Vista - Specs to run Virtual PC

I have a laptop with 1 gig of RAM. 50% of the ram is dedicated to the
host and 50% to the guest. Both run Windows XP pro.

I just find the whole system painfully slow. I've tried adjusting the
ram, but it just affects the other system from where I take the ram.

Is there something I can do to improve performance? Back a few years
ago, I used to have an older pc with a slower processor that came with
500 meg, which at the time was considered huge and at that time, I
never had any issues with XP speed.

Getting more RAM would be the best...

--
Bob Comer


On Fri, 8 May 2009 12:24:04 -0700 (PDT), kellyapproved@xxxxxx
wrote:

<kellyapproved@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:36e7d4f3-d8c0-4517-83cd-f4c97d28bfef@xxxxxx
That's not nearly enough. You need double that amount at least...


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

On Fri, 8 May 2009 12:24:04 -0700 (PDT), kellyapproved@xxxxxx
wrote:
There are some items apart from more RAM that might also affect speed
in the guests:

1) Virtual Machine Additions
If you have not yet done so, install the VMA!
It is done from the Action menu of he running virtual machine window.
It will improve graphics speed, mouse and other things. In general the
guest will be much more responsive.

2) Hardware Virtualization (VT)
If your laptop is capable of it and has the necessary BIOS
functionality, then enabling VT in host BIOS and then also in the VPC
guest settings will improve performance a lot.

3) Updated video drivers on the host
Video drivers on the host should be updated to the latest version
available. Can also improve performance.

4) Power saving on the host
Laptops are usually causing a lot of grief concerning guest
performance because they are throttled back automatically when the
host operating system thinks that nothing much is happening....
Locate the performance options in the host and set them to full speed!

I am using a Compaq nw8240 laptop at work for everything including
running VPC2007 guests (and also VMWare Workstation guests). I have a
total of 2Gb RAM, but I was using 1 Gb RAM up until last year without
any problems. Never thought that the virtual machines (with XP) worked
slow or anything like that. So it can definitely be a useful system
with "only" 1 Gb RAM, provided nothing later than XP is running (no
Vista for example).

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

> 2) Hardware Virtualization (VT)Thanks so much for this tip. VT worked like a charm, I can't believe
just how fast it has made the VM...night and day....so I can confirm
that running a VM with 1 gig works.

Just curious, but why wouldn't VT be enabled in the bios on all
computers that have it?

On May 8, 10:15*pm, kellyappro...@xxxxxx wrote:Because most people aren't running VM's on their computer and why
enable something if it's not going to be used?

Also I think I remember hearing about a security risk of virtualized
malware that would be alot harder to detect if VT was enabled in the
BIOS. The companies that disabled in the BIOS probably thought it
wasn't worth the risk and since most people don't run VM's on their
machines they are right.

It's not like it's a complicated procedure to go into the BIOS and
enable it

On Fri, 8 May 2009 19:15:08 -0700 (PDT), kellyapproved@xxxxxx
wrote:
Glad to hear that it worked out for you!

--
Bo Berglund