Two Systems Can Coexist in a Single Box
I’ve long been a big fan of multi-tasking. These days, though, I find myself running not only several programs at a time but multiple operating systems as well. Admittedly, as a technology reviewer I’m not your typical PC user, but my needs aren’t as out of the ordinary as some might think.
Anyone who does tech support or develops software needs to be able to run different operating systems. So do schools that teach students how to use or write software. But even regular end-users sometimes need access to more than one operating system.
Windows 2000, for example, is a superior operating system in most ways to Windows Me or Windows 98, but there are some programs and hardware that require Windows Me or Windows 98. Windows XP, scheduled for release this fall, is likely to be a big improvement over Windows Me, but even it won’t be 100% compatible with existing software and hardware.
Connectix has a new solution that lets you run multiple operating systems on the same machine at the same time. The company is now letting users download a free “preview” copy of Virtual PC for Windows that allows you to run “guest” operating systems inside your Windows host operating system. The fully functional preview edition--available at https://www.connectix.com--will expire July 1. The final version will cost $199.
Unlike solutions that allow you to “dual” boot one operating system or another, Virtual PC lets you run them at the same time so, for example, you can instantly switch between Windows 2000 and Windows Me.
Your host, or “native,” operating system--the one actually installed on your PC--can be Windows 2000 or Windows Me. Guest operating systems include Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows Me and MS-DOS and Linux.
It doesn’t yet work with the beta copy of Windows XP, but I’ve been assured that it will by the time Windows XP is released in October. This will allow people to upgrade to Windows XP without having to worry about losing use of any programs or hardware that XP might not support. Microsoft says it expects XP to support most but not all Windows Me and Windows 98 products.
I tested Virtual PC by installing a guest copy of Windows Me to run inside my Windows 2000 machine. Once I installed the Virtual PC software, I inserted the Windows Me CD and installed it as usual. Now, if I want to run a program under Windows Me that won’t run under Windows 2000, I just fire up Virtual PC software and run the program just as if Windows Me were my native operating system.
The programs run on the virtual machine at about 90% to 95% of their normal speed, but the video is somewhat sluggish. This isn’t much of a problem for most business applications, but it will put a damper on anyone trying to run some games on a virtual PC.
Running Virtual PC doesn’t slow down applications you run on your host operating system, but Virtual PC does take up a considerable amount of memory, depending on what guest operating systems you’re using. Connectix recommends 384 megabytes of RAM and 2 gigabytes of hard disk space to run Windows 98 or Windows Me on a Windows 2000 machine. When the software isn’t running, it takes up no resources except disk space.
When you install a new operating system, Virtual PC creates a single file on your hard disk that becomes the virtual drive that contains that operating system and all its software and programs. When you’re running the guest operating system, that file drive appears as your C drive. You also have access to floppy and CD-ROM drives, printers, network computers and other resources attached to your PC.
By default, the virtual machine is an isolated island inside your machine. It’s hard to accidentally copy data from that “machine” to the areas of your hard drive used to store data for your host operating system. But if you want to share data between the two operating systems, you can drag and drop folders or create shared folders that you can access from either operating system.
Unfortunately, having two operating systems on one machine doesn’t help me get my work done twice as fast. Now all I need is a virtual me.
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Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard between 2 and 3 p.m. weekdays on the KNX-AM (1070) Technology Hour.
