00 MAXIMUMPC XXXXXXX 2007
M
icrosoft recently dropped its $130
asking price for Virtual PC 2004
and now offers it for free, but it’s not
destined for abandonware; the program-
mers at Redmond are working on a 2007
version, which will incorporate full Vista
support (and remain free, as well).
It might often be true that you
get what you pay for, but Virtual PC
2004 works surprisingly well despite
being gratis. Setting up a virtual copy
of Windows XP was cake, and you’re
given a fair amount of customization
options. Up to three hard drives can be
added, and we successfully confi gured
a home network with fi le sharing. And
once we installed the additions package
(also free), we could move the mouse
pointer seamlessly between the VM and
our desktop, as well as resize the VM
just like any other window. Neato!
Where Virtual PC 2004 stumbles is
in its Linux support. While it’s possible to
get several different Linux distros to work,
be prepared to spend time troubleshoot-
ing. We had a rough time getting Ubuntu
installed—a problem we traced back
to the S3 Trio emulation, which doesn’t
support 24-bit color even though the real
chipset does. The VM is also slow com-
pared with the other two apps here, and
forget about using USB devices outside
of a keyboard and mouse—they’re just
not supported. Still, for Windows-only
use, it’s tough to beat the price.Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
8
VMWARE WORKSTATION 5.5
$200, http://www.vmware.com7
MICROSOFT VIRTUAL PC 2004
Free, http://www.microsoft.com/
virtualpc/A
t $200, VMWare Workstation 5.5 is
the highest-priced software pack-
age in our roundup, but it’s also the
most fully featured. We were delighted
to see the love for Linux, with several
distros supported during setup via a
pull-down menu. And if your distro isn’t
listed, VMWare lets you select by kernel
rather than the standard “Other Linux”
option (also listed). Equally robust are
the Windows options, ranging from 3.1
up to Vista x64 Edition.
Installation was a breeze, and you’re
given the ability to clone your VM with
the click of a button, which can then
be shared and loaded with other cop-
ies of VMWare without having to install
and confi gure Windows each time. For
personal backups, you can take a snap-
shot of your system and revert back to
it should something go awry. And unlike
previous versions, you can take multiple
snapshots and save them separately
rather than overwriting. You can even
add hardware devices to the emulation
layer, such as additional hard drives, a
fl oppy drive, or an optical drive.
VMWare also gave us the least
trouble when it came to using USB
devices. Flash memory keys and digital
cameras were detected and functioned
just as they do on our host OS. But
even so, $200 is a steep asking price,
and why limit users to 4GB of RAM
across all VMs?P
arallels strikes the perfect bal-
ance between the two other VM
apps here—broad functionality at a
price that’s easy to swallow.
Picking up where Virtual PC 2004
leaves off, Parallels offers a wider
range of Linux options, though not
quite as many as VMWare’s. But as
with VMWare , you can choose by
kernel or simply by “Other Linux” if
your distro isn’t listed.
From a performance standpoint,
Parallels responds a smidge quicker
than VPC04 when opening programs
or dabbling in content creation. And
like VMWare , you can clone setups
for easy deployment. For even great-
er functionality, install the free tools
add-on to move the mouse between
host and guest OS, keep the time
in sync between the VM and your
host PC, and even carry over your
clipboard’s contents from one OS to
the other!
Unlike VPC04 , USB devices are
supported in Parallels , but using
them wasn’t easy. Our fl ash key was
detected, but unusable; and when
we hooked up our digital camera, the
virtual PC blue-screened. D’oh! Even
still, Parallels delivers a good balance
of price and performance, so we can
live with quirky USB support. There’s
enough value here to warrant a pur-
chase over Microsoft’s freebie.VMWare Workstation 5.5 Parallels Workstation 2.2
8
PARALLELS WORKSTATION 2.2
$50, http://www.parallels.com50 MAXIMUMPC JANUARY 2007
Three Virtual Machines, One Real Winner