Windows Virtual PC

Windows Virtual PC is a virtualization program for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

. In July 2006 Microsoft released the Windows-hosted version as a free product. In August 2006 Microsoft announced the Macintosh-hosted version would not be ported to Intel-based Macintosh computers, effectively discontinuing the product as PowerPC-based Macintosh computers are no longer manufactured. The newest release, Windows Virtual PC, does not run on versions of Windows earlier than Windows 7, and does not officially run MS-DOS or operating systems earlier than Windows XP SP3 Professional. The older versions, which support a wider range of host and guest operating systems, remain available.

Virtual PC virtualizes a standard PC

IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...

and its associated hardware. Supported Windows operating systems can run inside Virtual PC. Other operating systems such as Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

may run, but are not officially supported, and Microsoft does not provide the necessary drivers (called "Virtual Machine Additions") for Linux.

History

Connectix Virtual PC, Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and Windows Virtual PC are successive versions of the same software. Windows Virtual PC runs only under Windows 7 and is only designed to run operating systems from XP Professional on, but the earlier Microsoft versions which run under older versions of Windows are still available, and can run operating systems older than Windows XP.

Virtual PC by Connectix

Virtual PC was originally developed for the Macintosh and released by Connectix in June 1997. The first version of Virtual PC designed for Windows-based systems, version 4.0, was released in June 2001. Connectix sold versions of Virtual PC bundled with a variety of guest operating systems, including Windows, OS/2

OS/2

OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...

, and Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Linux, assembled by the company Red Hat, was a popular Linux based operating system until its discontinuation in 2004.Red Hat Linux 1.0 was released on November 3, 1994...

. As virtualization's importance to enterprise users became clear, Microsoft took interest in the sector and acquired Virtual PC and Virtual Server

Microsoft Virtual Server

Microsoft Virtual Server is a virtualization solution that facilitates the creation of virtual machines on the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Originally developed by Connectix, it was acquired by Microsoft prior to release...

(unreleased at the time) from Connectix in February 2003.

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 the Virtual Hard Disk
VHD (file format)
A Virtual Hard Disk is a virtual hard disk file format, meaning it can contain what is found on a physical hard disk drive, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine...

file. Newer versions must partition and format the Virtual Hard Disk
VHD (file format)
A Virtual Hard Disk is a virtual hard disk file format, meaning it can contain what is found on a physical hard disk drive, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine...

file manually.
A Virtual 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 of Apple System 7.5
System 7
System 7 is the name of a Macintosh operating system introduced in 1991.System 7 may also refer to:* System 7 , a British dance/ambient band* System 7 , 1991 album* IBM System/7, a 1970s computer system...

are dropped in version 3.

Under agreement with Connectix, Innotek GmbH (makers of VirtualBox

VirtualBox

Oracle VM VirtualBox is an x86 virtualization software package, originally created by software company Innotek GmbH, purchased by Sun Microsystems, and now developed by Oracle Corporation as part of its family of virtualization products...

, now part of Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

which is itself owned by Oracle

Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...

) ported version 5.0 to run on an OS/2 host. 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.

Microsoft Virtual PC

On July 12, 2006, Microsoft released Virtual PC 2004 SP1 for Windows free of charge, but the Mac version was not made free. The equivalent version for Mac, version 7, was the final version of Virtual PC for Mac. It ran on Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

10.2.8 or later for PowerPC

PowerPC

PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...

and was a Proprietary

Proprietary software

Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...

commercial software

Commercial software

Commercial software, or less commonly, payware, is computer software that is produced for sale or that serves commercial purposes.Commercial software is most often proprietary software, but free software packages may also be commercial software....

product.

Virtual PC 2007 was released only for the Windows platform, with public beta testing beginning October 11, 2006, and production release on February 19, 2007. It added support for hardware virtualization

X86 virtualization

In computing, x86 virtualization is the facility that allows multiple operating systems to simultaneously share x86 processor resources in a safe and efficient manner, a facility generically known as hardware virtualization...

