VPC Performance tricks
 

Well, I have one Website I need to access that requires ActiveX. Soooo. I installed VPC 6.1. The website now works but the audio stream is kind of choppy. All-in-all I'm kind of surprised how well VPC/WinXP works on my less than Schwarzenegger-esk iBook (500Mhz, G3, w 320MB. Mac OS X 1.1.5).
Questions 1) How much better would perfomance be if I got a new 800 Mhz G4 iBook with 640MB)?
2) How much faster running Win98 vs WinXP?
3) Would upgrading to Panther help or hurt?
4) How does one install Win98? Looks like you need a bootable floppy. What is the likelihood of VPC booting off of a USB floppy drive? This seems quite radical.
5) Any other VPC performance tricks?

Sorry. I kind of mis-posted this request elsewhere. Ouch.

Well, I'll reply to this thread too:

1) Significantly better. G3->G4 is a step up of 1.7 times as fast (1.5?), add to that, 1.5x the clock speed. Not to mention a lot more elbow room with 2x the RAM.

2) WinXP is a dog. A real resource hog. Win98 would be really "skinny" in comparison.

3) Definitely help. Panther has significant speed gains over Jaguar, and MAJOR speed gains and stability gains over Puma. The question is, does your current hardware support Panther (assuming you keep what you have and try installing Panther)? If the hardware supports it, and you go that route, I suggest maxing out the RAM.

4) Unsure in VPC 6.1. Check the "Installing Other OSes Read Me" in Virtual PC 6.1/Extras/Installing Other OSes.

5) A good tip that I found was to close the Virtual PC List window after starting the VPC session. Maybe it's psychosomatic, but I really think it helps with the speed of VPC.
Another good tip is to allow VPC to use plenty of RAM.
Another good tip is to quit other apps that you have running that you don't need.


GO PATS!

You can boot VirtualPC from a diskimage of a floppy disk if you can't (for some reason) boot from the USB floppy. But it probably will nevertheless, assuming VPC notices that you do in fact have an actual floppy drive. I had a DaynaFile 360K 5.25" drive that I used to designate as the B: drive (many long years after any users of real hardware PCs had seen or heard of a B: drive) and it could boot DOS from there.

For most PC OS's you install them the same way you would install onto a Dell or Gateway or whatever. (One exception: although there is an emulated BIOS that's not where you would to go to swap what disk to boot from. Set that in VPC's own Preferences)

Windows 98 should be available on CD. In fact, Windows 95 was. If you were installing from floppies it would be a huge box of floppies. Even Windows 3.11 took quite a few.

I posted an archive of VPC guides and tips from the defunct Connectix web site, much more useful information than you will find available from M$ here:

http://homepage.mac.com/brucemillerphoto

You may need to reload the page if stupid .Mac says download doesn't exist.

The VPC Tech Guide and XP Performance tips PDF's are particularly useful.

BTW, if you have a retail 98/98SE install CD, booting from floppy or images isn't necessary, just boot from CD normally.

Also, now with VPC6, an lean, optimized XP OS install actually runs FASTER than a 98SE OS. I expect the performance gap will only widen with VPC7.

The "dog slow" perception of XP simply comes from not spending the effort to turn off all the animation, auto-updates, system restore, sound and all the other unnecessary features.

Win98 no boot CD
 

Well, I called a local Windows store and they told me there is no boot from Win98SE CDs. I went to a different store and they confirmed it. They told me retail versions of Win98 come with a boot floppy. They made me a "boot floppy".

If you read the Help View files it is still quite confusing what is on the second VPC 6.1 CD. I also cannot get the Help to print! Looks good and print previews but nothing comes out of the printer. I'm going to get a USB floppy and try it. Under VPC6.1 there is not access to the BIOS that I can find.

I have a Windows 98 bootable CD that came with my VPC. All the normal Microsoft markings and a manual with the Key on it etc. Definitely Microsoft produced.

I have personally installed 98SE for VPC5 and 6 using ONLY the retail Windows 98 CD several times. There is NO need for a boot floppy or image.

Well I'll try again
 

The Win98SE CD I have is in orginal MS packaging is defilnitely not bootable. I'll call around tomorrow (Monday AM EST) but so far none of the Windows stores around here I talked to have ever seen a Win98 bootable CD. Could be something that was shipped with earlier versions of VPC. BTW, Brisbane is my second favorite place on the planet. Gosh I wish I lived there. My first favorite is MacKay. I know...I know.

Just try it. When you create a drive image and select 98 and your desired options, mount the 98 CD, double-click on it an let it start the install process.

Follow the VPC install manual verbatim. I posted the VPC5 and VPC6 manuals on the above web site.

You are not installing 98 on a Windows hardware, that has nothing to do with what VPC does with the CD. It just works. Really.

I have tried it.
 

I went through the VPC 6.1 instructions multiple times. Win XP (comes with VPC 6.1) installed fine. I then went through the proceedures in various fashions to install a new VPC w/Win98SE and the retail Win98CD won't boot. I can get a VPC up and running fine (not the XP one) and I can mount the disk fine in a VPC w/o an OS but the CD will not boot. I took it to a PC and it would not boot on the PC either. That is when the store told me ALL the Win98SE they have ever sold came with a "boot floppy"; they sold me one. Its still kind of early but I'll call a few more windows dealers this AM to seem if any have a bootable CD. Where did you get yours? BTW, I read the PDFs on VPC, thanks.

My retail 98SE CD is Microsoft Part No. X03-77962 copyright 4/99, "For distribution with a new PC only" complete with the laser sticker and certificate of authenticity and Microsoft manual and code.

