Virtual PC 2004 now free! (Windows version only) Plus free beta of VPC 2007!

This is a good app to run multiple/older versions of Windows under Windows (like in Boot Camp). Makes it nice if you're switching and want to dump your old development PCs. If you want to do this inside OS X, you can run Parallels, but if you happen to work in XP under Boot Camp often, you may find this useful (think of it as Parallels but for Windows). This is NOT the Mac version of VPC, unfortunately.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Sadly i don't really see the reason to use a virtual PC if i would be running bootcamp. It's either parallels or bootcamp, what else do you need. Just makes for more expenses, plus why use windows as the default instead of using OS X and VP windows xp?

Kuturagi said:

Sadly i don't really see the reason to use a virtual PC if i would be running bootcamp. It's either parallels or bootcamp, what else do you need. Just makes for more expenses, plus why use windows as the default instead of using OS X and VP windows xp?

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Yeah, exactly. I'm guessing they released it since they just dropped support for Windows 98 and Windows ME. They also release a new OS for older computers called Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,126408,00.asp

i downloaded vpc last night in hopes that the vista beta will run on it. i tried it on parallels, but they don't support acpi at this point so it won't work. i'll have to give vpc a try later.

The 2007 version is supposed to be for Vista,but I don't see it anywhere on MS's site...

Pretty cool, but i wish the MAC version of it was out so i could use windows on the Mac Mini.

If you are interested in this stuff, MS also offers Virtual Server 2005 R2 for free:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/default.mspx

and VMware is offering some of their virtualization products for free as well:

http://www.vmware.com/

VMware also has Linux Versions and has downloadable preconfigured virtual machines available.

kaidomac said:

The 2007 version is supposed to be for Vista,but I don't see it anywhere on MS's site...

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It says on their website that it won't be released until next year, but that it will be free when it is released.

Kuturagi said:

Sadly i don't really see the reason to use a virtual PC if i would be running bootcamp. It's either parallels or bootcamp, what else do you need. Just makes for more expenses, plus why use windows as the default instead of using OS X and VP windows xp?

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Because some people still have ooooooollld macs (like November 2005) with PowerPC chips in them .

I just upped my RAM to 1.5 GB and hope to be running VPC rather smoothly for some little apps. I like that it's inside OSX rather than having to boot seperately.