Virtual PC is a discontinuedx86emulator software forMicrosoft Windows hosts andPowerPC-basedMac hosts. It was created byConnectix in 1997 and acquired byMicrosoft in 2003, after which the program was renamedMicrosoft Virtual PC. In July 2006, Microsoft released the Windows version free of charge.[2] The Mac version was discontinued following thetransition to Intel processors that same year.
In 2009, Microsoft releasedWindows Virtual PC, which is only compatible withWindows 7 hosts,[a] and is the technical foundation for the latter's Windows XP Mode. Windows Virtual PC does not officially support MS-DOS or operating systems older thanWindows XP Professional SP3 as guests.[3] Virtual PC was discontinued in 2011 in favour ofHyper-V.[4]
Connectix Virtual PC, Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and Windows Virtual PC are successive versions of the same software. Versions of Virtual PC by Microsoft runs on several versions of Windows, beginning with Windows 2000 in Virtual PC 2004 and later Windows XP in Virtual PC 2007 onwards. These older versions were still available and support operating systems older than Windows XP. Windows Virtual PC only runs on Windows 7 and only supports versions of Windows beginning with Windows XP. Starting in Windows 8, Microsoft replaced Virtual PC withHyper-V.
Virtual PC was originally developed as a Macintosh application forSystem 7.5 and released by Connectix in June 1997.[5] The first version of Virtual PC designed for Windows-based systems, version 4.0, was released in June 2001. Virtual PC 4 was the first version with expandable drive images.
Connectix sold versions of Virtual PC bundled with a variety of guest operating systems, including Windows,OS/2, andRed Hat Linux. As virtualization's importance to enterprise users became clear, Microsoft took interest in the sector and acquired Virtual PC andVirtual Server (unreleased at the time) from Connectix in February 2003.
Under agreement with Connectix, Innotek GmbH (makers ofVirtualBox, now part ofOracle) ported version 5.0 to run on an OS/2 host.[6] This version also included guest extensions (VM additions) for OS/2 guests, which could run on Windows, OS/2 or Mac OS X hosts using Virtual PC versions 5, 6 or 7. A new version of the guest extensions was later included with Microsoft's Virtual PC 2004.
Icon of Microsoft Virtual PCVirtual PC 6.1 for MacintoshVirtual PC 2007 running theLive CD OSKnoppix
On July 12, 2006, Microsoft released Virtual PC 2004 SP1 for Windows free of charge, however the Mac version remained a paid software. The equivalent version for Mac, version 7, was the final version of Virtual PC for Mac. It ran onMac OS X 10.2.8 or later forPowerPC and was aproprietarycommercial software product.[7]
Virtual PC 2007 was released only for the Windows platform, with publicbeta testing beginning October 11, 2006, and production release on February 19, 2007. It added support forhardware virtualization, "undo disks", transfer statistic monitor for disk and network, and viewing virtual machines on multiple monitors and support for Windows Vista as both host and guest. TheWindows Aero interface is disabled on Windows Vista guests due to limitations of the emulated video hardware; however, Aero effects can be rendered by connecting to the guest viaRemote Desktop Services from an Aero-enabled Windows Vista host, provided that the guest is running Windows Vista Business or a higher edition.[8][9][10] It initially did not support home editions of Windows as host OSes such as Windows XP Home Edition,[11] Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium, however a hotfix for Virtual PC 2007 SP1 issued on February 20, 2009 (see below) rectified this. Windows XP Starter,Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows Vista Starter is not supported on Virtual PC 2007, however the former and the latter are still supported as a guest OS. Support for Windows 2000 Professional as a host OS was dropped in Virtual PC 2007 and will not install at all on Windows 2000 hosts, however it is still supported as a guest OS.