, viewing virtual machines on multiple monitors and support for Windows Vista as both host and guest. (The Windows Aero

Windows Aero

Windows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, operating systems released by Microsoft. It is also available in Windows Server 2008, but is not enabled by default. Its name is a backronym for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and...

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 via Remote Desktop Connection from an Aero-enabled Vista host.)

On May 15, 2008, Microsoft released Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1, which added support for both Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 as guest and host OSes, as well as Windows Server 2008 Standard as a guest OS. A hotfix

Hotfix

A hotfix was originally the term applied to software patches that were applied to live i.e. still running systems. Similar use of the terms can be seen in hot swappable disk drives...

rollup for Virtual PC 2007 SP1, released February 20, 2009, solved networking issues and enhanced the maximum screen resolution to 2048×1920 (32-bit), enabling 16:9 resolutions such as 1920×1080. A security update was released on 14 July 2009 to address an elevation of privilege vulnerability in guest operating systems.

Release dates of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Date	Version	Description
2006-10-11	6.0.122	Beta
2007-01-02	6.0.142	Release Candidate 1
2007-02-22	6.0.156	Release to Manufacturing
2008-05-15	6.0.192	Service Pack Service pack A service pack is a collection of updates, fixes or enhancements to a software program delivered in the form of a single installable package. Many companies, such as Microsoft or Autodesk, typically release a service pack when the number of individual patches to a given program reaches a certain ... 1
2009-02-20	6.0.210	Update
2009-07-14		Security Update MS09-33

Windows Virtual PC entered public beta testing on April 30, 2009, and was released alongside Windows 7. Unlike its predecessors, this version supports only Windows 7 host operating systems. It originally required hardware 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.

Windows Virtual PC is available free of charge for certain editions of Windows 7, either pre-installed by OEMs

Original Equipment Manufacturer

An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...

or via download from the Microsoft website.

New features

USB support and redirection – connect peripherals such as flash drives and digital cameras, and print from the guest to host OS printers. However, USB isochronous transfer mode is not supported
Seamless application publishing and launching – run Windows XP Mode applications directly from the Windows 7 desktop
Support for multithreading
Multithreading (computer hardware)
Multithreading computers have hardware support to efficiently execute multiple threads. These are distinguished from multiprocessing systems in that the threads have to share the resources of a single core: the computing units, the CPU caches and the translation lookaside buffer...

– run multiple virtual machines concurrently, each in its own thread for improved stability and performance
Smart card
Smart card
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...

redirection – use smart cards connected to the host
Integration with Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...

– manage all VMs from a single Explorer folder (%USER%\Virtual Machines)

Removed features

The Virtual Machine console is replaced by an integrated Virtual Machines shell folder. Several options from the console have been removed such as Restore 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.
Official guest support for operating systems earlier than Windows XP Professional
Drag-and-drop file sharing between the guest and the host
Direct sharing of folders between host and guest operating system (Only volumes may be shared between operating systems)
Ability to commit changes in undo disks upon turning off virtual machines (Doing so is now only possible through virtual machine Settings dialog box)
Ability to use physical and virtual Parallel ports
User interface controls for using virtual floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...

s (Virtual floppy disk functionality, however, is still supported and may be accessed using a script)
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.
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.

System requirements

System requirements for Windows Virtual PC:

Computer running Windows 7 (all editions except Starter)
1+ GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
1.25 GB memory
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...

required, 2 GB recommended
Additional 15 GB of hard disk space per virtual Windows environment recommended
Optional: if the processor supports hardware-assisted virtualization technology such as AMD-V or Intel-VT, it will be used. Before March 19, 2010, such a processor was mandatory.

