© 11-23-05 Dr. Neale Monks

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• Product Name: Virtual PC 7.0.2 for Mac (Upgrade)
• Company: Microsoft
• URL: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc
• Category: Emulation Software
• Price:
  • Upgrade: $99
  • Full Version: $129
  • Full Version with XP Home: $219
  • Full Version with XP Pro or 2000 Pro: $249
• Requirements: 700 MHz G3 or better; at least 512 MB RAM
• Rating:
  • As an upgrade: 3 Bounces - Lustworthy
  • As a standalone: 4 bounces - Pure Lust

When we last looked at Virtual PC, I was impressed by its relative simplicity, performance, and flexibility. While ultimately bought by Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, Virtual PC 6 was originally a Connectix program; it is only with the release of Virtual PC 7 do we see Microsoft turning out an entirely new version of the industry standard Windows emulation program. The question is, does Microsoft’s understanding of Windows mean that the program will develop in new and noteworthy ways? The answer is a categorical “maybe”.

Critics of Virtual PC focus primarily on its speed. Certainly, it isn’t a program for running software where performance is essential, such as games or graphics editing software. Nor does it make much sense to run Virtual PC on a Mac if you need to spend the majority of your time working with Windows programs. After all, a budget PC doesn’t cost very much more than Virtual PC, priced at around $250 the full package including a copy of Microsoft Windows XP Pro. Even an entry-level PC will run Windows applications several times faster than Virtual PC.

Virtual PC allows Mac users to do Windows -- within limits

If, on the other hand, you want a way of occasionally running Windows software on a Mac, then Virtual PC can be a cost-effective and efficient solution. Common uses for Virtual PC include previewing web pages, running Windows-only database and cataloguing software, and transferring data between a Mac and electronic devices that don’t have Mac-compatible utility or management software. In short, any situation where your need for a Windows computer can be measured in minutes rather than hours and where compatibility rather than speed is the key.

So, what does Microsoft bring to the mix with Virtual PC 7? The chief feature for many Mac users will be G5 support -- Virtual PC 6 wasn’t compatible with the G5 processor. While welcome, this isn’t going to be a big selling point for people with G4 machines like the Mac Mini and PowerBooks. If you have a G5, then Virtual PC 7 is what you want, but if you don’t, is the upgrade compelling? Let’s look deeper into Virtual PC 7 and find out.

Installation

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Mac Business Unit really does have manuals and installers down to a fine art. Given the complexity of the program and the potential problems configuring things like network connections and shared folders, Virtual PC 7 upgraded my copy of Virtual PC 6 quickly and painlessly. Two manuals are supplied with upgrade package, an 80-page manual, and foldout overview ‘poster’ slightly larger than a sheet of legal-sized paper. The only fly in the ointment was that the overview poster appears to have been written for the full-install package and doesn’t really cover upgrading; for that topic you need to turn to page 42 in the manual. Of particular importance are the import commands, which you’ll need to use in different ways depending on which version of Virtual PC you were running before and whether or not you were running Windows or some other operating system such as Linux.

Once you’ve updated the program, some items on the Windows hard drive get edited as well, through a simple Installer wizard.

My Virtual PC 6 hard drive and settings were imported successfully, including my Windows XP product key and activation codes. I did need to enter a new application registration code for Virtual PC 7 itself of course. Shared folders and Ethernet connections carried across fine, but I did need to create a new wireless network connection. In itself this was no bad thing -- Airport connections in Virtual PC 6 were a bit flaky and unreliable, but those in Virtual PC 7 seem to be much more reliable. About the only big difference I noticed was that launching Virtual PC 7 didn’t automatically launch my virtual machine either, as it had done in Virtual PC 6. If you want to launch a particular virtual machine quickly, click on its hard drive icon instead.

Icons for Windows applications now appear in the Dock

As far as differences between Virtual PC 6 and 7 go, they’re slight but significant. Windows applications now appear in the Dock and as application icons when you Command + Tab between things. More items have been shunted out of the global application preferences and into the preferences for specific virtual machines, making it easier to configure each machine for specific tasks and operating systems. The online help has been improved dramatically, and figuring out solutions to problems is much more intuitive.

The 17 MB Virtual PC updater is a little odd compared with most other applications in that it demands a reboot of the computer.

Microsoft recently released an updater for Virtual PC, taking it to version 7.0.2. Not much information was available as to what it actually fixed, beyond improvements to overall stability and compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS X Tiger. One notable thing about the updater is that it demands you restart the computer once you’re done. This would seem to indicate that it patches the operating system as well as the Virtual PC application, which is relatively unusual among OS X applications.

