VPC Test Drive

GuyAdams1

Registered
i have got Virtual PC version 3, I hate having to boot back into 9.2 everytime i use VPC and i was wondering if you can get the VPC test drive when u only have version 3? i only got VPC 3 because i have an iBook 500 G3 and i heard that Verison 3 works better than 4 on a G3, anyone using the test drive and only has version 3?
 
I have none of them now, but before I had 3 first and when I upgraded to 4, I think it was almost twice as fast!
I recommend you to upgrade
This were on a G4 though...
 
I have a 350 G3 and I still saw a preformance jump when I loaded Version 4. Not to mention having the ability to have mutiple operating systems, and the ease of loading othe OSes is woeth it. Plus the expandable HDs are a life saver compared to the restriction of 3. You can only load Win 2000 or XP on 4, because Version 3 won't give you a hard drive large enough to install them.



DJ XTC


P.S. Test drive isn't worth the upgrade right now... just hold out for another month or 2 fror the retail version running on X.
 
What's so wrong with the test drive? Sure, not all functions are available and it is slower than under classic, but most things are working, Morpheus is working (the important part ;)...
seriously, I can't wait till the OS X version is released, I already find the Test Drive to be quite good, maybe because I hate booting back into OS 9...
 
You must be a registered user of Virtual PC 4 to get the OS X VPC Test Drive.

If you already have VPC 4 and you use OS X, there's no reason not to get the test drive. It's free, and using the Test Drive does not preclude your being to use the same PC disk image with Virtual PC 4.02 under OS 9.x.
 
just a quickie re; VPC
How do I install a new OS with it?
I have an authentic Windows 2k cd which I would like to install on VPC. Is this possible or do I need some VPC verison of W2K?
 
Nope. Create the harddisks you need for your PC and set it up. Make the CD-ROM bootable, insert the CD into the CD-ROM and fire up the PC. This should do the trick, it should boot into the installation program of Win2K.
 
I don't think its a good idea to upgrade to VPC 4 Testdrive.
I installed it on my iMac DV SE 500 wit OS X 10.1.1, and it is soooo pretty damn slow that its not possible to work with it at all.
Hopefully the final OS X version will have much more improved speed... :(
 
well, working with it might be impossible at this state, but if you just need it to execute some services without "working" with them - like Morpheus, TMPGNC, game servers - I think it is ok...even more since you don't have to boot into classic.

But well, working with it might be a bit - 10.0-ish
 
It was slow in OS 9, and even slower in X. I wish developers would bother booting up a G3 to test things on before they release it, not everyone can afford a G4, ya know. :(
 
I wouldn't blame them - in fact, I think they are doing a good job. You just can't expect an emulator to be anywhere close to the speed the "true" OS (or console or whatever) has. And, as sad as it sounds - if you need a PC, IMHO, it's better to actualy buy one. VirtualPC is one of the best emulator apps I have seen, only topped by VMWare under Linux. If you take a look at the very basic processor architecture from PowerPCs compared to x86 CPUs, there are so many differences and possibilities just don't exist on the PowerPC platform which are needed to run a x86 processor, so you have to transform all those hardware commands into Mac hardware commands and then transform the result back into x86 architecture....this costs time...much time.
And I have to say, VPC on the G3 Pismo of my boss runs fine, IMHO...
 
Actually, the VPC programmers aren't yet doin a great job. They've just taken the OS 9 VPC and carbonized it for OS X. Thats not a big deal.
VPC under OS 9 just rocked. It wuz even fast enough to let me play carmageddon 1 on it. Now since I am on OS X, VPC is even slower than the old VPC 3.0 Version on my Performa 5300!
n/k
 
I ment the OS 9 version. If they did a good job with the OS X version? Well, it is a test drive. If you ask me, they should have named it beta, not test drive. Test drive implies that somehow, it is a first glance of a final product. But a beta would be more fitting, since obviously, it isn't optimized yet. And in most programming teams, optimizing is the very last step you perform when coding a product - at least that's what's been tought for some years. I wouldn't judge the skill of the programming team by the test drive, I am confident that the final version will rock! Oh, and they didn't carbonize it, if I am not mistaken. IIRC, it's a native cocoa application.
 
I'm not trying to judge the VPC's programmers skills, I'm just saying that they haven't done a good job with the VPC Testdrive yet.
BTW, VPC for OS X is carbonized. There are a lot of things which show that it ain't a native cocoa app.
Just move VPCs windows around. As long as u drag the windows, VPC is in hold and won't continue working until u release the window from dragging. The same thing happens when one uses the menu bar. This is because OS 9 doesnt support multithreading as OS X with its cocoa apps does.
 
Originally posted by DJ_XTC
You can only load Win 2000 or XP on 4, because Version 3 won't give you a hard drive large enough to install them.

I own Virtual PC 3.0 with Windows 2000. I have also successfully created a 2GB drive image and loaded Windows 2000 on it from scratch, although that was with VPC 4.

Virtual PC 3 will allow you to create a hard drive image up to 2GB in size, which is plenty for loading Windows 2000 on it. Maybe not the Professional or Server editions, but the workstation will load just fine.

I have no experience with XP.
 
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