Home :: Software :: Utilities  

Backup
Cross Platform
File Compression & Decompression
File Conversion
Handheld Utilities
Internet Utilities
Memory Management
Other
Partitions
PC Maintenance
Screen Savers
Virus Protection
Voice Recognition
Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac 6.1

Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac 6.1

List Price: $129.00
Your Price: $129.00
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Make it it works on your system
Review: First let me tell you my operating system:
iMac G4 800 Mhz with 512 Mb Ram

In Short:
Pros:
1- It is cool to have a windows operating system on your mac, and run windows applications on it.
2- multi operating systems
3- more stable than an actual PC

CONS:
1- EXTREEEEEEMLY Slow.
2- LIMITATIONS: most application will run tooo slow to even consider using them.

Description:
1- EXTREEEEEEMLY Slow. and I do not mean it is tolarable. nope, it is taking me 3 hours and still going, just to install my HP all in one 6100.
2- LIMITATIONS: you realy cannot run many applications, and I do not mean at the same time. Yes it is probably true that you can run almost any application that runs on a PC on the virtual PC, but not in a way that is usefull. I was able to install ALMOST every application that I can thin k of (sometimes they take ALOT of time to install), but when it is time to run them, they are sooooo slow, that I just give up.
let me give you a sense of how slow: to start explorer, it might take 1- 2 MINUTES, same for Word, anything that is not microsoft takes much longer it seems. Trying to run a trading software such as Harris Direct Marketspeed or Fidelity's active trader is not possible. These two applications would take around 15 minutes (versus < 1 minute in a pc with the same operating system and with a Pentium II ~ 400 MHz processor) that is if they even work at all. Opening "my computer" takes 10- 60 seconds depending if there is any other application working.

IN SUMMERY:
this is a great concept, but I DO NOT recommend this application AT ALL ......... UNLESS you have a 1.25 G3 mac with > 1GB RAM, THEN you COULD TRY IT AND TELL US, I think then it might be tolarable. Possibly with the next version supporting the G5 it will run at an exceptable level (this one does not run on a G5).

and PLEASE REMEMBER, if you DO NOT have WINDOWS 98, or above DO NOT PURCHASE THIS SOFTWARE, but purchase the one with operating system you want, since that will be much cheaper unless you want that OS for your PC.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Extreemly Slow. Do not waste your money
Review: First let me tell you my operating system:
iMac G4 800 Mhz with 512 Mb Ram

In Short:
Pros:
1- It is cool to have a windows operating system on your mac, and run windows applications on it.
2- multi operating systems
3- more stable than an actual PC

CONS:
1- EXTREEEEEEMLY Slow.
2- LIMITATIONS: most application will run tooo slow to even consider using them.

Description:
1- EXTREEEEEEMLY Slow. and I do not mean it is tolarable. nope, it is taking me 3 hours and still going, just to install my HP all in one 6100.
2- LIMITATIONS: you realy cannot run many applications, and I do not mean at the same time. Yes it is probably true that you can run almost any application that runs on a PC on the virtual PC, but not in a way that is usefull. I was able to install ALMOST every application that I can thin k of (sometimes they take ALOT of time to install), but when it is time to run them, they are sooooo slow, that I just give up.
let me give you a sense of how slow: to start explorer, it might take 1- 2 MINUTES, same for Word, anything that is not microsoft takes much longer it seems. Trying to run a trading software such as Harris Direct Marketspeed or Fidelity's active trader is not possible. These two applications would take around 15 minutes (versus < 1 minute in a pc with the same operating system and with a Pentium II ~ 400 MHz processor) that is if they even work at all. Opening "my computer" takes 10- 60 seconds depending if there is any other application working.

