Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What's the Best OS for VirtualPC 7?

M

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Original poster
I'm finally going to break down and buy a copy of VirutalPC so I can preview sites I'm building on IE without having to go use a PC at work.

This left me wondering which OS I should buy it with: 2000, XP Home, or XP Pro.

Personally, I prefer 2000, and I'm guessing it'll be faster (though I do have a DP G5), but since my entire purpose is to get versions of IE installed on a couple of different drive images, I'm wondering if 2000 is going to hold me back at all or if for some reason XP runs better under VPC.

What do other people use?
 
My vote is for 2000.

In my experience it runs much faster than XP under VPC - although some have suggested that turning off all the "extras" in XP improved performance.
 
I haven't actually tried XP in VPC, so I can't really give a fair comparison, but I'm running 2000, and it works quite well. My vote is for 2000. For just previewing sites in IE, 2000 will work just as well as XP, so that's what I go with.
 
I have Win2K, XP SP2, and SuSE 9.2 running in VPC. It has been my experience that XP runs about the same as Win2K so long as all "effects" are turned off in XP. SuSE 9.2 seems to run slowest.
 
Ouch..

What a nasty decision to make!
Rubbish, trash or crap? Hmm.
I have XP, 1GHz G4 - can't quite bring myself to express how slow VPC can be.
You may be better off looking in the bargain bins in PC shops and getting a dirt cheap PC (can use monitor sharing if you already have one). It'll probably run quicker anyway!
Hope all goes well.
 
Sounds like 2000 is probably the better option, then. Shame that it's actually more expensive by $30 than either XP version. Oh well.

James Philp said:
Rubbish, trash or crap? Hmm.
Click to expand...
Heh... this is pretty much how I feel about it.

James Philp said:
You may be better off looking in the bargain bins in PC shops and getting a dirt cheap PC (can use monitor sharing if you already have one).
Click to expand...
Using VNC with a hardware PC would obviously be far faster, and cheaper if I can find a working used PC with Windows installed, but that assumes that I have the space for a hardware PC and it doesn't take more time to preview a site on the hardware PC than on a local VPC copy. No, even if I did have somewhere to stuff a physical PC (which I don't) it's just easier to preview with VPC, and the speed doesn't matter much since all I need is IE running once in a rare while.
 
There's a lot of threads on this already, although my standard response has been to use Win2K if you don't need any XP-specific features. I occasionally use VPC, and on my system it crawls with XP but is reasonably useful with 2K.

Other tips: unless you need it, leave the VRAM setting at its minimum; and, if you have enough RAM to allocate the full 512MB to your VPC disk, then do so: it really does help.
 
Makosuke said:
No, even if I did have somewhere to stuff a physical PC (which I don't) it's just easier to preview with VPC, and the speed doesn't matter much since all I need is IE running once in a rare while.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. Just bear in mind that a legal copy of VPC with any of them will cost quite a lot.
On the Apple store current price is ~$250! Ouch! (XP Pro version)But of coure, there are PLENTY of places cheaper than the Apple Store! 😉
 
It sort of depends what you want to do on the PC because each new Windows OS gives you a few more options but slows down significantly. For me, the best compromise is 2000 because XP is just a little too slow on my 800MHz iBook. 🙁

But geez, 2000 is one fugly GUI!
 
I was going to suggest something like BrowserCam.com but they seem to be more expensive than virtualpc... pathetic. good luck whatever you do.
 
Logik said:
I was going to suggest something like BrowserCam.com but they seem to be more expensive than virtualpc... pathetic.
Click to expand...
Yeah, considering how many web developers are out there, the number and extravagant cost of BrowserCam-type services is rather shocking. Especially considering that the fellow offering the same thing for Safari for free proves that it can't be THAT expensive to put together.

Heck, with how hard it is to get multiple versions of IE installed even on a physical Wintel box (which is among the reasons I'm looking to VPC over hardware) you'd think they'd be popular even with people who didn't much care about alternative browser compatibility.
 
Thanks!

plinden said:
To disable unnecessary services (there are a lot in Windows) but to make sure you don't accidentally disable necessary services, follow the guidelines at www.blackviper.com. I've always found it a big help since I can never remember which are needed.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link. This will help speed up VPC even more.

Nuc
 
Depends...

For VPC speed-wise, you would want 2000...

If you are not concerned with speed as much as quality (like services, etc.) then go XP...

each one has their pros and cons:

2000
-------
PROS:
you can use it on more than 1 machine without calling MS
has all the functionality of XP, but in a "beta-like" stage
secure
easy to find apps for it now that XP and 2000 run on the same technology
runs fast on VPC
CONS:
older OS
less suported
a few bugs
confusing for Windows "beginers"

XP
------
PROS:
Up to date
"stable" OS
every pro of 2000
CONS:
can use once without calling MS
slow on VPC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back