Windows XP Mode

Windows XP Mode (XPM) is a virtual machine package for Windows Virtual PC containing a pre-installed, licensed copy of Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 as its guest OS. Previously, both the CPU and motherboard of the host had to support hardware virtualization, but an update in early 2010 eliminated this requirement. Pre-installed integration components allow applications running within the virtualized environment to appear as if running directly on the host, sharing the native desktop and Start Menu

Start menu

The Start Menu and Start Button are user interface elements used in the later versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems and in some X window managers...

of Windows 7 as well as participating in file type associations. Windows XP Mode applications run in a Terminal Services

Terminal Services

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, formerly known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and previous versions, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network, using the Remote Desktop...

session in the virtualized Windows XP, and are accessed via Remote Desktop Protocol

Remote Desktop Protocol

Remote Desktop Protocol is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft, which provides a user with a graphical interface to another computer. The protocol is an extension of the ITU-T T.128 application sharing protocol. Clients exist for most versions of Microsoft Windows , Linux, Unix, Mac OS...

by a client running on the Windows 7 host.

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. For 64-bit editions of Windows 7, XP Mode may be used to run 16-bit applications; it includes NTVDM.

Windows XP Mode is available free of charge to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. Users of other editions of Windows 7 are not eligible to download and use it. This restriction does not apply to Windows Virtual PC itself.

Windows XP Mode can also be run with the VMware Player

VMware Player

VMware Player is a freeware virtualization software package from VMware, Inc. . VMware Player can run virtual appliances. VMware Player can also create virtual machines since version 3.0...

and VMware Workstation

VMware Workstation

VMware Workstation is a virtual machine software suite for x86 and x86-64 computers from VMware, a division of EMC Corporation, which allows users to set up multiple x86 and x86-64 virtual machines and use one or more of these virtual machines simultaneously with the hosting operating system...

. However, VMware products only import Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate to adhere with Microsoft licensing requirements.

Emulated environment

Virtual PC emulates the following environments:

Intel Pentium II
Pentium II
The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors, the Pentium II featured an improved version of the first P6-generation core of the Pentium Pro, which contained 5.5 million...

(32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....

) processor (but virtualizes the host processor on Windows versions) with an Intel 440BX
Intel 440BX
The Intel 440BX , is a chipset from Intel, supporting Pentium II, Pentium III, and Celeron processors. It is also known as the i440BX and was released in April 1998...

chipset.
Standard SVGA VESA
VESA
VESA is an international standards body for computer graphics founded in 1989 by NEC Home Electronics and eight other video display adapter manufacturers.VESA's initial goal was to produce a standard for 800×600 SVGA resolution video displays...

graphics card (S3 Trio
S3 Trio
The S3 Trio range were popular graphics chipsets for personal computers and were S3's first fully integrated graphics accelerators. As the name implies, three previously separate components were now included in the same ASIC: the graphics core, RAMDAC and clock generator...

32 PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect
Conventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer...

with 4 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...

video RAM, adjustable in later versions up to 16 MB by manually editing a virtual machine's settings file).
System BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....

from American Megatrends
American Megatrends
American Megatrends Incorporated is an American hardware and software company that specializes in PC hardware and firmware. The company was founded in 1985 by Pat Sarma and S. Shankar, who was chairman and president...

(AMI).
Creative Labs Sound Blaster
Sound Blaster
The Sound Blaster family of sound cards was the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, until the widespread transition to Microsoft Windows 95, which standardized the programming interface at application level , and the evolution in PC design led to onboard...

16 ISA
Industry Standard Architecture
Industry Standard Architecture is a computer bus standard for IBM PC compatible computers introduced with the IBM Personal Computer to support its Intel 8088 microprocessor's 8-bit external data bus and extended to 16 bits for the IBM Personal Computer/AT's Intel 80286 processor...

PnP. (When 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.)
DEC
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...

21041 (DEC 21140 in newer versions) Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....

card.
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and earlier do not have the ability to redirect USB devices to the guest machine, although devices connected to the host OS via USB can be used as normal by Virtual PC.
Programs using undocumented features of hardware, exotic timings, or unsupported opcodes may not work.

