Microsoft Virtual XP performance

[Yousuf Khan]

The Virtual XP environment is extremely slow. I noticed that it's set to
only give out 512MB of RAM. How do I change the settings in Virtual XP
to give it more memory, and reduce its laggyiness?

Yousuf Khan

 

[pjp]

The Virtual XP environment is extremely slow. I noticed that it's set to
only give out 512MB of RAM. How do I change the settings in Virtual XP to
give it more memory, and reduce its laggyiness?

Yousuf Khan

Stop the Virtual Machine, choose Settings from VM "manager" menu, select
memory item, move slider, restart VM ... duh!!!!

 

[KCB]

The Virtual XP environment is extremely slow. I noticed that it's set to
only give out 512MB of RAM. How do I change the settings in Virtual XP to
give it more memory, and reduce its laggyiness?

Yousuf Khan

In XP mode, click Tools>Settings>Memory

 

[cameo]

In XP mode, click Tools>Settings>Memory

Great, except Memory is not adjustable in a running XP Mode.

 

[cameo]

Stop the Virtual Machine, choose Settings from VM "manager" menu, select
memory item, move slider, restart VM ... duh!!!!

Where do you find that VM "manager" menu when the VM is stopped? I could
not find it.

 

[Bob Hatch]

Where do you find that VM "manager" menu when the VM is stopped? I could
not find it.

Go to Start Menu, All Programs, Windows Virtual PC, Open Windows Virtual
PC, Right Click on XP Mode, Click on Settings.


--
Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools,
and accepted by idiots.
"Anon"
http://www.bobhatch.com
http://www.tdsrvresort.com

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Go to Start Menu, All Programs, Windows Virtual PC, Open Windows Virtual
PC, Right Click on XP Mode, Click on Settings.

Thanks, much better answer than "duh". We wouldn't be asking these
questions if we knew where to look.

Yousuf Khan

 

[KCB]

Thanks, much better answer than "duh". We wouldn't be asking these
questions if we knew where to look.

Yousuf Khan

See the "more about managing memory" link, toward the bottom of the memory
settings tab? It brings up the help context which explains it. I wasn't
trying to be cryptic; only to point the way to find out. Sorry, I should
have been more specific.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

See the "more about managing memory" link, toward the bottom of the
memory settings tab? It brings up the help context which explains it. I
wasn't trying to be cryptic; only to point the way to find out. Sorry, I
should have been more specific.

My wrath was more directed towards "pjp" than you. I understood your
original post just fine. Pjp's posting was less than useless.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Bob Hatch]

Thanks, much better answer than "duh". We wouldn't be asking these
questions if we knew where to look.

Yousuf Khan

Glad I could help.

--
Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools,
and accepted by idiots.
"Anon"
http://www.bobhatch.com
http://www.tdsrvresort.com

 

[cameo]

Go to Start Menu, All Programs, Windows Virtual PC, Open Windows Virtual
PC, Right Click on XP Mode, Click on Settings.

Actually XP Mode is a folder but right clocking on Windows XP Mode.vmcx
does have a Setting option where the memory can be adjusted. No wonder I
could not find it. It's a pretty obscure location. Thanks, nevertheless.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Glad I could help.

Are there other ways of improving the performance of this virtual
machine? After increasing the virtual machine's memory, it's much faster
now, but still I wouldn't call it fast. I'm trying to see if there's a
way to make it use more than one processor core at a time. I got six
cores to play with, but so far most websites are saying that it can only
use one core.

Yousuf Khan

 

[pjp]

My wrath was more directed towards "pjp" than you. I understood your
original post just fine. Pjp's posting was less than useless.

Geez guy, I'm likely no more knowledgeable than you about Virtual PC. I
downloaded it, installed it and then read a very little bit before creating
my first VM; an XP Pro install using Vista as the host OS. It was VERY
OBVIOUS when you created the VM that you could change the amount of memory
available to it, it was one of the dialog boxes you had the go thru. Also
after you've created the VM, right in the window that lists the various VM's
and their state is a menu just like any other Windows program. In that menu
is a "settings" dialog just like any other. In that dialog are settings just
like any other. One of them is the amount of ram to give the VM.

So that was the reason for the "duh", idiotically obvious in my view. Seemed
like you didn't even take the time to look before asking? Otherwise, what
the hell you doing playing with VM's as (no insult intended) you've got a
lot to learn before going that route seems to me, e.g. you going to
troubleshoot inside the VM's os?