"Undo disks" make it possible to revert virtual machines' state to an earlier point by storing changes into a separate.vud file since the last save to the main.vhd file, which can be used forexperimenting. The VHD file acts as asnapshot. The undo disk file (.vud) incrementally stores changes made by the virtual machine compared to the mainVirtual hard disk drive (VHD) image, which can be applied or discarded by the user. If deactivated, changes are directly written to the VHD file.[12]
On May 15, 2008, Microsoft released Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1, which added support for both Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7 as guest and host OSes, as well asWindows Server 2008 Standard as a guest OS.[13][14] Ahotfix rollup for Virtual PC 2007 SP1, released February 20, 2009, solved networking issues and enhanced the maximum screen resolution to 2048×1920 (32-bit),[15] enabling 16:9 resolutions such as 1920×1080. It also added official support for Windows XP Home Edition, Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium as both guest and host OSes. A security update was released on July 14, 2009 to address an elevation of privilege vulnerability in guest operating systems.[16]
Microsoft Virtual PC (2004 and 2007) does not work at all on Windows 10 64-bit,[17] and even on 32-bit platforms lack internet connectivity due to the lack of the VPC driver. This also impactsWindows Mobile emulators.
Windows Virtual PC entered public beta testing on April 30, 2009,[21] and was released alongside Windows 7 on July 22, 2009.[22][23] Windows Virtual PC is available free of charge for certain editions of Windows 7,[3] either pre-installed byOEMs or via download from the Microsoft website.[1] Unlike its predecessors, it supports only Windows 7 host operating systems.[3] It originally requiredhardware virtualization support but on March 19, 2010, Microsoft released an update to Microsoft Virtual PC which allows it to run on PCs without hardware support.[1]
USB support and redirection – connect peripherals such as flash drives and digital cameras, and print from the guest to host OSprinters. However, USBisochronous transfer mode is not supported[25] Other methods involve simply just treating an active drive letter from a USB flash drive as a virtual hard drive.
Seamless application publishing and launching – runWindows XP Mode applications directly from the Windows 7 desktop
Support formultithreading – run multiple virtual machines concurrently, each in its own thread for improved stability and performance
Smart card redirection – use smart cards connected to the host
Integration withWindows Explorer – manage all VMs from a single Explorer folder (%USERPROFILE%\Virtual Machines)
The Virtual Machine console is replaced by an integratedVirtual Machines shell folder. Several options from the console have been removed such asRestore at start, CPU time performance settings, muting sound in inactive virtual machines, full-screen resolution related options, configuring the host key, mouse capture options and settings for requiring administrator permissions.[26][unreliable source?][unreliable source?]
Official guest support for operating systems earlier than Windows XP Professional
Direct sharing of folders between host and guest operating system (Only volumes may be shared between operating systems)[28]
Ability to commit changes in undo disks upon turning off virtual machines (Doing so is now only possible through virtual machineSettings dialog box)[29]
Ability to use physical and virtual Parallel ports[30]
User interface controls for using virtualfloppy disks (Virtual floppy disk functionality, however, is still supported and may be accessed using ascript)[31]
Virtual PC additions for guest operating systems no longer supported have been removed. However, installing Virtual Machine Additions from an older Microsoft virtualization product works for some guest OSes.[32][33][34]
Properties of the virtual machine, like guest OS, processor, processor features, video mode, video RAM, code cache, IDE controller reads and writes, Ethernet reads and writes, video frame rate and command line options can no longer be viewed.[citation needed]
System requirements for Windows Virtual PC:[35][36]
Computer running Windows 7 (all editions except Starter)
15 GB of hard disk space per virtual Windows environment
Optional: if the processor supports hardware-assisted virtualization technology such asAMD-V orIntel-VT, it will be used. Before March 19, 2010, such a processor was mandatory.
Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8 running concurrently on a Windows 7 Release Candidate desktop usingWindows XP Mode.
Windows XP Mode (XPM)[37][38] is a virtual machine package for Windows Virtual PC containing a pre-installed, licensed copy ofWindows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 as its guest OS. Previously, both the CPU and motherboard of the host had to support hardware virtualization,[39] but an update in early 2010 eliminated this requirement.[40] Pre-installed integration components allow applications running within the virtualized environment to appear as if running directly on the host,[22][41] sharing the native desktop andstart menu of Windows 7 as well as participating in file type associations. Windows XP Mode applications run in aTerminal Services session in the virtualized Windows XP, and are accessed viaRemote Desktop Protocol by a client running on the Windows 7 host.[42]
Applications running in Windows XP Mode do not have compatibility issues, as they are actually running inside a Windows XP virtual machine and redirected using RDP to the Windows 7 host. Windows XP Mode may be used to run 16-bit applications; it includesNTVDM, however it is impossible to run 16-bit applications that require hardware acceleration, as Windows Virtual PC does not have hardware acceleration for such applications.
