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Is it possible to get later versions on Windows to work on Virtual PC 7 for Mac?

Angelgreat

Well-known member
PowerPac Macs could only run Windows in emulation. A popular product was Virtual PC, which was created by Connectix. Then after version 6, it was sold to Microsoft, who made Version 7, the last version for Macs. For Virtual PC 7, it came with XP, but I wonder if it could accept Windows 7 or 10?
 

CC_333

Well-known member
That's an intriguing question!

If it does, I'd expect that drivers for most of the virtual hardware would be fairly outdated, and thus not likely to work well.

I'd probably go for Windows 7 at the absolute most, since Windows 8.1 and newer require certain CPU instructions that I sort of doubt Virtual PC emulates. Vista would probably be more within reach, as it has more in common with XP regarding system requirements (by accident, I once got 7 to boot on an 800 MHz Athlon, and it actually ran surprisingly well, considering I had only used it on multi-GHz computers up to that point).

That being said, I only have G3s with me at the moment, so Virtual PC with anything other than MS-DOS or Windows 9x would likely be miserably slow. For even remotely acceptable performance, I'd recommend only running it on the fastest Dual G4s and G5s, especially if you're planning to run either Vista or 7.

c
 

joshc

Well-known member
Virtual PC 7 came out quite a few years before Windows 7 did, so even that would be a stretch. If it does run, it will run horribly would be my bet.
 

CC_333

Well-known member
Virtual PC 7 came out quite a few years before Windows 7 did, so even that would be a stretch. If it does run, it will run horribly would be my bet.
Agreed*, but Vista might actually be remotely possible: Virtual PC 7 for Mac was released in June 2006, just a few months before Vista reached RTM status.

The Guest Editions may not work well, if at all, and Aero probably won't be possible, but my guess is that it otherwise ought to at least boot. Helpfully, in my experience Vista 32-bit can still make use of most XP-era drivers relatively easily (this got progressively harder with 7 and later), so it might be possible to get most things working with the XP Guest Additions with some work.

This is getting so intriguing that I want to go get one of my Power Macs and give it a try for myself to prove whether or not it can actually be done, for all I've said so far is mostly conjecture and speculation.

c

*On the other hand, a carefully tweaked install *might* run decently, at least on a G5. Even at that, I suspect that browsing the internet with it won't work particularly well, despite the fact that it would be theoretically possible, since Win7 is still supported by Chrome and Firefox as far as I know.
 
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Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
This would be fun to try for someone who has a PowerMac with, absolute minimum, 1.5 gigs of RAM.

Searching online for this, it seems like Virtual PC may have a limit on how big an ISO it will mount, but if you burn the Vista/7/8 DVD to a disc and boot off of it, it should work.

My theory is that it will be unusably slow on any PowerPC Mac, but that doesn't mean trying wouldn't be neat.
 

reukiodo

Well-known member
Windows 7 does run in VPC7 on PPC Mac, but without audio, as the SoundBlaster emulated is an ISA card, which Windows 7 doesn't support. I haven't tried Vista, but from my experience with Vista, it would be substantially slower than Windows 7.
 
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