Description:
Even the most die-hard Mac user needs to use a Windows-based PC once in a while; there's just no getting around it. Short of buying a second computer, Connectix Virtual PC 5.0 is the ideal solution. This powerful emulation engine turns any Mac into a Windows PC, if only for the time that it's running, without the need for additional hardware. It also takes advantage of existing hardware, like tablets, mice, printers, and hard drives, and uses your existing network connections for connecting to the Internet. Most remarkable of all, it runs as if it were a Mac application, alongside other Mac apps, supporting full copy-and-paste and file-sharing functionality. Virtual PC 5.0 offers full Mac OS X compatibility, supporting multiprocessor Macs, Windows XP Home and XP Professional, the ability to share removable media drives, an improved user interface, and other enhancements. Virtual PC also supports the installation of multiple guest operating systems, such as Windows 98, Windows 2000, and even Linux. Because this is a software-only emulation package, its performance is directly tied to the speed of your machine. In our testing, we installed Virtual PC 5.0 on both a 400 MHz G3 PowerBook (Pizmo) with 640 MB RAM, and a 500 MHz dual-processor G4 with 1.5 GB RAM. Both machines were running OS X 10.1.4. As one would expect, Virtual PC 5.0 on the PowerBook was substantially slower, while the dual-processor G4 was fairly snappy. Virtual PC 5.0 itself performed as advertised, though, making this an ideal solution for someone who occasionally needs Windows compatibility. Would we want to work full-time on this kind of Windows machine? No. But if we need to translate a document or test a Web site on the Windows version of Netscape, or perform some other Windows-specific task, this approach sure beats buying and maintaining additional hardware (assuming the hardware you've got has the necessary horsepower). --Mike Caputo
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