Windows XP Mode is available free of charge to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.[36] Users of other editions of Windows 7 are not eligible to download and use it.[40][43] This restriction does not apply to Windows Virtual PC itself.
Windows XP Mode can also be run withVMware Player andVMware Workstation. However, like with Windows Virtual PC itself, VMware products only import Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate versions in order to adhere with Microsoft licensing requirements.[44]
Creative LabsSound Blaster 16ISAPnP. (When Windows Vista is installed as both the host (main) and guest (virtual) operating systems, settings are synchronized with the host and audio configuration is not required.)
The Windows version of Virtual PC also uses dynamic recompilation, but only to translate x86kernel mode andreal mode code into x86user mode code; original user mode andvirtual 8086 mode code run natively.
Guest call traps are used, especially for guest extensions, to accelerate emulation or offer additional features, such as integration with the host environment.
Virtual PC 4 requires Mac OS 8.5 or later on a G3 or G4 processor, but runningWindows Me,Windows 2000 or Red Hat Linux requires Mac OS 9.0 or later. Virtual PC 5 requiresMac OS 9.1 or newer orMac OS X 10.1 or later. For USB support, Mac OS X is recommended. To run Virtual PC 5 in Mac OS X, a 400 MHz or fasterprocessor is required.
Earlier versions of Virtual PC supported the following features: (now removed in Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, 2007, and Windows Virtual PC):
Older versions of Virtual PC (v5.0 or earlier) may have the hard disk formatted after creating theVirtual Hard Disk file. Newer versions must partition and format theVirtual Hard Disk file manually.
AVirtual Switch available in Virtual PC version 4.1 or earlier allows adding multiple network adapters.
Older operating systems are supported with Virtual Machine additions.
Older versions of Virtual PC for Macintosh can run on Mac OS 9.2.2 or earlier. Support forSystem 7.5 was dropped in version 3.
Windows Virtual PC may enable guest operating systems running inside virtual machines to interact with their host operating system beyond what is feasible between two physical computers, such as sharing physical hardware components or exchanging data. To do so however,integration components must be installed on the guest operating systems. When no integration component is installed, the only mean of communicating between two machines (either virtual or physical) is through a virtual network interface. Even the mouse cursor can only be controlled by one operating system (either real or virtual) at any given time. However, once the Integration Components are installed on the guest operating systems, the following features are automatically activated:[48]
Mouse cursor sharing: Mouse cursor can be moved freely between the machines.
Host-initiated shutdown: Virtual machine can be shut down, restarted or put into standby or hibernation via a set ofAPI functions.
Time synchronization: The virtual machine's clock will be automatically synchronized with the host operating system's clock.
Process responsiveness monitoring: Host operating system will be able to detect whether the software on the guest operating system is responsive or hung.
Dynamic screen resolution: The screen resolution of the guest operating system can be changed by simply resizing the window in which it is running. However, the VM can be configured to allow only standard resolutions.
In addition to features described above, guest operating systems may also take advantage of the following integration features but only when the administrator activates them:[48]
Audio sharing: Audio played on the guest operating system may be brought to the host operating system and played on it.
Clipboard sharing: Contents such as text, picture or everything that is cut or copied toWindows Clipboard maybe pasted in other machines.
Printer sharing: Guest operating systems may print on the host operating system's printer. This feature should not be confused with File and Printer Sharing over an emulated network connection.
Smart card sharing:Smart cards connected to host operating system may be accessed on guest operating systems.
