VMWare/Virtual PC

[lupi]

Now that I've switched most of my computers over to Vista 64, I've run into the one problem I wasn't expected or able to easily correct while running some older titles.

It seems many titles from the early CDrom era were written as 32bit programs, but use a 16bit installer; any 16bit program fails to run under a 64 bit OS.

Some people have gone out themselves and written either replacement install routines or patched the installer so it would work. Of course the list of such titles is relatively few.

The only other solution I've seen is to make a virtual pc installation ontop of the 64bit OS. I've skimmed over the MS page on the program and it talks about how you still need a copy of the second OS to be installed. This isn't a problem as I have extra copies of 98se and XP I could use.

Has anyone done this process, what does it take and how does it affect your normal OS install/hard drive. Is it easy to run programs(games) from this virtual install?

 

[lxskllr]

You could try manually installing the software by extracting the packages from the cd, and putting them where they belong. I've never used a vm for gaming. One thing to keep in mind is you won't have hardware accelerated gfx. That shouldn't be a problem with very old titles, but it could be an issue.

 

[jesterb84]

Using a program such as VMWare/VirualPC/VirtualBox is practically harmless to your existing installation and very easy to use. Basically, these programs create a large file on your system which represents a virtual hard drive. Using that file, the software installs an OS, programs, etc. directly into this virtual hard drive therefore never touching your real system. Everything you do inside the virtual machine stays there and is totally separate from your real installation.

As for running games, most of these software are meant for applications and don't really contain the necessary virtualization to support games but there's nothing to stop you from trying. Since you are talking about games, most games (especially those made years ago) tend to keep all necessary files in the gaming folder as opposed to apps which tend to spread files all across the entire filesystem. You can install the game inside the virtual machine, then copy the gaming folder into your real Vista 64 installation and run from there.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You can install the game inside the virtual machine, then copy the gaming folder into your real Vista 64 installation and run from there.

If you want to try that you might also want to install some registry change tracking program in the VM / the "guest" OS so you can see what keys were added by the installer.

I'm still running 32-bit OSses so I haven't had to do this myself yet and can't recommend any specific program.

 

[techmanc]

If you look at this link it will show you how directx 9 is supported in VMWare..................Cant seem to get right page with second link put you can do a search there for directx and look at topic 100

http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/new.html

http://pubs.vmware.com/ws65_ac...intro.3.10.html#989513