November, 2002

Multiple operating systems with minimal fuss

For years now, several software vendors have offered solutions touting the ability to run multiple operating systems on one computer. This prospect has a great deal of appeal to computer hobbyists and small business owners with a need to serve clients who use something other than Windows or who troubleshoot multiple versions of Windows. In addition, the increasing popularity of Linux has tempted many Windows users to try it out, but most don't want to invest in a second PC just to test an operating system.

Past solutions I've used have been downright dangerous, requiring complicated and risky drive partitioning operations. I've managed to lose huge amounts of data attempting to make two operating systems coexist on the same hard drive. In addition, switching from one operating system to another meant rebooting.

All that changed when I got my hands on a review copy of Virtual PC 5 for Windows, published by Connectix. Virtual PC does the hard work for you. Partitioning, OS installation and ease of use are excellent. No rebooting is required.

While Virtual PC is incredibly easy to set up and install, it doesn't support as wide a range of operating systems as some of the other products I've tried. I tested with PC-DOS, Red Hat Linux 8.0, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows Millennium, all running inside of Windows XP Professional.

With the exception of Red Hat Linux, I had no problems installing a new OS or running business related software at all. The only problem I encountered with Linux was that the OS could not

Windows Millennium runs in the large background window while Linux loads in the foreground window.

detect a sound card, and therefore, no sound was available. The manual states that Virtual PC "emulates a Creative Labs PCI Sound Blaster 16 card," so we weren't certain why it couldn't be detected, as this card is supported by Red Hat Linux 8.

Virtual PC has a file sharing feature that allows guest OSes to see the host OS. It allows CD and floppy disk imaging, printing, from a guest OS, basic joystick controls and other useful functions.

What doesn't work? USB and Firewire connections do not function in a guest OS, which knocks out many scanners and newer printers, along with digital cameras and some other types of devices. This lack of crossover is especially irritating if you have a USB mouse.

Many games I tested also failed to function. Civilization III, Black and White, and Sacrifice would install but not load in both Windows 98 SE and Windows Me.

Virtual PC is a good product and the idea behind it is wonderful. Excellent ease of installation and set up are somewhat offset by the limited success I had in getting some software to run.

Connectix claims that the guest OS will run at up to 95% as fast as it would natively, but I didn't see that type of result. Installing Office 2000 in a guest environment took well over an hour. Startup and shutdown of applications also took significantly longer than it would have in the host OS. Business applications did run at fairly normal speeds once they had loaded in memory, however.

This product isn't perfect, and it isn't for everyone - yet. Maybe version 6 will support more peripherals and have strong gaming compatibility.

If you're interested in training on multiple OSes, Virtual PC is an excellent tool. Virtual PC might also work excellently in a help desk environment with business applications. A business that was migrating from Windows NT 4 to Windows XP also might find it useful in order to run an application that won't function natively.

System Requirements

Copyright 2002, Trevor Snyder, All Rights Reserved