Just to insure I felt it is obvious, I just started Virtual PC 2007
directly. Up came a relatively small Window, on the left side are the four
"icons" representing the various VM's I've created (in my case a Linux
version, a Win7, a Win XP Pro and a Win98SE). Beside the icon is some text
stating it's "state", e.g. Saved, Running, Stopped etc. On the right hand
side are four buttons labelled New, Settings, Remove & Start. I click
Settings button and up comes a dialog box with 2nd item in left hand list
being Memory. I highlight that to reveal a slider that obvious changes the
amount of ram that VM is allocated.

Now tell me how much more obvious can it be? So again ... duh

 

[Bob Hatch]

Are there other ways of improving the performance of this virtual
machine? After increasing the virtual machine's memory, it's much faster
now, but still I wouldn't call it fast. I'm trying to see if there's a
way to make it use more than one processor core at a time. I got six
cores to play with, but so far most websites are saying that it can only
use one core.

Yousuf Khan

I don't use it that much, so can't help with the above questions. It's
mostly installed so that I can run 3 little programs and help friends
with XP support.


--
Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools,
and accepted by idiots.
"Anon"
http://www.bobhatch.com
http://www.tdsrvresort.com

 

[Paul]

Are there other ways of improving the performance of this virtual
machine? After increasing the virtual machine's memory, it's much faster
now, but still I wouldn't call it fast. I'm trying to see if there's a
way to make it use more than one processor core at a time. I got six
cores to play with, but so far most websites are saying that it can only
use one core.

Yousuf Khan

There is a table here, of virtual machine environments and what they support.
VPC2007 is listed correctly, as supporting only one core in the guest environment.
But "Windows Virtual PC", the version that runs in Windows 7, is listed as "Yes"
under "Guest OS SMP available". Implying it should give more cores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_platform_virtual_machines

What I'd check, is open the WinXP Mode desktop window, and run Device
Manager (devmgmt.msc), then check the Computer entry and see if it
mentions ACPI MultiProcessor or not. Maybe what it needs is a HAL change ?

*******

Another way of running the WinXP Mode image in a virtual machine, is this way.

"Windows XP Mode can also be run with the VMware Player and VMware Workstation.
However, VMware products only import Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 Professional,
Enterprise, or Ultimate to adhere with Microsoft licensing requirements."

VMWare Player, in the Wikipedia table, is listed as "Yes (2-way)", so you'd
get two cores that way, but perhaps lose your Terminal Service integration.

Paul

 

[Yousuf Khan]

There is a table here, of virtual machine environments and what they
support.
VPC2007 is listed correctly, as supporting only one core in the guest
environment.
But "Windows Virtual PC", the version that runs in Windows 7, is listed
as "Yes"
under "Guest OS SMP available". Implying it should give more cores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_platform_virtual_machines

What I'd check, is open the WinXP Mode desktop window, and run Device
Manager (devmgmt.msc), then check the Computer entry and see if it
mentions ACPI MultiProcessor or not. Maybe what it needs is a HAL change ?

It's listed as ACPI PC in the virtual machine. Would I be able to simply
change it to ACPI Multiprocessor?

According to the Wikipedia articles, Virtual PC only emulates a Pentium
II processor, so I don't know multiprocessing support is available on
such an old processor family.

BTW, it's listed as a product by Connectix, but does Microsoft own it now?

Another way of running the WinXP Mode image in a virtual machine, is
this way.

"Windows XP Mode can also be run with the VMware Player and VMware
Workstation.
However, VMware products only import Windows XP Mode on Windows 7
Professional,
Enterprise, or Ultimate to adhere with Microsoft licensing requirements."

VMWare Player, in the Wikipedia table, is listed as "Yes (2-way)", so you'd
get two cores that way, but perhaps lose your Terminal Service integration.

I'll have to keep that in mind.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Paul]

It's listed as ACPI PC in the virtual machine. Would I be able to simply
change it to ACPI Multiprocessor?

According to the Wikipedia articles, Virtual PC only emulates a Pentium
II processor, so I don't know multiprocessing support is available on
such an old processor family.

BTW, it's listed as a product by Connectix, but does Microsoft own it now?


I'll have to keep that in mind.

Yousuf Khan

Microsoft bought Connectix some time ago.

*******

All I can suggest for that bogus Wikipedia information, is
to check in Device Manager of the WinXP guest OS and
look at the Computer entry. You say that is "ACPI PC",
and that is similar to my single core laptop which is
listed as "ACPI x64 PC".

When viewing the computer entry, if you attempt a driver update,
and list the existing drivers, there will be a list of HALs
that can be installed in place of the current HAL. On my laptop,
when I do that (because it has a single core), I see only the
"ACPI x64 PC" offered as a driver update. No other option.
If I had a multi-core processor, there would presumably be
more options.