IN SUMMERY:
this is a great concept, but I DO NOT recommend this application AT ALL ......... UNLESS you have a 1.25 G3 mac with > 1GB RAM, THEN you COULD TRY IT AND TELL US, I think then it might be tolarable. Possibly with the next version supporting the G5 it will run at an exceptable level (this one does not run on a G5).

and PLEASE REMEMBER, if you DO NOT have WINDOWS 98, or above DO NOT PURCHASE THIS SOFTWARE, but purchase the one with operating system you want, since that will be much cheaper unless you want that OS for your PC.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Product is Total Crap
Review: I bought this product so I can run Microsoft Visual Studio .Net from my Mac (A Dual 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4/2 MB L3 Cache / 1.25 GB SDRAM). I spent $249.00 dollars for VPC. This is thing is too darn slow! I ended buying an eMachine with Windows XP Professional ($600). Now I use the Remote Desktop Connection program from the Mac. Know it feels that I have a PC on my Mac (Yuck!).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Might as well... and I did
Review: I considered buying Virtual PC, but after careful consideration I went for the other option: A real PC, utilizing Windows XP Professional and the Windows Remote Desktop client for Mac (free from the Microsoft website).
While this solution is more definitely more costly, it depends really dependes what your needs are. As I needed the PC to review PC software, I could not risk blaming the software for errors (or lack of performance) that might have been Virtual PCs fault. Yet, with Windows RDC I can copy and paste from and to my Mac, and have the PC handy in a little window at all times. The display does not refresh as quick as when not operated remotely, but on a 100MBit Ethernet-Connection, I can even listen to iTunes for Windows, and at least see movies at a reduced framerate.
And if that is not fast enough, I still have the option of connecting a monitor to the PC, and see it run a full throttle. The Mac client uses very little performance on the Mac, which is nice.
Yet, a word of caution: I found setting up my system painless, but I say the same thing about installing FreeBSD or Linux. You may want to have a PC-savvy person around. The setup also requires Windows XP Professional, Home does not support Remote Desktop clients.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This one does work
Review: I have used Virutal PC with Windows 95 and that worked fine. But Not the one for windows XP (Virutal PC 6.0 at the time) But when I ordered Verson 6.1 with windows 2000 it worked well so far and it seems still to be working fine With OS X 10.3

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great compatibility, but not for the G5
Review: I use VirtualPC 6.1 on my iBook, which has a G3 processor. It works well, though it's a little pokey. That's not unexpected, though. Watch out if you have one of Apple's new G5 computers -- the G5 processor eliminated the "little-endian mode" that VirtualPC relies on. Thus, this product won't work at all for G5 users. Microsoft claims to be working on a new version of the software to address this, but has no published schedule for this right now.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Doesn't work on G5
Review: I was under the impression that this program allows you to use windows applications, but what it really does is allow you to run windows on your computer. In other words, you must buy a version of windows in addition to this product. So I had to pay $200 more for the windows program. I think it's too expensive for the value. It doesn't work on G5s. I don't like how when you open Windows, it does not allow your mouse to go outside the windows box so that you can resize the window to make it bigger.

It works well on my ibook, which has a G3. If you want to run windows on your computer, I highly recommend you to get the version with windows already on it, because you are going to have to buy windows anyway.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works well in Panther.
Review: If you've been using previous versions of Virtual PC and upgraded to Panther to find that they weren't working, you will, unfortunately, need to upgrade to Virtual PC 6.
This is not an entirely bad thing. VPC6 has generally been more stable in my experience, and has added some great features. First and foremost, dock integration. VPC6 allows you to use a Start Menu in your dock, which can speed up the process of using the software -- just click, go to the program you want like you would in Windows, and then VPC will launch and start the program.
Also, it allows you to have currently running programs in your VPC session show up in the dock. You can retain these icons in the dock, or use them to force quit an app (although this doesn't work 100% of the time in my experience). Finally, running apps are now shown in the window that pops up when you do a command-option-escape. You can force quit them there if they hang, but again, I've had spotty results.
If you work in an environment such as web design, where you must see your site on all kinds of OS + browser combos, this is absolutely great. It beats having a PC around. However, for extremely processor-intensive tasks, you will need a PC. This is just an emulation, and when you get beyond casual use, you will find that it's underpowered for huge tasks. But for opening strange PC-specific files, tweaking the odd access database, or checking websites (especially if your bank refuses to work with Mac browsers), Virtual PC is great.
It will also easily grab your old VPC5 discs and import them into 6.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Putting the Microsoft Wizard to Work with Virtual PC 6.1
Review: Strength of Virtual PC

