Microsoft Windows Virtual PC

Hi,
Thought I would start this new topic. Looks like virtual PC would be the next big thing in personal computing. I created this topic to discuss the latest trends, new ideas, issues etc among us. I am using MS Virtual PC 2007, and it's awesome.

Heya Arani!

Glad you've made your way into the virtualization world. I must say though, I don't think MS Virtual PC 2007 will have to much success other than the home user. VMware and Hyper V have the edge on the enterprise market, more so VMware.

VMware offers:

VMware Workstation
VMware Server
*VMware ESX

* VMware ESX is the beast and the core of virtualization. I highly recommend looking at one or all of the above.

I started with MS Virtual PC 2007 and quickly moved to VMware after I tried it.


Cheers mate,

ZiPPy

I've used VMware for the past few years and haven't found any reason to move to Microsoft Virtual PC.

VMware conducted a information session at my workplace a while ago to discuss application and desktop virtualization (VDI). I believe this is currently the newest trend in the virtualization world. The learning session was a mix between technical information and sales pitches/buzzwords so I still learning more about it and what exactly makes it a great.

The idea behind it is...you deploy any type of laptop/desktop PC out to end users and install a piece of software that will "stream" the virtual PC from ESX to the desktop PC. The great thing about VDI is that OS data, application data, and user data are all stored and maintained as separate entities in ESX -- that's where the "application virtualization" part comes from. Through a console window, the administrator can assign applications to user profiles and move user data from OS to OS with ease because none of the apps are tied to the OSs. Being that the apps aren't tied to the OS in any way, but are rather "virtual entities" in the OS, you can run applications that would not be compatible with the system (or each other) in a traditional setup (i.e.: IE7 and 6 simultaneously). I guess this is where it differs from other remote desktop solutions such as Citrix and MS terminal services. The speaker was having VPN issues so he couldn't demo it for us.

Of course, there is a license cost per application install, and if I remember correctly, the license cost was over $100. The speaker did say that vendors were developing "ESX-like" kernals that would come preinstalled on desktops/laptops that would automatically present the user with the logon screen to the ESX server, and the user would go from there. If I remember correctly, the current setup requires XP to be installed AND the separate app to be installed. This means you would have to maintain the physical PC image and the virtual image (unless you wanted your PCs to not be uniform while in the production floor). Based on the session, it sounded as though the solution would provide the most benefit to a company that did not already have an application deployment/desktop configuration infrastructure in place.

I believe VMware does offer a trial of this technology (I didn't pursue it because I didn't see benefit in it). Again, this is just my recollection of what was discussed.

I've been meaning to read these articles on VDI:
www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tut...alization-part1.html
www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tut...alization-part2.html
www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tut...ers-how-install.html

The technology is so new and abstract that I've procrastinated on reading about it, unfortunately.

Let me know if you want another excellent link to an article about ESX . I think that's where the power really comes from.

I started out with Microsoft Virtual PC and found the VMs quite sluggish on my laptop. A friend suggested I tried VMWare which I did, and by comaprison the VMs flew on it. Admittedly that was before MS Virtual PC 2007 was released though, but since then I've just stuck with VMWare. A word of warning though - I tried installing the latest version (2 I think) and couldn't get it working so I've stuck with 1.8 something which is solid

Hi,
Thanks for all your responses, that quite a good headstart. I would however limit this forum to the technical issues related to MS Virtual PC.
The reason for my to MS Virtual PC was because:
1) Not sluggish
2) It's free

I think it has potential, and perhaps we are only looking at the beta version (unless someone wants to call ver. 2007, the release version)

I think Microsoft's Hyper-V is competing with VMware in production environments.
Virtual PC is only for lab and testing purposes.

Hyper-V is free too, but it is an x64 application so you need Windows x64 to work on.
It is a great product comes with Windows Server 2008 and you can download it individually form Microsoft website.