File sharing: Windows Virtual PC can also sharedisk partitions anddisk drives of the host operating system with guest operating systems.[27][28] This includes USB mass storage devices that are connected later.[49]
In Windows Virtual PC, enabling integration features automatically makes the virtual machine user account accessible usingRemote Desktop Connection.[48]
Virtual PC allows multiple guest operating systems to run virtualized on a single physical host. Although a number of popular host and guest operating systems lack official Microsoft support, there are sometimes few, if any, technical obstacles impeding installation. Instead, a configuration may be unsupported due to Microsoft's ownlicensing restrictions,[50][51] or a decision to focus testing and support resources elsewhere, especially when production use of alegacy product fades.[52][53]
A program manager on Microsoft's core virtualization team explains what official support entails:
With each release of Virtual PC we spend a significant amount of time trying to decide which (guest) operating system should be officially supported. While Virtual PC is capable of running many operating systems, official support for an operating system means that we will test it thoroughly, not ship Virtual PC if an issue exists with that operating system, and provide full support for customers who encounter problems while running these operating systems under Virtual PC.[52]
1 Support added in Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition as a host.[68]
12345 For Virtual PC 2007, Microsoft designated the followinglegacy operating systems "compatible", but discontinued official support: MS-DOS 6.22, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Windows 95, the original release of Windows 98 and Windows Me.[58][71]
1234 For Windows Vista guests in Virtual PC 2007, theWindows Aerographical user interface is disabled due to limitations of the emulatedS3 Trio[76] graphics card; the interface falls back to the Vista Home Basic theme. However, Aero effects can be rendered by connecting to the guest viaRemote Desktop Connection from an Aero-enabled host.[8][77]
1 Support added in Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2008 Standard as a guest.[58]
12 Microsoft's January 2008EULA supplement[51][78] for Windows Vista lifted restrictions[79][80] barring installation of Vista Home Basic and Home Premium as guest operating systems.[50][81][82][83]
123456 Support added in a Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)hotfix rollup, dated February 20, 2009, for Windows XP Home as both host and guest, and for all Home editions of Windows Vista as hosts.[72]
1234 The pre-configuredXP Mode of Windows Virtual PC is restricted to Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate hosts.[73] However, an equivalent environment can be configured manually by installing Windows XP SP3 as a guest (requires an XP license and installation media or files) and applying an integration components update (available for download[88] from Microsoft) to enable seamless mode and other Windows 7 integration features.[89]
^ The integration components enabling seamless mode and other features[89] of Windows Virtual PC support only the following guests: Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3 (SP3);[88] Windows Vista Business SP1, Enterprise SP1, and Ultimate SP1;[90] and Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.[59][73]
Notes – not supported installations
1 Virtual PC 2007 does not include Virtual Machine Additions for MS-DOS as a self installing disk image (installed using a batch file), however the files are included in the Virtual Machine Additions ISO image file (typically found in the 'Program Files' folder where Virtual PC was installed) and can be extracted by various means (a number of file compression software packages support extracting files from ISO image files) for manual installation, also the DOS additions from Virtual PC 2004 can be used without problem as can the DOS additions from Virtual Server 2005.[53]
1 The Virtual Machine Additions included with Virtual PC 2007 will not install on Windows 95 guests, but the additions from Virtual PC 2004 can be used.[52]
1 In informal testing, Microsoft virtualization manager Ben Armstrong found XP Media Center 2004 "distorted and unusable" under Virtual PC 2004, but Media Center 2005 worked "beautifully", sans TV features.[91]
12 AlthoughWindows NT 3.1 andNT 3.5 refuse to install on newer processors (NT 3.51 fixes this), it is possible to modify files on the install CD to allow install.
Installing a Linux-based guest environment in Virtual PC is possible. RedHat and SuSe Linux guests are supported. Linux additions are supported inMicrosoft Virtual Server, and these additions should also work in Virtual PC.[62]
SomeLinux distributions must be installed in text mode, as they do not support Microsoft Virtual PC's emulated graphics chip.Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" must be installed in SafeMode, but does not require other changes.
Some websites specialize in listing operating systems that run successfully as Virtual PC guests, to help users avoid issues when installing Linux distributions or other operating systems lacking official Microsoft support.[96][unreliable source?]
Microsoft announced on August 7, 2006, that Virtual PC for Mac would not be ported to theIntel Mac platform. Microsoft stated, "Alternative solutions offered byApple and other vendors, combined with a fully packaged retail copy of Windows, will satisfy this need."[97] Similar products available or announced at the time wereParallels Desktop andVMware Fusion.