The biggest strength of Virtual PC 6.1 is that it works well. Within minutes of running the installer you can be using Windows XP on your Mac. A setup assistant guides you through adjusting the application's RAM, VRAM, and other basic settings.

Windows XP can run in full screen mode or in a small window mode. Using the Command (Apple) and 'M' keys, toggles you back and forth from full screen mode to small screen mode on your Macintosh.

Virtual PC Toolbar

Virtual PC 6 has a toolbar in the lower left-hand corner. All the Toolbar icons use contextual menus (Control-Click-hold). All the icons let you pop up the Virtual PC 6 Settings window.

Using the hard drive icon, I can launch the Disk Assistant application. The Virtual PC 6 CD icon can unmount or eject a CD. The floppy icon lets you unmount or ejects a floppy. You also can mount a floppy disk image by dragging it to the icon. The Shared Folder icon lets you navigate to a Macintosh folder for sharing on both Mac and Windows platforms.

Working with Virtual PC 6.1

I needed FileMaker Pro program running on my Mac computer. I received additional consulting work from a jewelry company that wanted me to set up a database with graphics of their jewelry products. They had several PCs running Windows XP linked to various servers.

Instead of purchasing a Windows computer, I used Virtual PC to get the job done. I transferred information from and to their Windows XP computers and my Mac G4 by using my Mac's Zip drive.

Next, I made sure that I had PC zip cartridges for backup to get the job done. Virtual PCÊ 6.1 worked well for my evening work setting up and editing the FileMaker Pro database.

Solving Connection Problems

I had trouble connecting to America Online with Virtual PC. The problem was having the right ISP (Internet Service Provider) serial setup number.

The sweetest sound. The answer was using Network Setup Wizard. I had to use my America Online Windows' CD to setup the proper network connection.

In additon, I find that I can connect to the Internet using my Mac AOL OS X and Mac Internet Explorer connection. Now, I use Internet Explorer for Windows to connect to web for special Windows projects.

Pro Reaction

Most of the Window programs Mac users run on their PCs can run on Mac computers using Virtual PC. Virtual PC is an inexpensive way to use Windows programs. You can take over your virtual PC environment. You can even cut and paste between Mac and PC desktops. Virtual PC takes advantage of my dual processor Macs.

I could connect Virtual PC to my printer. I can do this by using my shared USB HP printer which connects well in Virtual PC. My additional external drives, Lacie and Acomdata drives are shared in Virtual PC.

Con Reaction

I had difficulty with my internet account. My computer problem was having the right America Online ISP (Internet Service Provider) serial number.

This should be mentioned in the help menu for America Online users. I found using the Network Setup Wizard connection with AOL CD the answer to the America Online connection problem.

Final Remarks

The major reason that I have to get online is to register my Windows software and receive authorization pass codes to continue to use the software. In addition, I can upload my graphics to my web sites on register.com that normally do not take graphics from a Mac computer.

You can register by telephone by calling Microsoft's toll-free number if you do not have an internet connection. You need to have your Virtual PC registration pass code when calling Microsoft.


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Info About use Virutal PC
Review: The Virtual PC Program is a good Program but not with Windows XP please note that I tried it with Virtual PC 6.0 at the time. I had to order an other verson Virtual PC 6.1 but this time I tried it with windows 2000 works alot better then the Windows Xp did. Runs fine with with MAC OS X .


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates