Vista - memory question

What does VPC see of the physical memory in the host os?

For instance:

I have a machine with 8GB ram with a 32 bit host os. The host OS sees only 4
GB of the 8GB right?

If so what of the top 4GB does VPC see? If I want to try win7 64 bits can it
use the top 4 GB as it can see it?

Or do I make a thinking error here.

I want to test the win7 64 bits with higher mem, but don't want to install
it and lose the old OS...

thanks

>I have a machine with 8GB ram with a 32 bit host os. The host OS sees only 4Correct. (if it's a client OS, a server sku may be able to address
more using PAE)
None. VPC only sees what the OS sees, and only about 3.7G max, even
on a 64-bit host OS. It only supports 32-bit guests.
None of the VM solutions will be able to see the RAM that the OS can't
see.

--
Bob Comer


On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:03:01 -0700, Bas
<Bas@newsgroup> wrote:

Thanks Bob!

From you answer I take it there is no 64 bit VPC version available if I were
able to find a 64 bit XP?

"Robert Comer" wrote:

"Bas" <Bas@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:006936F2-B855-4347-A4BF-5F7A01F3AA79@newsgroup
Not quite... There is a version of VPC which includes specific drivers for
64-bit hosts - however, it is still a 32-bit application:
http://vpc.visualwin.com/ngfaq.aspx#18

VPC, in any incarnation, has never supported 64-bit guests.


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

Thanks Bob and Mark for your responses!

Right so if I understand correctly...

If I were to install Win7 64 bits like Bob suggests, it would see mem above
4GB and I could install VPC 64 bits and install any 32 bit guest OS in it?
And I could allocate 4GB to the guest as Win7 would use the rest above 4GB?

To go outside of the box : I could even install a server OS 32 bits if I
wanted to?

Thanks!

Bas

"Mark Rae [MVP]" wrote:

"Bas" <Bas@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:63F62588-786D-40C8-ACA1-6B230DE30243@newsgroup
Yes.

Yes.

Pretty much. Bear in mind that only a handful of guest OS are actually
supported by Microsoft, though most work perfectly well. That said, it can
be a bit of a fight to install some distros of Linux, though...

The concept of "above" and "below" is not really meaningful with 64-bit OS.
Remember that each OS has a minimum amount of memory required just to get it
to boot and a recommended amount of memory which it needs to run acceptably.
This applies equally to your host and your guests. If you have 8GB on your
host and launch a virtual machine to which you have allocated 4GB, that will
leave 4GB for the host. If you then launch another virtual machine to which
you have allocated 2GB RAM, that will leave only 2GB for the host - it's as
mathematically simple as that. If you then tried to launch a virtual machine
to which you had allocated 4GB RAM, VPC would tell you that there wasn't
enough memory available. It's also important to remember that VPC is just an
application running on your host machine and has to fight for resources with
all of the other applications running on your host machine, so make sure you
don't cripple your host by running too many virtual machines
simultaneously...

You could, though you might prefer to use Microsoft Virtual Server for
that...


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

Thanks Mark!

This answered my questions, but raised one new one...

MS virtual server? Is this the new Hyper-V? For arguments sake: If I want to
install a server OS udner win7 I should install MS virtua server?

Bas

"Mark Rae [MVP]" wrote:

>MS virtual server? Is this the new Hyper-V?

No, it's an older product from Microsoft.
Win7 blocks the install of Virtual Server for one thing (there are
workarounds, but it's not supported), but it all depends on what you
want to do with the VM's. If it's a server OS that is just going to
sit in the background doing some particular task without much user
interaction with the desktop, then Virtual Server is good for that,
but if there's a lot of interaction with the desktop, then VPC might
be a better fit because it's designed for a user based desktop
environment.

So in other words when running a server OS, a traditional server task
it's better under Virtual Server (or the newer Hyper-V), but for
testing and development, VPC is better.

--
Bob Comer



On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:24:01 -0700, Bas
<Bas@newsgroup> wrote:

Bas wrote:It is possible to run a server OS under Virtual PC 2007, or VPC7 on Win7, bit
most are not supported.

If you want to use a server vitualization product:

Hyper-V must be installed on the hardware. You cannot have Windows 7 as your
host OS is you are using Hyper-V. Hyper-V requires a machine with hardware
virtualization.

OTOH, Virtual Server 2005 runs under a host OS, like Virtual PC, except that it
runs as a service. Server 2005 is not supported under Window 7, though you will
be able to install it if you jump through hoops. See for example

<http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprovirt/thread/a98e77b7-95d4-444f-8dbc-630c98074436>

--
David Wilkinson
Visual C++ MVP

"Bas" <Bas@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:F853BBC7-27EB-4F2F-AD6F-3CE40063420B@newsgroup
http://tinyurl.com/yey9ybr


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