^"PC in a Mac".Yale Engineering Home newsgroup.Yale University. April 8, 1997.Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. RetrievedMarch 21, 2015.[...]Connectix Virtual PC is designed to run on Power PC systems running System 7.5 or later. Pricing will be announced when the product becomes generally available for the retail channel in June 1997.
^"Virtual PC 7 for Mac".Microsoft for Mac – Australian website. Microsoft corporation. Archived fromthe original on July 29, 2010. RetrievedJune 10, 2010.
^Conner, Matt (March 6, 2007)."Virtual PC 2007 User Interface".ZDNet. Archived fromthe original on September 20, 2015. RetrievedNovember 2, 2021.Shows basic Input/Output activity through the network and storage interfaces.
^ab"Windows Virtual PC".Windows Virtual PC blog. Microsoft corporation. August 4, 2009.Archived from the original on April 10, 2010. RetrievedJune 9, 2010.@EnricoG: Drag and Drop is not a supported feature in WVPC. Clipboard sharing (for cut, copy and paste) and drive/folder sharing are supported.
^Armstrong, Ben (September 18, 2009)."Windows Virtual PC and Undo Disks".Virtual PC Guy's Blog. Microsoft corporation.Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. RetrievedJune 9, 2010.
^Armstrong, Ben (June 26, 2009)."Creating Virtual Hard Disks with Windows Virtual PC".Virtual PC Guy's Blog. Microsoft corporation.Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. RetrievedJune 9, 2010.Windows Virtual PC does not support parallel ports. As Tom mentions, you will have to use a USB adapter if you want this functionality.
^"Download Windows XP Mode".Official Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft Corporation.Archived from the original on July 23, 2014. RetrievedJanuary 2, 2016.
^ab"Windows Virtual PC: FAQ".Windows Virtual PC website. Microsoft Corporation.Archived from the original on March 16, 2013. RetrievedNovember 22, 2010.
^"Download Windows XP Mode".Windows Virtual PC website. Microsoft Corporation. Archived fromthe original on June 28, 2012. RetrievedNovember 22, 2010.(After selecting an inappropriate edition of Windows 7) You are not eligible to download Windows XP Mode. You must have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate to run Windows XP Mode.
^abcBergstein, Brian (February 28, 2007)."Microsoft puts up roadblocks on Vista for Mac owners".The New York Times. New York.Associated Press.Archived from the original on May 21, 2013. RetrievedJuly 10, 2009.Microsoft says the blockade is necessary for security reasons … Cherry says that what is really going on is that Microsoft wanted to create more differences between the multiple editions of Vista, presumably giving people more reason to buy the most expensive versions.
^abc"Microsoft Software License Terms"(PDF).Microsoft Use Terms.Microsoft. p. 13.Archived(PDF) from the original on March 31, 2021. RetrievedJuly 10, 2009.If you [install the software within a virtual system], you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker. (The laterVista SP1 EULAArchived June 5, 2011, at theWayback Machine adopted the amended terms of the January 2008 Supplement.)
^abEarp, Sean (June 29, 2008)."Linux on Hyper-V".The Sean Blog.Microsoft TechNet.Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. RetrievedJuly 10, 2009. (Also links to individual posts on installing various Linux distributions in Virtual PC 2007.)
^Armstrong, Ben (October 26, 2004)."Windows 3.11 on Virtual PC".Virtual PC Guy's WebLog.MSDN Blogs.Archived from the original on January 30, 2010. RetrievedJuly 10, 2009. (Microsoft manager Ben Armstrong reports that Windows 3.11 installs without a problem in Virtual PC 2004.)
^Microsoft Partner Program (March 2008).Licensing Reseller Handbook for Microsoft Partners(PDF).Microsoft. p. 58.Archived(PDF) from the original on June 5, 2011. RetrievedJuly 10, 2009.Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium cannot be used within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system.
^Albro, Edward N.; Dahl, Eric (February 20, 2007)."The Most Annoying Things About Windows Vista".PC World.International Data Group.Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. RetrievedJuly 10, 2009.Well, this is only a licensing provision, so nothing in the software will prevent you from running either Home version in a virtual machine. But that would be wrong.
