Vuirtualbox Vmware Parallels

Hi,
I have used Vmware to run XP for about 5 years now, on a 2008 iMac.
Recently sold iMac and bought a mini. Decided to try XP in Virtualbox.
There must be a reason why people use Vmware and Parallels over Virtualbox, but having run it now for about a week, I can't see why?
It appears to run fast and flawlessly.
What am I missing?

For most things VirtualBox does a great a job, however for specific things Parallels and VMWare Fusion do a much better job than VB. Applications like 3D rendering or some games, also both Parallels and VMWare have better USB support.

I personally use VMWare fusion..

But if VB works for you, that's great..

This is why I tried VB first. It's free, so if it proved to be insufficient for my needs I could always move on to a free trial of one of the other VMs. But, like the OP, I also am perfectly happy with it running Windows 7 on my late 2012 iMac. My Windows/VM needs are quite simple, so this was a good solution for me.

I always recommend users try out VirtualBox first. Granted it's a "no frills" VM app but for most folks it will do just fine. I ran XP in VirtualBox for quite some time and was happy with its performance. The best thing about is its price, free.

I've been using VirtualBox on Leopard/Snow Leopard for over 3 years to run Win XP Pro SP3. I'm not a power user, and it worked fine for everything I've tried to do with it. Initially I had Parallels Desktop 3, which I liked fine. When I "upgraded" to Parallels 4 it worked but it was slower than 3, too slow for me to use it much. Many of my fellow Parallels users reported the same lack of performance. When Parallels 5 was released people were saying it solved the speed issue, but I would have had to pay for the upgrade. I wasn't about to do that just to fix an issue that was inherent in a program that I had already paid for. Then I heard about VirtualBox available at no cost. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I tried it. I got my speed back, and I've been using it happily ever since.

MYmacROX said:

This is why I tried VB first. It's free, so if it proved to be insufficient for my needs I could always move on to a free trial of one of the other VMs. But, like the OP, I also am perfectly happy with it running Windows 7 on my late 2012 iMac. My Windows/VM needs are quite simple, so this was a good solution for me.

Click to expand...

When running XP in Virtualbox the window scaling works fine once Guest Additions are installed, but I can't get the scaling right with Windows 7.
Does yours scale OK, and if so, what's the trick?

Thanks

neilf said:

When running XP in Virtualbox the window scaling works fine once Guest Additions are installed, but I can't get the scaling right with Windows 7.
Does yours scale OK, and if so, what's the trick?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Yes, scaling works once I added the guest additions. I don't know what I did differently from you, but guest additions was the first thing I did after install and it looks fine now.