Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
Once you get over the creepy experience of seeing a Windows desktop on the face of your lovely Mac (and hearing the Windows start-up chimes reverberating from your speakers), you might start to appreciate the benefits that a program like Virtual PC 4.0 has to offer. For those Mac users who need to occasionally access Windows 98, Virtual PC 4.0 supplies just the solution without making you invest in a new machine.

Virtual PC doesn't profess to offer lightning-fast speeds. Remember, you're running a second operating system, so don't expect even the mightiest G4 to keep up at its usual pace. However, we did note improvements in speed in most applications over the 3.0 version. Enough of a difference, in fact, to consider an upgrade if you're one of the many who've been frustrated by the sluggishness in the past. However, as before, Virtual PC is still not a good solution for playing PC games. Additionally, we tried watching two QuickTime movies over the Internet on both our Mac and in Virtual PC. While on our T1 line the Mac version was flawlessly gorgeous and buffered instantly while watching, trying to watch the QuickTime movie in Virtual PC was stuttered and clunky. And even when watching QuickTime movies that had been fully buffered first, the player still resorted to a slide show instead of smooth, streaming video.

One major change in this latest version is in memory allocation. Whereas in the 3.0 version you had to allocate memory to the Virtual PC application itself, in this version you allocate memory to each virtual 'machine,' which can be expanded and changed even while you're in the midst of using that machine. Additionally, drive images are now only as large as they need to be. That means that even if you create a drive image of 8 GB for your virtual machine, but the application is only using 2 GB, then the image will only be 2 GB--a great disk space saving feature.

The two most notable benefits of Virtual PC are the ability for Windows to use your Mac's existing Internet connection (there's no need to go through any further setup), and the outstanding USB support in this new version (you can access USB printers, scanners, and other peripherals easily). However, you should have OS 9.0.1 or later in order to take advantage of its enhanced USB support.

Another neat addition in this version is the ability to add even more operating systems to Virtual PC. That means that if you have a copy of, say, SuSE Linux lying around, you can install that on another drive image, and access it from Virtual PC. The only caveats are that you must supply the OS and that you're still limited by the amount of RAM you have. But how cool is that?

Though it might make you feel a little dirty having to visit the dark side every so often, the benefits of being able to switch back and forth between your Mac and Windows are quite substantial, and warrant a look at Virtual PC 4.0 with Windows 98. --Ara Jane Olufson

Amazon.com Item Description:
New to this version of Virtual PC:

• Improved performance. Up to twice as fast as previous versions. Improved support for Velocity Engine. Improved memory allocation that allows you to allocate up to 512 MB of RAM to the operating system inside Virtual PC without quitting the application.
• Larger and expandable disk images. Your PC disk image--a virtual hard disk on your Mac hard drive--grows and expands as needed (up to 127 GB) and uses only the space it actually requires, rather than a preset amount.
• Easier to use. Improved user interface, with scrollable windows and support for three-button mice and scroll mice. Improved Help, including integrated Virtual Disk Assistant, Setup Assistant, and an interactive help system.
• Runs multiple PC operating systems. With Virtual PC products, you can run multiple PC operating systems--for example, Windows 98 and Windows 2000, or two copies of Windows Me--on your Mac at the same time, and view their desktops as thumbnail images on your Mac desktop.

---

---

Rating: - * A must buy!! ... Excellent product, never crashes and delivers what it promises. Don't expect to go on a speedy downhill rollercoaster with your new "pc desktop", but if you only need it to run a few not so complex applications, VirtualPC is the way to go. After all, it's windows on a mac... Rating: - * Great Product - Awful Tech Support ... If you are thinking of buying this product to utilise your Mac as a PC as well, then you are on the right track. However, if like me you have a few peripherals, some development tools, etc. there will come a time when you will need tech support. That's when you hit a brick wall. You have a better chance of emailing your gold fish and getting a response than from someone at Connectix. I mean that most sincerely. Weeks. Absolutely weeks go by before someone will wake up to the fact that you have written in and respond to you. Then they will ask you for more information. Then you will respond and then another month or two will go by. Think hard before you make this purchase if this is the kind of company you want to deal with. Because you are going to be facing many, many lonely weeks waiting for their response, if it ever comes. Rating: - * How to Get Several Laptops for the Price of One ... I've been using Connectix' Virtual PC for quite some time now. In my experience it has been easy to install and it has been easy to use. The new version 4 adds some much needed flexibility that allows one to more easily run multiple operating systems as well as to tune each OS installation to more closely match one's needs. I think the most compelling thing about Virtual PC is that it does a far better job of emulating a PC on a Mac than any application I've ever seen for emulating a Mac on a PC. This may not sound like a big deal, but when one is travelling and/or consulting in a mixed-mode environment it is really a LOT easier to have only one laptop upon which one may easily switch from system to system without rebooting and without reconfiguring. For the cost of a Powerbook or an iBook and Virtual PC, one has essentially a fleet of PC's with the ability to run and support Macintosh, DOS, Windows in all its many flavors, Linux, and yes, OS/2. Note that this also allows a person to log in to any aspect of a mixed mode networking environment. Very handy and exceptionally cost effective!