I can see by looking at this article, that Windows Virtual PC is
indeed still a single core environment. There are basically
no driver options in this case. "ACPI PC" = doomed.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283

"Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC," ACPI PIC HAL (Halacpi.dll)

* Standard PC <--- Do not use.
* Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC <--- Your existing HAL

If you were to request a driver update, and check the list of
available drivers, those are the two you'd see. And you
definitely do *not* want Standard PC, as that disabled ACPI
and really makes a mess. So basically there is only
one realistic option in that case, which is the HAL currently
being used.

If you saw this in Device Manager:

"ACPI Uniprocessor PC," ACPI APIC UP HAL (Halaacpi.dll)

then that has more options when you go to update the driver.

Sitting back here, Windows Virtual PC looks to be just as
bad as VPC2007. So that Wikipedia entry for SMP must be wrong.

Checking another article, they claim Windows Virtual PC is
threaded, such that each guess OS gets its own thread, but
I don't think anyone gives a rat's ass about that. I found the
lack of improvements and the ribbon style interface change to
be such, I gave up on it. (I can't run WinXP Mode, and
I tested just the Windows Virtual PC part of the package,
and I'd sooner be running VPC2007 personally. It has the same
flaws when I install Linux as a guest, as VPC2007.)

The processor name string may say "Pentium", but the emulation
is not restrictive enough to prevent non-Pentium instructions
from running. Some multimedia software will be able to detect
several flavors of SSE. I don't know the details of what they
do with privileged instructions, whether those return fixed
emulated results, or offer to "passthru" the real processor
info (but in a protected way, so the VM can't "leak out").

Paul

 

[Paul]

Geez guy, I'm likely no more knowledgeable than you about Virtual PC. I
downloaded it, installed it and then read a very little bit before
creating my first VM; an XP Pro install using Vista as the host OS. It
was VERY OBVIOUS when you created the VM that you could change the
amount of memory available to it, it was one of the dialog boxes you had
the go thru. Also after you've created the VM, right in the window that
lists the various VM's and their state is a menu just like any other
Windows program. In that menu is a "settings" dialog just like any
other. In that dialog are settings just like any other. One of them is
the amount of ram to give the VM.

So that was the reason for the "duh", idiotically obvious in my view.
Seemed like you didn't even take the time to look before asking?
Otherwise, what the hell you doing playing with VM's as (no insult
intended) you've got a lot to learn before going that route seems to me,
e.g. you going to troubleshoot inside the VM's os?

Just to insure I felt it is obvious, I just started Virtual PC 2007
directly. Up came a relatively small Window, on the left side are the
four "icons" representing the various VM's I've created (in my case a
Linux version, a Win7, a Win XP Pro and a Win98SE). Beside the icon is
some text stating it's "state", e.g. Saved, Running, Stopped etc. On the
right hand side are four buttons labelled New, Settings, Remove & Start.
I click Settings button and up comes a dialog box with 2nd item in left
hand list being Memory. I highlight that to reveal a slider that obvious
changes the amount of ram that VM is allocated.

Now tell me how much more obvious can it be? So again ... duh

I regularly use VPC2007 (on my WinXP host machine), and it does come
with a nice interface for preparing settings for the guest OSes.
In fact, the interface is easier to use, than the one on VirtualBox.

When I tested Windows Virtual PC on my Win7 laptop, what I was
seeing was a file window kind of thing, and that
lacked the polish and usability of the previous control panel type
interface. Maybe I was "holding it wrong", but I couldn't see the
old interface that VPC2007 had.

Settings for VPC2007.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9589/01oo4.jpg

Windows Virtual PC (for Win7) - yes, I see the "create virtual machine",
and I wouldn't even know I was looking at the controls for Virtual PC if
it wasn't for that.

http://usefulwindows.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/virtual-pc-consol.png

I was unimpressed by that interface. It's a step backwards from the VPC2007 interface.
I even uninstalled it, it was such a plonker. That's why I wasn't able to
go back and look at it now, because I got rid of it (got VirtualBox installed
now instead).

Paul

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I was unimpressed by that interface. It's a step backwards from the
VPC2007 interface.
I even uninstalled it, it was such a plonker. That's why I wasn't able to
go back and look at it now, because I got rid of it (got VirtualBox
installed
now instead).

Can you use the same XP image file for VirtualBox that came for VirtualPC?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Andy Burns]

Can you use the same XP image file for VirtualBox that came for VirtualPC?

Yesbut.

Because VirtualBox has a different BIOS, the XP mode doesn't consider
itself to be a licensed copy,

I tried to persuade Microsoft to activate my XP mode, as it says it can
be used under any hypervisor, not just VirtualPC, but they weren't
interested.

However you can poke the relevant bytes into VirtualBox's BIOS binary
file and it's happy ($DEITY knows what side-effects that may have, but
can't say I've noticed any).