Implementation:

The Macintosh version of Virtual PC uses dynamic recompilation
Dynamic recompilation
In computer science, dynamic recompilation is a feature of some emulators and virtual machines, where the system may recompile some part of a program during execution...

to translate the x86 code used by PCs into equivalent PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...

code for Macs.
The Windows version of Virtual PC also uses dynamic recompilation, but only to translate x86 kernel mode and real mode
Real mode
Real mode, also called real address mode, is an operating mode of 80286 and later x86-compatible CPUs. Real mode is characterized by a 20 bit segmented memory address space and unlimited direct software access to all memory, I/O addresses and peripheral hardware...

code into x86 user mode code; original user mode and virtual 8086 mode
Virtual 8086 mode
In the 80386 microprocessor and later, virtual 8086 mode allows the execution of real mode applications that are incapable of running directly in protected mode while the processor is running a protected mode operating system.VM86 mode uses a segmentation scheme identical to that of real mode In...

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 and Virtual Server
Microsoft Virtual Server
Microsoft Virtual Server is a virtualization solution that facilitates the creation of virtual machines on the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Originally developed by Connectix, it was acquired by Microsoft prior to release...

encapsulate virtual hard disks in the Virtual Hard Disk
VHD (file format)
A Virtual Hard Disk is a virtual hard disk file format, meaning it can contain what is found on a physical hard disk drive, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine...

(VHD) file format, for which Microsoft has made all documentation available under the Open Specification Promise
Microsoft Open Specification Promise
The Microsoft Open Specification Promise , is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert legal rights over certain Microsoft patents on implementations of an included list of technologies....

.

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 the Virtual Hard Disk
VHD (file format)
A Virtual Hard Disk is a virtual hard disk file format, meaning it can contain what is found on a physical hard disk drive, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine...

file. Newer versions must partition and format the Virtual Hard Disk
VHD (file format)
A Virtual Hard Disk is a virtual hard disk file format, meaning it can contain what is found on a physical hard disk drive, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine...

file manually.
A Virtual 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 of Apple System 7.5
System 7
System 7 is the name of a Macintosh operating system introduced in 1991.System 7 may also refer to:* System 7 , a British dance/ambient band* System 7 , 1991 album* IBM System/7, a 1970s computer system...

was dropped in version 3.

Virtual machine integration components

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:

Mouse cursor sharing: Mouse cursor can be move freely between the machines.
Host-initiated shutdown: Virtual machine can be shut down, restarted or put into standby or hibernation via a set of API 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 simply be changed by resizing the window into which it is running.

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:

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 to Windows Clipboard
Clipboard (software)
The clipboard is a software facility that can be used for short-term data storage and/or data transfer between documents or applications, via copy and paste operations...

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 card
Smart card
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...

s connected to host operating system may be accessed on guest operating systems.
File sharing: Windows Virtual PC can also share disk partitions and disk drives of the host operating system with guest operating systems. This includes USB mass storage devices that are connected later.

In Windows Virtual PC, enabling integration features automatically makes the virtual machine user account accessible using Remote Desktop Connection.

Supported host and guest operating systems

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 own licensing restrictions, or a decision to focus testing and support resources elsewhere, especially when production use of a legacy product fades.

A program manager on Microsoft's core virtualization team explains what official support entails:
As a product positioned for desktop use, Virtual PC provides official support for a different set of operating systems than its server-oriented counterpart, Microsoft Virtual Server

Microsoft Virtual Server

and the more advanced Hyper-V

Hyper-V

Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian and formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, is a hypervisor-based virtualization system for x86-64 systems. A beta version of Hyper-V was shipped with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008, and the finalized version was released on June 26,...