Despite whatever those dealers are telling you, I and I'm sure of thousands of other VPC users, have installed 98SE with this same Microsoft product without the need for a boot floppy. Again, I have never used a boot floppy in my life, yet have 98SE running in VPC simply by using that CD.

When you create the new drive image, do you then: first shut it down, then insert the CD, let it mount on the Mac desktop, then restart the drive image, doesn't the CD icon start blinking and the 98SE CD do anything?

Where exactly did your 98SE CD come from? Does it say the same printed specs as mine? Did it come with a PC with 98SE already installed and is only a restore version?

Still does not boot.
 

I went to several Windows stores at lunch. I tried to boot from it again and it did not boot. It is a CD I had laying around. It has all the orginal MS package, stickers, etc. Nobody seems to have a bootable CD. When I showed them the CD they offered a bootable floppy. VPC runs me through a dialog with a branch that pretty much automatically installs VPC then XP. Pretty simple. The other branch is to manually install an OS. Following this path I select Win98 and it creates a VPC. When you start this VPC you get OS not installed. I shut it down. Pull out the Win98SE CD. Put it back in. Restart VPC/Win98 PC and I get the OS not installed error. The little CD icon shows the Win98SE CD. And the "drives" menu says it is captured. It looks like 1) there is no boot on the CD and/or b) the VPC w/o an OS does not try to boot from it. BTW, If I bring up VPC WinXP I can see all the files on the Win98SE CD. It does not appear that the VPC (not XP version) even tries to spin the CD. One of the PC guys said I need to set the BIOS to boot from a CD; eeeewwwooo.

Try inserting the CD while the "no OS found" dialog is up and see if it then mounts and starts the process.

Did you try double clicking on the CD icon (it been awhile since installing 98)?

The thing is (I think) VPC creates the boot floppy environment when you create the drive image,
I checked the 98SE manual and it does mention booting first from a boot floppy. VPC must simulate that if most of us have installed 98 without one.

Boot floppy
 

There must be something special about some CDs and some BIOS that it goes to the CD for boot. I'm pretty sure that I do not have a bootable CD AND VPC6.1 does not try to boot from a CD. The VPC6.1 installation process is pretty obviously doing more than just installing the emulator then "rebooting". It seems much more "automatic", installing VPC and XP in one series of linked process.
I think I tried all kinds of disk click combos on the CD/icon/etc. I'm going to order a usb floppy and see what happens!

My XP Home copy came from Connectix as an "OS Pack" that greatly simplified the install process, that one was definitely modified (it even had their website as IE default). I chose that, even at a premium price, after reading about so many others having great difficulties with retail XP disk installs. Funny that my retail 98 CD install was so easy.

Do try the double-click on the CD icon, that seemed to be my memory for success.

Keyspan
 

Thanks. I'll try more CD clicking. I am now trying to figure out how to get my Keyspan USB/Serial device to work under VPC /XP. Not simple either.

At least in older versions of VPC, they installed a boot floppy image in an "Extras" folder on the mac. This was back in VPC 4.x but the image should still work and if they no longer include one, I'm happy to send it to anyone that needs it. Just give me your email address, the file is 1.4 megs.

The image (and any floppy image) can be used by dragging it to the little floppy disk icon on the VPC window border.

i'm bringing this back from the dead!

i've read that setting a hard size limit for the virual disk instead of allowing it to 'expand' in size on its own enhances performance ... ? is that so? if so, what size are you guys setting your virtual disk to? i'm thinking of installing Win2K w/ Office & some adobe apps (acrobat, illustrator and photoshop). is 1GB enough? or 2GB?

Sizes
 

WinSE under 300MB
Win2K about 900 MB
WinXPPro gigs and gigs and gigs
No real apps installed except IE and OE and WMP. Defragged, and "recovered".

If you can boot VPC to a dos prompt and can see the win98 install cd as the d: drive then here is what I have done to get Win98 installed.

Boot to dos -> if not on c drive enter "c:"
enter "md win98"
enter "cd win98"
enter "d:"
enter "cd win98"
enter "copy *.* c:"
enter "c:"
enter "setup" and follow the install.

I like this because all the cab files I need through the life of the install will be there on the drive. I don't have to hunt up the CD every time I make a change to networking or install some piece of SW.

Rick

VPC uses the full screen, yahoo. What did I do?
 

I've been experimenting with VirtualPC 6.1 and with the help of people on this board it works pretty well. Clearly Win2K with tons of memory seems to be the best environment.
I have one more issue, (or two). How do I explain this? I have one VPC that opens up using my entire iBook screen. Looking at the screen you cannot tell it is a Mac (in full screen mode). The Apple menu bar at the top does not appear, the VPC "status" bar at the bottom does not appear and the Dock (which I have set to appear on the far left is not showing. When I go to Windowed Mode or push on the "apple" command key the menu bar, status bar and dock appear. How did I get here? What did I do to create this magic (VPC uses all the screen real estate). All the other VPCs run in smallish-windows when in full screen mode. If I mess with the VPC "Full Screen Settings" for other VPCs I get either the small window running VPC or a screen with huge low-resolution blocky characters.
Also what do you think about network mode? I can't seem to see a difference between shared and vitural.

Rob,

Full screen is selectable from Control in VPC Menu Bar, the Additions have to be installed to enable. Also go into Windows>Control Panel>Display and set screen resolution to 800x600 while in windowed mode first.

BTW, if you choose to install the 2000 updaters just out, duplicate your original drive image first, they may or may not install correctly (even Windows users have had problems). Also, I have found such installs only serve to slow VPC down further generally.

Bruce, your right again.
 

Bruce, changing the screen resolution in Windows worked. Thanks again.