Vista - Can I get info on real, physical hardware ?

Hi,

I wonder if a program installed in an OS running under VPC can obtain
information on the "parent" hardware - that is, the real, physically
existing hardware on which the VPC runs, not the hardware emulated by the
VPC?

Thanks.

Other than a VM can tell it's running as a VM, no, it can't see the
real hardware.

--
Bob Comer


On Wed, 3 Dec 2008 23:36:08 +0200, "Hotmail_H_" <harpo_@xxxxxx>
wrote:

Thanks.
But isn't there some hardware component that VM's use directly?
If there is such, maybe some info on it can be obtained?


"Robert Comer" <bobcomer-removeme-@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:hbvdj413e3l3eir9pfjfs25kjv0g4amnbl@xxxxxx

>But isn't there some hardware component that VM's use directly?

Just the processor and only part of that. Everything else is
emulated. (processor is just virtualized and things like multi cores
are not accessible.)

--
Bob Comer



On Wed, 3 Dec 2008 23:53:39 +0200, "Hotmail_H_" <harpo_@xxxxxx>
wrote:

"Hotmail_H_" <harpo_@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eQInNIZVJHA.5452@xxxxxx
As Bob said, virtual machines themselves know that they're virtual machines,
but (generally speaking) the software that you install on them doesn't,
because it has not the slightest need to know this...

Virtual machines are completely separate machines as far as the software
running on them (both OS and apps) is concerned, and just as "real" as
physical machines.

There is no exposed API in Virtual PC per se which can be used in the way
that you seek.

That said, writing such a component would not be a massively difficult task,
providing both host and guest are running Windows - I've already done
something similar...

Do you actually have a business need for this, or were you asking simply out
of interest?

If the former, then please feel free to contact me off-list and "we'll
talk", as the saying goes...


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

Can I assume then that some basic CPU features, like family/model/stepping,
if read from the virtualized OS, will be valid for the real physical CPU as
well?
And I'll get the same values if I read the settings from the parent OS (both
Windows)?
Then I'll read different values if I move the virtual disk to another
physical machine?

Acc. to some tests I did it is so, but can't be sure it'll be so in all the
cases.

Thanks


"Robert Comer" <bobcomer-removeme-@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:jr0ej4h0mc2k75io721o0dvcbbqohnovd2@xxxxxx

>Can I assume then that some basic CPU features, like family/model/stepping,That's beyond what I know, I don't know how to read those values, so I
don't know if it would work.
Cool, I think it will since it did in your test.

It is possible to hit the same type of CPU in another PC...

--
Bob Comer


On Fri, 5 Dec 2008 01:28:49 +0200, "Hotmail_H_" <harpo_@xxxxxx>
wrote: