Installation is surprisingly painless, given that you are performing the equivalent of a clean Windows installation.
However, Connectix says that the OS versions are different enough that each version of Virtual PC is tweaked to make that particular Windows software run faster. Each comes with a complete Windows CD, but we were able to install non-bundled versions of Windows without any trouble. Virtual PC 4 users can upgrade for about £69. The DOS version costs £69, the Windows 98 and Windows XP Home Edition versions are £139, and the Windows 2000 version is £179. Each version of Virtual PC comes with a preinstalled OS. The biggest advance with Virtual PC 5 is the addition of Mac OS X support, which is combined into a hybrid installer that works natively in either OS 9 or OS X.Īt its core, Connectix Virtual PC isn't a Windows emulator rather, it's a PC emulator, which means it runs almost any Pentium-ready operating system, including Windows and Linux, on your Mac. However, performance issues are still a concern. The software is easy to use, stable, cleverly designed and runs different versions of Windows, including XP. Connectix's Virtual PC for Mac is an inexpensive and effective way of running those essential applications that just haven't made it to Apple's platform, and version 5 now supports OS X natively.
