Windows 7 VPC vs. VMware Unity
Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions will support Virtual PC XP Mode (XPM), for backward compatibility with older applications that run on Windows XP but won’t work on Windows 7. XPM has gotten a lot of publicity, but what many people may not realize is that the free download includes two different components: the new version of Virtual PC (the successor to VPC 2007, called Windows Virtual PC) and the Windows XP VM. You can download them at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
Although these come as a “set,” they are installed separately. First you install Virtual PC (the file named Windows6.1-KB958559-x64.msu for the 64 bit version) and then restart the computer. Then you install the file VirtualWindowsXP.msi, which is the XP SP3 virtual machine.
The really cool thing about VPC XPM, and the thing that sets it apart from other VM solutions that let you run virtualized applications on your Windows 7 desktop, such as VMware Workstation 6.5.2 with Unity mode, is the degree to which it integrates with the host OS. The programs that you install on the guest OS show up in your Windows 7 Programs menu, as shown here:
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Unity also integrates with the Windows 7 desktop, but not quite as seamlessly. Instead of putting the virtual apps in the Win7 Start menu, it creates its own menu for the VM.
But it’s not just XP applications that you can integrate into your Windows 7 host. Windows VPC is a full fledged desktop virtualization program and you can create more VMs in addition to the XP VM that’s installed by the .msi file. To create a new VM, just go to All Programs | Windows Virtual PC | Virtual Machines and click Create new virtual machine.
The wizard will lead you through the process of creating and naming the new VM. You can allocate the amount of memory and disk space you want it to use. Then you can install the OS of your choice. As shown, below, I created a new VM and installed Windows 7 in it:
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Why is this useful? If you want to install a program but you don’t trust it – for instance, a beta version of software that might not be stable – you can install it in the VM and if it crashes, your host OS is safe and sound. Or if you want to visit web sites that might not be safe, go to them using the virtualized web browser instead of the “real” one in your host OS.
After you install the OS, you’ll need to install the integration components in order to get that seamless integration with your Windows 7 host. To do this, click Tools and then Install integration components. Then you have to restart the VM.
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You can, in fact, run multiple virtual applications that are in installed in different VMs on your Windows 7 host desktop at the same time. Below, I have Microsoft Streets & Trips (installed on a Windows 7 VM) and Outlook Express (installed on the XP VM) both running simultaneously.
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There is one drawback – Windows VPC apparently only supports 32 bit guest operating systems. If you want to install a 64 bit guest, you’ll still have to go with VMware Workstation. Otherwise, you’ll probably find the tight integration of the virtual apps and the way they “automagically” appear in your Windows 7 host Start menu (as long as you have the VM settings configured to automatically publish, as shown below) to be a big advantage.
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As for performance, when I first installed VPC XPM on my Dell XPS (a two year old dual core with 4 GB RAM), the virtual app I installed (Corel PhotoPaint 10) ran a little slowly. I reconfigured the XP settings to optimize for performance and then it ran like a local application. I then installed VPC XPM on my new Core i7 and it is snappy as can be. No difference between the host and VM applications, including when running them on a Windows 7 VM.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with Windows VPC, both in XP Mode and running other VMs. I just wish I could install a 64 bit guest. It does have one very big advantage over VMware Workstation: it’s free! I’ll be working with it more and reporting on anything interesting I find out.
DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MVP (Enterprise Security)
deb@shinder.net www.debshinder.com
Editor, WXPnews and VistaNews
Guus Brugman on July 06, 2009 at 01:22 PM
Hi Deb,
One question and one remark. Will you share which XP settings you reconfigured in order to run it like other local apps?
In order to use these VPC of Unity, your PC need a CPU with support for hardware virtualization. (see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/configure-bios.aspx)
Shaun on August 28, 2009 at 05:22 PM
FYI, VirtualBox is also free, fast, and supports a seamless mode (see http://www.virtualbox.org/).
Bina on November 22, 2009 at 07:53 PM
Debra,
Many thanks for the report though I am sure you now may have arrived at more interesting findings about VPC. I have just started to enjoy Win7 and VPC XPM. Being a VmWare user for a long time I too share with you the seamlessness that VPC offers in Win7. The other thing I have found is that if you have VmWare 6.5.3 installed on the Win7 with one or many guest OS's you can NOT run it concurrently with VPC. With VPC service running VmWare app will launch but upon loading any guest you will receive a nasty crash message from VmWare that such and such errors have occurred etc. Only after rebooting (stopping the VPC service will not cure the problem) the Win7 you will then be able to launch VmWare and the guests in it. So in my experience you can have them both installed in your Win7 but only ONE virtual environment can be active at any one time.
As weired as it may sound my base platform is a Lenovo T60 laptop with 4GB RAM. I run Win7 Enterprise and the VPC already has the XP plus windows server 2003 R2 and Windows 2008 Enterprise all running happily ever after..:-)
Grover on December 15, 2009 at 07:32 AM
Nix the VMWare. Switching back and forth to a VM is a huge hassle. Nix Win 7 too. Buy a used copy of XP - EBay has plenty - wipe the disk and install an OS that finally, after a decade of patches, works. When will consumers learn that Redmond's latest and greatest are always trash, designed to garner an infusion of cash for MS not to provide a better computing experience for end users.
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