Virtual PC help

[SpecialKay]

hey guys,
I have been playing around with Microsofts virtual PC teminal just to see what the advantages/disadvantages are using virtual machines. So far, there are a lot of potential advantages to using VPCs, however i do have one draw back to witch i need a work around.

It seens as tho, VPC's do not interface with the computer hardware. It appears that they create there own default, "virtual hardware". The problem for me comes in a few ways, the first being that some of the software that i use requires hardware licanes keys, VPC does not see them. The second is, that i need VPC to be able to interface with a varity of PCI/PCIe/PCIx boards.

so far i have only played around with Microsoft. i was wondering if anyone has had a chance to us the other options (VMware) to be specific.

[SpecialKay]

Anyone out there? someone must have used VMware

[RedSon]

VPC will work with other computer ports. You need to add them to your VM. Microsoft also has a set of extensions that you can install in your VM that help it interact better with its host system (like sharing clipboards) and stuff like that.

[SpecialKay]

any more information about that? i really dont know where to look. I have figured out the Parallel Port. I was able to add it to my VPC. im still coming up with nothing for the PCI ports. i need to be able to interface with my Graphic cards, and Frame Grabbers.

[RedSon]

any more information about that? i really dont know where to look. I have figured out the Parallel Port. I was able to add it to my VPC. im still coming up with nothing for the PCI ports. i need to be able to interface with my Graphic cards, and Frame Grabbers.

The PCI ports on your host machine? Like your video card? I would suspect that you follow the same procedure that you would on your host machine if you didnt have a VM. Install the SDK and create your program against that. You might be able to install the drivers in your VM but the point of a Virtual Machine is that your host system virtualizes the work. I don't think direct access to hardware is possible.

[Nepomuk]

I agree with RedSon, direct access to your hardware will hardly be possible. The reason as I understand it can be explained with the graphics card.

Imagine, you give your VM full access and, more importantly, full control of your graphics card, then your host system doesn't have the control any more and can therefore not display anything - including the VM Window. So, any hardware that is fully accessible within the VM isn't on the host system and vice versa. Therefore, virtual hardware is created, which passes the information on to the host system, which combines it with it's own information and sends it to the actual hardware.

I know that with VMWare, you can connect USB Plugs in a similar way to what you're suggesting - however then the VM has full access to connected devices and the host has none. Can be quite useful at some times. Can be annoying at others.

So, it seems that the only way to allow complete access of all hardware to a system is to run it natively. (Parallel boot?) Of course, you might find plug-ins, that can at least emulate your specific hardware, but I'd have no idea, where to look for that sort of thing.

Greetings,
Nepomuk