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General discussion

XP Visulization under Vista

Oct 18, 2007 6:57AM PDT

I have a new HP Vista Laptop. I'm not crazy about Vista, but it looks nice and has some nifty features.

One this is for sure, however, I have some business software that will not run on Vista, therefore I must have XP. From everything I've read it seems like a pain to downgrade to XP, so I thought I'd try Virtulization, running XP in Vista.

Does anyone have experience doing that one way or the other?

Discussion is locked

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You'll need Virtual PC...
Oct 18, 2007 8:33AM PDT
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I tried this
Oct 18, 2007 1:02PM PDT

Found Virtual PC to be clunky and difficult to use. Great idea, I hope they can make it fly some day. There are other free virtual software options out there, if you look.

I'd suggest you buy a second Hard drive and mount XP on it. This works far better and in the future you could mirror the second drive with vista as a back up against hard drive crashes. Cost maybe $75.00 dollars, if you shop around.(this thread is not tracked)

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Have a Second Hard Drive
Oct 18, 2007 3:30PM PDT

Yeah, I bought a laptop with two 250GB HDs, so I am good there, but when I tried to use VMPlayer I got the XP Install disk running, but XP could only see the hard drive I was on.........

As I was typing I realized my problem. I should have put the virtualization software on the second HD and then THAT is the one XP would have wanted to install to.

Figured it out.

As for which to use, yeah, I am debating between using Microsoft's Vizualization software or this free one from (http://www.vmware.com/) VM Ware?

Thanks to both of you for the thought inspiring thoughts!

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I prefer VMWare Server...
Oct 19, 2007 12:43AM PDT

VMWare Player is fine, but Server is also free and far more capable, letting you actually create virtual machines. It supports a wider range of both host and guest OSes than Virtual PC, lets you backup an existing state, and more. Either will likely work for your purposes, but VMWare is my choice.

John

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Hmm, I am Confused......
Oct 19, 2007 7:19AM PDT

John, thank you for your post, but I don't quite get it. You said that Server is far more capable", but that VMWare is your choice. I don't quite get it....


Kelley

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VMWare Server...
Oct 19, 2007 8:11AM PDT

VMWare is the company name, so while the products are VMWare Player and VMWare Server I occasionally leave it as Player and Server since typing VMWare every time seems repetitive in some cases. And when I say I choose VMWare I refer to both of their products being better than Microsoft's alternative, Virtual PC. Sorry for the confusion.

John