must have d3d capability (albeit very slow). vbox was noticeably easier on resources in my experience.

 

[jkroeder]

virtualbox also doesn't run a million services in the background like vmware does. It should work great.

 

[manko]

You should be able to use Virtual PC on Home Premium, you just have to own a separate license for XP and you have to install manually (same as you would for VMWare or Virtualbox), since it doesn't qualify for the free XP Mode.

The Home Premium upgrade to Pro is $89 from Microsoft.

XP Mode is only 32-bit whether or not you have 64-bit or 32-bit Win 7, so a 64-bit upgrade would work fine for you.

By the way, what software are you trying run? Have you tried running as Admin and compatibility mode? Have you Googled or contacted your software vendor for tips to run it on Win 7?

 

[ra990]

VirtualBox is great, much better than VirtualPC. I have used both and consistently use VirtualBox. I have heard that VMWare is the best, but I don't have any experience with it. Yes, you can absolutely get by with VirtualBox and Home Premium.

 

[Barfo]

Why not use Windows XP mode if you're getting Windows 7 Professional?

 

[konakona]

Why not use Windows XP mode if you're getting Windows 7 Professional?

XP mode back in RC version was waaay too heavy in comparison especially leave it on for some time. I wonder if they made any changes to it since then.

 

[ra990]

XP mode back in RC version was waaay too heavy in comparison especially leave it on for some time. I wonder if they made any changes to it since then.

Yep they have...they've made it worse.

In my experience, Virtual Box is far more usable than Virtual PC / XP Mode...

 

[KeypoX]

vmware>vbox>virtual pc

vmware workstation 7, or whatever just came out not long ago really is fast and uses no cpu time its pretty amazing advancement. vmplayer i believe is the same thing just only the player for vm's cannot make vms. Server I think can make them? Or you could use Vbox to make them and use vmplayer?

Oh crap, http://www.vmware.com/products/player/faqs.html

Player can make VMs now. So performance should be the same or whats the difference in performance?

 

[konakona]

I have only seen very dated comparison on the two (vmware vs vbox), and it was a toss-up at the time. For stuff I do, performance is a non-issue; it's more of ram usage that I care about, and vmware seems to be noticeably worse than vbox in that area. Just my subjective observation.