. While the latter products support a range of server operating systems, Virtual PC 2007 supports only one variety as host and another as guest; its successor, Windows Virtual PC, supports none. And, whereas Virtual Server and Hyper-V have officially supported select Linux

Linux

guests since 2006 and 2008, respectively, , no Microsoft release of Virtual PC has officially supported Linux. Nonetheless, a number of Linux distribution

Linux distribution

A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...

s do run successfully in Virtual PC 2007, and can be used with the Virtual Machine Additions from Virtual Server (see below). Lastly, while 64-bit host support was introduced with Virtual PC 2007, release has been able to virtualize a 64-bit guest; Microsoft has thus far reserved this functionality for Hyper-V, which runs only on 64-bit (x64) editions of Windows Server 2008.

Table of supported operating systems

In the following table and notes, "support" refers to official Microsoft support, as described above.

	Virtual PC 2004			Virtual PC 2007			Windows Virtual PC
Operating system (host or guest?)	Host		Guest	Host		Guest	Host		Guest
Operating system (host or guest?)	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit
Windows 7 Ultimate	No	No	No	No	No	No				No
Windows 7 Enterprise	No	No	No	No	No	No				No
Windows 7 Professional	No	No	No	No	No	No				No
Windows 7 Home Premium	No	No	No	No	No	No				No
Windows 7 Home Basic	No	No	No	No	No	No				No
Windows 7 Starter	No		No	No		No	No		No
Windows Server 2008 Standard	No	No	No	No	No		No	No	No	No
Windows Vista Ultimate	No	No	No				No	No		No
Windows Vista Enterprise	No	No	No				No	No		No
Windows Vista Business	No	No	No				No	No		No
Windows Vista Home Premium	No	No	No				No	No	No	No
Windows Vista Home Basic	No	No	No				No	No	No	No
Windows Vista Starter	No		No	No			No		No
Windows Server 2003 Standard		No					No	No	No	No
Windows XP Professional		No					No	No		No
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition							No		No
Windows XP Media Center Edition	No		No	No		No	No		No
Windows XP Home Edition	No						No		No
Windows XP Starter Edition	No			No			No		No
Windows 2000 Server	No			No			No		No
Windows 2000 Professional				No			No		No
Windows Me Windows Me Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....	No			No		No	No		No
Windows 98 Second Edition	No			No			No		No
Windows 98 Windows 98 Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid... (original release)	No			No		No	No		No
Windows 95 Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...	No			No		No	No		No
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation	No			No		No	No		No
Windows NT 3.51 Workstation	No		No	No		No	No		No
Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.1 is the first release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems, and was released to manufacturing on 27 July 1993. The version number was chosen to match the one of Windows 3.1, the then-latest operating environment from Microsoft, on account of... \| NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.5 is the second release of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. It was released on 21 September 1994.One of the primary goals during Windows NT 3.5's development was to increase the speed of the operating system; as a result, the project was given the codename "Daytona" in...	No		No	No		No	No		No
IBM OS/2 (select editions)	No			No			No		No

	16-bit		16-bit	16-bit		16-bit	16-bit		16-bit
Windows 3.1	No		No	No		No	No		No
Windows 3.0 Windows 3.0 Windows 3.0, a graphical environment, is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, and was released on 22 May 1990. It became the first widely successful version of Windows and a rival to Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga on the GUI front...	No		No	No		No	No		No
MS-DOS 6.22	No			No		No	No		No

LEGEND

Microsoft support

Yes

Supported

Not supported

Version nonexistent

Notes – Details of Microsoft support

Supported editions: OS/2 Warp Version 4 Fix Pack 15, OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 1, and OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 2.

Support added in Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition as a host.

For Virtual PC 2007, Microsoft designated the following legacy
Legacy system
A legacy system is an old method, technology, computer system, or application program that continues to be used, typically because it still functions for the users' needs, even though newer technology or more efficient methods of performing a task are now available...

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.

