VirtualPC--What to do?


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I love the way virtualization has been implemented in Windows 7. XP Mode works almost seamlessly (except for longish launch times for the virtualized XP apps), and Virtual PC is now not so much an app as a suite of add-in Windows features. I installed the VPC and XPM betas on my desktop system, and I'm seriously impressed.

BUT... I also have a year-old Dell XPS 1530 laptop. I do development work on this machine, and I had an XP VM under VirtualPC in Vista. I've used this VM quite a bit, particularly for VB6 and Access 2003 projects.

Trouble is, the 1530 has a T7500 Intel dual-core, and it does NOT have the hardware support for virtualization needed for the new version of VPC. So far as I'm aware, the old VPC simply won't work on Win7.

So, what to do? I only bought this laptop last year, so I'm not going to ditch it yet (new one planned for next year). I've installed VMWare Player, which sort-of works (as long as I'm prepared to put up with 4-bit video).

The bigger question here is, how does Microsoft address the fact that when it comes to virtualization, they've actually reduced functionality from Vista to Windows 7?

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virtualbox maybe a solution ? it's more an issue with intel then microsoft. If they followed the same path as AMD and just give almost all processors past a certain point the ability of having virtualization support there wouldn't be this issue.

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I had to install VirtualBox 2.2.2 to get any kind of virtualisation going on Windows 7 RC. My Pentium D 830 doesn't support VT so the new XP mode won't install and neither will Virtual PC 2007.

The great thing is that VirtualBox can use your existing .VHDs so if you're coming from previously using VPC (like I was) you don't need to rebuild your machines - just boot them up, remove the VPC additions and install the VBox additions.

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Update your BIOS. The latest update from Dell comes with virtualization support.

Unfortunately, the T7300 CPU in my rig doesn't support it, either...

I may consider upgrading the CPU. I'm a little choked that I should have to, though.

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Unfortunately, the T7300 CPU in my rig doesn't support it, either...

I may consider upgrading the CPU. I'm a little choked that I should have to, though.

That CPU does have hardware virtualisation.

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That CPU does have hardware virtualisation.

Oh, great. Ruin a perfectly good rant. ;)

I just upgraded the BIOS in the course of re-installing all my system software, so I'll investigate and report back...

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I had to install VirtualBox 2.2.2 to get any kind of virtualisation going on Windows 7 RC. My Pentium D 830 doesn't support VT so the new XP mode won't install and neither will Virtual PC 2007.

The great thing is that VirtualBox can use your existing .VHDs so if you're coming from previously using VPC (like I was) you don't need to rebuild your machines - just boot them up, remove the VPC additions and install the VBox additions.

Didn't know that! great to know (Y)

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/facepalm

I needed to enable virtualization in the BIOS (and it wasn't easy to find, either), but, yes, it's working.

Thanks for the help, all!

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I was just gonna post that the T7500 does have hardware virtualization, but looks like you already figured that out.

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