Performance

Launching and quitting Virtual PC 7 is noticeably faster than before. Shutting down is the slower of the two operations, but still only takes about twenty of seconds to complete. In contrast, Virtual PC 6 often took a minute or more to shut down. Starting up the virtual machine is even quicker: while not instantaneous, it’s close enough for government work. By my estimates, Virtual PC itself is good to go within a second, and my virtual machine is ready to use after about 10 to 15 seconds. Virtual PC also behaves remarkably well when it comes to sharing memory and processor time. When active, Virtual PC uses up something like 50-60% of the CPU time on my 1 GHz PowerBook, dropping down to around 2% when the virtual machine is paused, as it is when running in the background or minimised into the Dock. Virtual PC takes up a fair chunk of resources, when saving the state of the virtual machine, again around 50% of the CPU time, so you will probably notice a drop in your computer’s performance for a short while after exiting the program.

Virtual PC launches and quits more quickly than before.

However, while the Virtual PC application itself may feel sprightly, Windows XP still runs very slowly within the emulation. This isn’t to say that Virtual PC isn’t faster than before, it is, but the differences are modest at best. Microsoft tout speed increases compared to Virtual PC 6 of around 10 to 30 percent, and my own experience of the program does seem to support this sort of figure: it’s not much faster, but it’s certainly a little faster.

Another disappointment is that despite hopes to the contrary, Virtual PC still doesn’t use the Mac’s on-board 3D graphics acceleration. Slightly confusing to some users might be the fact that Virtual PC 7 takes advantage of the Macintosh implementation of OpenGL. While this does improve the way the Mac draws the Virtual PC window, resulting in faster redraws, Virtual PC cannot leverage this into the Windows applications themselves. In other words, while the Virtual PC is “graphics accelerated” the Windows programs it runs are not.

Features and issues

Two changes that pleased me were improved wireless network connectivity and simplified printing. Internet connections using an Airport card sometimes worked in Virtual PC 6, but often they didn’t. Microsoft recommend that you stick to the default Shared Network option when using Airport cards, and certainly by doing this I was able to connect to my home network and run Internet programs like Explorer and the Windows Updater within Virtual PC without any problems. The Virtual Switch option is more problematical, and Microsoft suggests that using Ethernet connections are preferable in this case. Virtual Switch networking is only really needed where the virtual machine needs to be recognised as a separate machine from the host Macintosh, or indeed any other virtual machines running on that Mac. In other words, it isn’t all that important for home users, but may be an issue in offices and labs where Virtual PC is being used to access things like databases or file sharing systems.

Printers connected to your Mac can be accessed by Windows without the need for printer drivers.

Printing is less of big deal for me and probably most other Mac users, since our machines tend to handle text and graphics outputting at least as well as a PC if not better. However, Microsoft have improved the way Virtual PC accesses printers, cutting out the need for Windows printer drivers on Macs running OS X 10.3 or later. The formidably named Virtual Machine Additions Printer allows you to print easily using a simple wizard that looks for printers connected to your network or directly into your Macintosh.

Conclusion

Since we’re reviewing the Virtual PC 7 upgrade rather than the standalone product, the question here is whether the new version is a worthwhile investment if you’re already running Virtual PC 6 on your G3 or G4 Macintosh. Launch and shutdown speeds have certainly been improved, OpenGL gives the interface a bit more snap, and reliable wireless networking and easier printing bring some tangible benefits to the mix. On the other hand, Virtual PC remains a less than perfect way to run Windows software: it’s still slow and it still doesn’t have 3D graphics acceleration. Provided you accept Virtual PC for what it is, it’s a great program, just don’t come to it expecting a cheap alternative to a real Windows computer.

As far as recommendations go, if wireless networking and printing aren’t big-ticket items, and you don’t need OS X 10.4 or G5 compatibility, then you will probably do fine sticking with Virtual PC 6. However, if those things are factors for you, then upgrading to Virtual PC 7 is probably a no-brainer and at $99 not outrageously expensive either. If you fall between these two stools, then all I can say is that Virtual PC 7 is a nice but not quite compelling upgrade, and while Microsoft have certainly improved upon a classic, we’ve not yet seen the birth of truly high-performance Windows emulation on the Mac. Possibly the Intel processor-based Macs will change that in the future, but for now Virtual PC 7 earns a solid 3 bounce rating on the Applelust scale.

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• Virtual PC 7 Upgrade

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