Microsoft Virtual PC is Microsoft's release of a product line they acquired from Connectix in February 2003. It natively provides support for Windows operating systems, but, using the 'Other' option, it is possible to install and run pretty much any Operating System. (Tested with Linux and several hobbyist OSes.)
It feels very similar to the VMWare PC Emulator, and provides most of the same functions, and is free. A free downloadable version is available from Microsoft's website.
I also found that this trial can be run after the expiration by changing the system date to when it worked, running the prog, and changing the date back. I have a batch script to do this:
@ECHO OFF date 24-12-04 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC\Microsoft Virtual PC.exe" echo Please enter today's date. date
Review: It is okay, but doesn't have an integrated debugger. Pretty fast though :)
More review:
- It provides PCI configuration method 1 support and SMBios (Bochs seemingly does not)
- Fixed size disk images are very easy to work with and can be shared by Virtual PC and Bochs :)
- It only supports a minimal set of hardware - just enough for decent use. It doesn't support VBE 3.0 (the one with protected-mode access), BIOS32 for PCI (although that is easily implemented without the BIOS), or loopback mode for the serial UARTs.
- If you integrate a simple debugger and serial i/o into your OS, you can debug it over a named pipe. Just enter \\.\pipe\yourpipename into the configuration page for COM1 or COM2, and connect your debugger (on the host PC) to the same pipe.
Category: PcEmulators