Virtual PC Headache

July 5, 2006 11:11 AM

My friend has a dual 2GHz Apple G5, and is unable to run Virtual PC 6.1 on his computer. He knows Virtual PC 7 will work, but is unsure if he can buy solely the upgrade, or if he will need a full version of Virtual PC 7. Anyone have any insight into this situation? Thanks in advance!
posted by potch to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Virtual PC 6.1 doesn't work for G5s. Virtual PC 7 was made to correct that issue. There are stand alone copies (without the OS) of VPC 7.0 available and aren't ridiculously expensive (currently $120 brand new on Amazon). Since the release of Intel processors and Parallels/Bootcamp, I imagine the value of VPC has plummeted significantly, so you can probably buy it cheaper on Ebay or on Amazon in the used section.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 11:36 AM on July 5, 2006

G5 processors don't support a key feature that Virtual PC used for emulating Intel processors, so Virtual PC 7 ended up being a major rewrite just to get it to function at all on G5s, and hence there are no workarounds for the old version.
posted by cillit bang at 11:42 AM on July 5, 2006

I've never purchased from this retailer, but the upgrade version is only $84.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 11:43 AM on July 5, 2006

Having installed it myself, I can confirm that the upgrade version of VPC 7 is a fully self-contained copy of version 7. It doesn't 'upgrade' your version 6 or anything like that. All it does is check that you've got a copy of version 6 (to confirm that you qualify for the cheaper upgrade pricing), and then installs itself as a completely separate application.

Therefore, although I don't have a G5 to test it on, I can see no reason why the upgrade version would lack any functionality that's present in the 'full' version.
posted by chrismear at 2:50 PM on July 5, 2006

If the VPC7 upgrade checks for 6 - can you even install it on a G5? or does 6 just install but not run?
posted by b1tr0t at 2:58 PM on July 5, 2006

Actually, thinking about it, I reinstalled everything on my PowerBook from scratch a couple of months ago, and I'm pretty certain I installed VPC 7 fresh without installing VPC 6 first. So perhaps it doesn't check. Or maybe you just have to stick the VPC 6 disc in or something. But it shouldn't be a problem.
posted by chrismear at 12:39 AM on July 7, 2006