VMware or Virtual PC

[pyeman99]

Gentlemen,I have some software written in GWbasic to run a Plessey wideband reciever.
It of course won't run on Xp but Win98 is ok.
Has anyone played with VM or V pc with older software with any success & without com port problems.ok GWbasic is well past it's sell by date by it runs the radio.Hardware control heads are unavailable.It might be better to try & convert it to Visual Basic ?
Just some thoughts please.
Thanks Keith.

 

[benjaminarthurt]

I have never used either products with any of my radio's. I have used both as general software. for anything no matter what the application i would recommend VMware. the server edition is free. I have had great luck with networking and usb devices linking into the virtual system. I would say give it a try.

 

[iMONITOR]

Microsoft was giving away VirtualPC for free last time I checked. I think VMWare has a free trial. It would be easy enough to try. I believe they both support RS232 ports, although response might not be as snappy.

Have you tried DOS compatibility mode under Windows XP?

 

[random]

Virtual P.C.

Has anyone played with VM or V pc with older software with any success & without com port problems.

I use the free Microsoft Virtual PC with Windows XP Pro to run an old proprietary program in Windows 98 SE.

The physical com ports work fine. However, USB and PCMCIA are not supported at all

 

[Caesar]

i've used VMWare for probably 5-6 years now and it works great always, i've never dealt with virtual pc, give VMWare a try guy....

 

[servo_fan]

VMWare also has a Player version. Use this site to help you build a VM when using VM Player.

 

[kc7vtr]

The VMWare server edition is now free.

 

[benjaminarthurt]

the server edition is free, and tottaly worth it. You do need to get a serial number but that is free too, just have to request as many as you will need. Definately worth it, much faster than the microsoft version was for me. And microsoft will only run microsoft oses. I needed linux... VMware ran it great!

 

[AndrewC75]

VMWare is light-years ahead of VirtualPC in feature set and usability. My general recommendation is to use VMWare. Workstation if you can afford it, Player if you can't.

Still, if you just need to build a virtual machine and run it (no rollbacks or snapshots or moving from client to server to hypervisor and back again) then VirtualPC will suit your needs just fine, and the price is right.

 

[jastx]

I haven't used VMWare in years, but recent experience with Virtual PC was not good. Hardware support was not stable and it takes a beefy box just to get the thing to idle. Running the VM was all a 1.6 GHz box with 1GB RAM could manage. I did this only to evaluate some beta software that could have destabilized my entire machine. The VM is now gone.

You may be trying too much of a solution to the problem. If you are running XP, have you tried setting compatibility for the application? To do this, navigate to the program in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the program and select "Properties" from the context menu. Then click on the "Compatibility" tab and change the settings as necessary. I'd consider giving this a shot before trying any of the VM solutions.