For Windows Vista guests in Virtual PC 2007, the Windows Aero
Windows Aero
Windows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, operating systems released by Microsoft. It is also available in Windows Server 2008, but is not enabled by default. Its name is a backronym for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and...

graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

is disabled due to limitations of the emulated S3 Trio
S3 Trio
The S3 Trio range were popular graphics chipsets for personal computers and were S3's first fully integrated graphics accelerators. As the name implies, three previously separate components were now included in the same ASIC: the graphics core, RAMDAC and clock generator...

graphics card; the interface falls back to the Vista Home Basic theme. However, Aero effects can be rendered by connecting to the guest via Remote Desktop Connection from an Aero-enabled host.

Support added in Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2008 Standard as a guest.

Microsoft's January 2008 EULA supplement for Windows Vista lifted restrictions barring installation of Vista Home Basic and Home Premium as guest operating systems.

Microsoft's January 2008 EULA supplement for Windows Vista lifted restrictions barring use of BitLocker and Microsoft-DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

-protected content within virtualized environments.

Support added in a Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) hotfix
Hotfix
A hotfix was originally the term applied to software patches that were applied to live i.e. still running systems. Similar use of the terms can be seen in hot swappable disk drives...

rollup, dated February 20, 2009, for Windows XP Home as both host and guest, and for all Home editions of Windows Vista as hosts.

The pre-configured XP Mode of Windows Virtual PC is restricted to Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate hosts. 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 from Microsoft) to enable seamless mode and other Windows 7 integration features.

The integration components enabling seamless mode and other features of Windows Virtual PC support only the following guests: Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3 (SP3); Windows Vista Business SP1, Enterprise SP1, and Ultimate SP1; and Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

Notes – Not supported installations

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.

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.

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.

MSDN blogs
MSDN Blogs
MSDN Blogs is Microsoft's blog site where many of its employees blog to a public audience. It has both individual blogs and product or feature-related blogs...

report that pre-release versions of Windows 7, similar to the forthcoming Ultimate edition, run successfully as both host and guest operating systems on Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Integration features provided by Virtual Machine Additions function normally, but Virtual PC 2007 must be SP1 or later. See "Windows 7 on Virtual PC on Windows 7" for more caveats.

Although Windows NT 3.1
Windows NT 3.1
Windows NT 3.1 is the first release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems, and was released to manufacturing on 27 July 1993. The version number was chosen to match the one of Windows 3.1, the then-latest operating environment from Microsoft, on account of...

and NT 3.5
Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 3.5 is the second release of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. It was released on 21 September 1994.One of the primary goals during Windows NT 3.5's development was to increase the speed of the operating system; as a result, the project was given the codename "Daytona" in...

refuse to install on newer processors (NT 3.51
Windows NT 3.51
Windows NT 3.51 is the third release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems. It was released on 30 May 1995, nine months after Windows NT 3.5. The release provided two notable feature improvements; firstly NT 3.51 was the first of a short-lived outing of Microsoft Windows on the...

fixes this), it is possible to modify files on the install CD to allow install.

Linux guests

Installing a Linux-based guest environment in Virtual PC is possible. RedHat and SuSe Linux guests are supported. Linux additions are supported in Microsoft Virtual Server

Microsoft Virtual Server

, and these additions should also work in Virtual PC.

Some Linux distribution

Linux distribution

s must be installed in text mode, as they do not support Microsoft Virtual PC's emulated graphics chip. Ubuntu

Ubuntu (operating system)

Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of 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.

Intel-based Mac support

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

announced on August 7, 2006, that Virtual PC for Mac would not be ported to the Intel Mac platform. Microsoft stated, "Alternative solutions offered by Apple and other vendors, combined with a fully packaged retail copy of Windows, will satisfy this need." Similar products available at the time were Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion is a virtual machine software product developed by VMware for Macintosh computers with Intel processors. Fusion allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 and x86-64 "guest" operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris as virtual machines simultaneously with Mac OS...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Virtual PC by Connectix

Microsoft Virtual PC