Vista - Total fresh virgin newbie question

I am just geting my feet wet in virtual machine technology. I just bought a
computer with Vista 64 bit installed. I had XP before and ran a software that
the creator provides free, is 32 bit, and will not be updated beyond its
current version because the creator has a competing commercial product that
they sell for an arm. In order to continue using this software, which Vista
refuses to install, I thought I'd try VM. If there is a better alternative
please inform. From what I have read, a guest OS can communicate with the
host through network services. That said, is there a way for me to send
instructions from a program running in the host to the guest that will
initiate running a program installed on the guest? If so, can someone point
me to documentation that explains this technology.

"JonWayn" <JonWayn@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E610F4A1-9FCE-45FF-BBEA-8BCD034861B6@xxxxxx
Firstly, can you please clarify what you mean by "which Vista refuses to
install"...
How are you trying to install it?
Are you running the installation as administrator?
What error messages are you getting?
That's right. Make sure that the host and guest(s) are in the same workgroup
/ domain and you should have no problems at all.

As you're new to software virtualisation, the most important point to
remember is that there is *NO* difference between a physical machine (like
your host) and a virtual machine (like your guest) as far as the software
running on it is concerned - both are *REAL* machines. When you create your
first VM and then install e.g. Windows XP on it, Windows XP will have no the
slightest notion that it's being installed on a virtual machine as opposed
to a physical machine - it has no need whatsoever to know this. Whenever you
encounter an issue with software virtualisation, the question to ask is "How
would I do this on a physical machine?" and you will almost always arrive at
the answer.
As above. Supposing you had two physical machines on the same network as
opposed to one physical machine and one virtual machine - how would you do
it...?

You might also find this newsgroup's FAQ useful:
http://vpc.visualwin.com/ngfaq.aspx


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

Thanks for the reply. Here is further information pursuant to the questions
you asked:
* The error I get when I try to install the program goes as follows: The
version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you're
running. Check your computer system's information to see whether you need an
x86 (32 bit) or x64 (64 bit) version of the program and then contact the
provider.

Or something to that effect. As stated in the opening thread, there is no
contacting the provider for this one as they will not support it in any way.
* I put a CD into the drive and click OK on the AutoPlay dialog. Then the
message pops up


I was aware that a VM is not very different from a real computer and no
different at all as far as it sees itself. I am not a network savvy person
and have never known how a client asks a server to run a program residing on
the server. So, that is my main concern here. How do I get the host to signal
the guest to start a program?
"Mark Rae [MVP]" wrote:

"JonWayn" <JonWayn@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6B21C3F0-DDC0-4818-894A-27EAD70C96DA@xxxxxx

[please don't top-post]
Ah, but that's not what you reported! You said that Vista was refusing to
install the app - in fact, it's the app's installer that is refusing to
install itself on your version of Vista. That may sound pedantic, but the
two scenarios are not the same thing at all...
So what happens when you cancel AutoPlay and try to install the app as
Administrator?
A VM *IS* a real computer - this is absolutely fundamental. The fact that it
is made of software and not hardware is completely irrelevant.
Again, without wishing to be dismissive, the same way as you would get one
physical machine to start a program on another physical machine - nothing to
do with Virtual PC per se. How you will *actually* go about doing this will
depend on what the remote process is, whether it provides any sort of
interface for remote launch, whether it runs as a service etc... E.g. if SQL
Server stops running on a remote server, it's possible for an administrator
to start it up again remotely - but only because SQL Server provides a
mechanism for this sort of remote control...


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

On 15/09/2008 in message
<6B21C3F0-DDC0-4818-894A-27EAD70C96DA@xxxxxx> JonWayn wrote:
I wonder if it has a 16 bit installer, I have a couple of 32 bit apps with
16 bit installers so they won't install on XP x64.

Do you want to install this app on the main PC or the virtual PC?

--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
There are 3 types of people in this world. Those who can count, and those
who can't.

I'd love if I could install it on the main PC. The only reason the whole idea
of the VPC came up was this program.

"Jeff Gaines" wrote:

The whole time I had been logged on as an administrator. I am the only user
of the computer and my default account is administrative in nature. So, when
AutoPlay fails or I close its dialog, I open the CD image and double-click
the Setup file. There are only a few files and setup is the only logical one
that performs the installation process. However, I just get the same message
described earlier.

I doubt this little program provides any specific mechanism to be controlled
or launched remotely. A little more details than I gave before: I run a
number of MSAccess databases. Each database, after doing her magic with the
data contained, exports the data to a text file and then uses Shell or
ShellExecute to launch this program that we are talking about, then from
Access, I detect the presence of the new window with API calls and use its
menu system to get the window to act on the exported file. Of course, that
was the scenario before I got Vista. So, basically, all I have is the path to
this program's executable. It takes no arguments. Armed with just that, is
there a way to send a file's path from one computer to another on the same
network? Actually, if you could tell me how to send any old piece of
information over a network, I should be able to figure out from there how to
detect the presence of it on the receiving computer and do what I need to do
upon its arrival.

Thanks

"Mark Rae [MVP]" wrote:

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:38:07 -0700, in microsoft.public.virtualpc,
JonWayn <JonWayn@xxxxxx>, wrote
Can your first program work on shared access drive network files?

FACE

Normally, with the old program, you open it, select a menu command that
brings up the File/Open dialog, navigate that dialog to a file somewhere (the
program couldnt care less where), then finally hit some button to gt it to
act on that file. At the end it throws a dialog to indicate completion of its
action. Throughout its action, which may take seconds or minutes depending on
the size of the file it imports, my Access database is periodically sniffing
for the completion dialog that this program throws through a form's timer
event. That brings me to another issue: is it possible to send API messages
across the network and how? To directly answer your question, yes, or I am
pretty sure, that the program would be able to read shared folders. However,
just for my edification, what is the mechanism for sending bits from one
computer to another through the network? As I said earlier, I am a network
novice. We all use it everyday just by using the internet but I was never
concerned before about the underworkings of data transfer. Now I am

"FACE" wrote:

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:01:03 -0700, in microsoft.public.virtualpc,
JonWayn <JonWayn@xxxxxx>, wrote


Well I see that you knew exactly what I was getting at -- running both
programs in the VM and using a shared folder which would be the location
of your MSAccess files. As far as starting the VM and the program, that
would be a single click situation with the VM pulled from the VPC console
to the desktop and the VM having the program in it's start file. (launched
in the VM with the VM.) I have watched the progress of your situation
since this morning and am pretty much thinking you will need a remote
desktop type application to actually send commands to the VM and remain in
the host. I am very light on networking between workgroups myself. I am
sure that other's here have experience in that though.....

I will say that with the little that I do know that Server may best fit
the approach you outline and may be the best vehicle.

I admit I wonder why you might not take the approach of bumping the VM
from the host desktop and running both programs in the VM with a shared
folder of your MSAccess files, though -- it would just be another
window.............

FACE