Does anyone use VirtualBox?

[najaB]

In [thread=146739]this thread[/thread] we got into side discussion about virtual PCs and Howardh said that (s)he can't run virtual XP on a machine with 2GB of RAM.

I've just fired up my Windows 8 installation (the XP one got hosed) and my memory usage went down from 4.4GB to 3.9GB! It went up to 5GB in the end. This suggests that it should be perfectly possible to run a Windows virtual machine in 2GB of RAM (the VirtualBox FAQ says that c 1GB is the minimum). Does anyone else have real-world experience?

 

[Howardh]

This is where I started with Virtual XP mode - int he notes it states 2gb, but I haven't managed to get it to load on 2gb RAM; maybe the RAM on my PCwas physically below 2 -
or (and this bit I haven't a clue) if you are already running something then the memory being used will take RAM below 2gb?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=8002
Also it states which Windows 7 run it - but "home" is missing. I have 7 pro - OK for my PC which has 4gb RAM but not the one with 2gb.
If you are running off 8 or higher then I'm lost.....help!!

 

[najaB]

Try using VirtualBox rather than Windows Virtual PC. It wasn't a particularly good hypervisor and has been replaced in later versions by Hyper-V.

 

[GusB]

A machine with 2GB memory should run VirtualBox without any issues, but it depends which operating systems (OS) you're running as host and guest. My previous laptop running Windows Vista had 4GB of physical memory, and would happily run a guest Windows XP installation with 1GB allocated. Any less than this and your guest OS isn't going to perform well. Any more, and your host OS is going to grumble. I think as a rule you're not supposed to allocate more than 50% of your physical memory to a virtual machine.

I had better results on the same machine when I was running a lightweight Linux version as the host OS (I think it was Peppermint Linux).

My current desktop machine has 4GB, is running Windows 10, and a slightly newer processor (Core i3). While I keep VirtualBox installed for the occasional test, I haven't used it to any great extent recently, and I haven't attempted to run a Windows guest.

I'll dig out the XP installation disk and give it a go - it'll give me something to do! Now, where did I put that licence key...?

 

[tony_mac]

Try using VirtualBox rather than Windows Virtual PC. It wasn't a particularly good hypervisor and has been replaced in later versions by Hyper-V.

One possible problem is a license key - you don't need one for 'XP mode' on Virtual PC.

If the PC is old enough to have 2gb of ram, it may not support hardware virtualisation.

 

[najaB]

One possible problem is a license key - you don't need one for 'XP mode' on Virtual PC.

There are ways around this (of various levels of legality).

If the PC is old enough to have 2gb of ram, it may not support hardware virtualisation.

VirtualBox doesn't require any special hardware features for most applications. As per the user manual, while VirtualBox will use hardware virtualisation features if they are present it doesn't *require* them in most use cases.

 

[A Challenge]

I liked XP, though wouldn't want to run a computer on virtual XP if it could run higher! I do have a BBC BASIC emulator though...

 

[Howardh]

Yes, Virtual XP doesn't require a key, that comes with 7pro and it's simply an add-on.

 

[sk688]

I tried VirtualBox on my Macbook , but it wasnt able to create a Win10 VM ( or that may have been my ineptituide )

I find Parallels is the best Virtualization service personally , easy set up and runs fast on my 5 year old machine ( i7 , 16gb RAM )

The only one I wouldnt say is any good is VMWare . It makes the fans on the Macbook sound like 747 Engines, is sluggish and sets up incorrectly

Also , I wouldnt be surprised that a PC with only 2GB ram overall struggles to run a VM . When I created a Win10 VM with 2GB ram allocated , it ran like treacle

IMO , 16gb or more RAM is needed for a good VM , although I suppose 8gb would also be acceptable

 

[najaB]

I just reinstalled XP in VirtualBox with 256MB allocated and it didn't use much over 300MB when started. So I'd say running XP on a machine with 2GB should be more than doable.

 

[sk688]

I just reinstalled XP in VirtualBox with 256MB allocated and it didn't use much over 300MB when started. So I'd say running XP on a machine with 2GB should be more than doable.

But would performance not be slow ?

Never used XP personally , but judging by Laptops today , with most having 8/16/32GB just to run One OS smoothly ( Most need 16 for decent performance , at least IMO , along with an i7 ) , that seems like it would run pretty slow

Just out of intrest , what Processor do you have ? Id quite like to try XP , but im not sure if my processor would be up to handling it , cause I dont know how much it would use in a VM

I have the choice of a machine with i7-4790k + 32gb ram ,or a machine with an i7-7500U + 16 gb ram

Would these run XP smoothly in a VM ?

 

[najaB]

But would performance not be slow ?

It's surprisingly smooth. I've not tried anything heavy with it yet but general web browsing has no problems.

Just out of intrest , what Processor do you have ? Id quite like to try XP , but im not sure if my processor would be up to handling it , cause I dont know how much it would use in a VM

AMD FX-8320E. I'm replying to your post from the XP VM and there's no noticable lag or delay.

Would these run XP smoothly in a VM ?

The only way to find out would be to try it.

 

[GusB]

But would performance not be slow ?

Never used XP personally , but judging by Laptops today , with most having 8/16/32GB just to run One OS smoothly ( Most need 16 for decent performance , at least IMO , along with an i7 ) , that seems like it would run pretty slow

Just out of intrest , what Processor do you have ? Id quite like to try XP , but im not sure if my processor would be up to handling it , cause I dont know how much it would use in a VM

I have the choice of a machine with i7-4790k + 32gb ram ,or a machine with an i7-7500U + 16 gb ram

Would these run XP smoothly in a VM ?

You'd have no issues on hardware with those specs. It'll probably run faster than most machines that came with XP in the first place!

 

[dgl]

Another virtual box user here, use it to run win2000 for Rebirth RB338 which won't run in win8/10 due to issues with it's help system.

As for slow machines, using VM Ware Virtual Machine in win2000 running both win2000 advanced server and win2000 with a 1.8Ghz~ Athlon and 512mb ram if you were lucky (more like 256mb in most of the machines iirc and it was a struggle to find RAM that fitted/worked), that was slow

 

[D365]

But would performance not be slow ?

Never used XP personally , but judging by Laptops today , with most having 8/16/32GB just to run One OS smoothly ( Most need 16 for decent performance , at least IMO , along with an i7 ) , that seems like it would run pretty slow

Say what? 8GB is still plenty for an average home user.

As GusB points out, even your virtual machine would have better specs than what Windows XP was designed for.

Though I'm not sure how many programs are stuck on XP only, if I need to run something really old I have a 98 VM.