This software can help IT's deal with their old application. For those who are still not familiar with this application you'll find this article helpful.

Do you love your old operating system but can't use it anymore, because you’re now using the latest hardware and operating system? Who cares about that old operating system? Maybe for some people they still want it installed not just because of the OS, but also for their legacy application that won't simply run on new OS's. Don’t lose hope, Microsoft have a solution for you, they called it Microsoft Virtual PC.

For a short synopsis of Virtual PC; Virtual PC is a software application that usually runs on Windows OS. Originally created by Connectix Corp., and then later bought by Microsoft. It was created to break the boundaries of multiple operating systems running over a Windows environment; a technique that uses a simulation of a real computer. Virtual PC mimic’s the entire computer’s hardware, creating a new set of machine over a running Windows, and therefore users has the capability to install all versions of operating systems without the risk of hardware compatibility issue.

Simple as it seem, this software has a great potential in making your system more flexible with less maintenance, even consumers and corporate world have great interest in this technology.

Let’s try out the software, shall we? I will have an example procedure running on Windows platform. First you must install Virtual PC on your computer. Download the latest version of Virtual PC on Microsoft Download Center, or key-in to your search engine like www.google.com to find the latest version on the web. After downloading, just run the “setup.exe” and follow the instructions provided. When you’re done, you will find the program on your Start >All Programs and search for Microsoft Virtual PC, click on it to open the program. Now a new window will prompt you with an easy create wizard. This wizard will help you create your new virtual machine. Here’s the procedure:

1. Just click the next button on the first window that you see.

2. On the next window, choose “create virtual machine” then click the next button.

3. Now in this window, name your new virtual machine; example: New Computer, then click the Browse button on the right to choose where you want to save your file. If you’re done, click next to continue.

4. In this window you’re now going to choose what type of Operating System you prefer to install to your “New Computer”. Click on the list box to see the choices, and then choose what operating system you prefer. This enables the setup to decide what hardware requirements should the Virtual PC to populate. After deciding what operating you want to install later, click on the next button to continue.

5. On the next window, the wizard asks you what memory capacity you prefer to use by your new operating system. Just choose the recommended RAM, click next to continue.

6. On the next window, we’ll create a new virtual hard disk so that our Operating system will allocate what specific size to use on your hard drive. Choose “A new virtual disk” then click next to continue.

7. In this window, we’re going to name your hard disk. Click on the browse button on the right and then type-in the name you want, example: Windows XP hard disk. Click next to continue. A summary of wizard will show up, just click finish to end the wizard.

Now you’re ready to begin installing an operating system. To start with, we have to check some settings here to see if you are capable of running a CD Drive into your virtual machine so that you can install your OS.

1. On the Virtual PC Console, click on the virtual machine that we have created earlier, ”New Computer”.

2. Now click on the settings button. On the settings window, locate and click on “CD/DVD Drive”.

3. Here you can either choose whether your CD/DVD drive is attached to the secondary IDE controller or Primary slave. Note: This is important so that you can boot your CD installer using the CD/DVD drive that you have on your PC. If you’re unsure about what is this, just leave this to default settings.

4. Just click Ok to exit the settings window.

5. Insert your Windows CD installer to your drive.

6. Back in Virtual PC console, click on start to launch your “New Computer”.

7. A new window will appear that are similar to your computer when it’s starting up. Wait until your Windows CD installer boots up.

8. And the rest is up to you.

This great and exciting new technology that is continuously reaching its height onto potential advantage over the past years, with new techniques and features that are implemented to manage computers.

For your additional info:

Windows 7 there are new ways to do this by combining it with Virtualization Technology that came from Intel’s processor.

Ok wait! I don’t want to confuse you with this one. Let us first characterize what is Virtualization Technology. Since Virtualization Technology came from Intel, this one is more on hardware related description, and I’ll try to explain this one into much simpler way so you won’t get lost in our topic. Remember that Virtual PC is like a hardware simulator or a system copier enabling you to generate a new system, like a real PC. Virtualization technology is almost the same like software virtualization like Virtual PC does, this technology enables a single processor acts like as if you have multiple processors in your system, and this enables you to run several operating systems at the same time. Instead of software, it creates a Virtual CPU and runs multiple OS into a parallel manner. Note: Not all processor supports this feature. Check your BIOS to see whether you have this feature or not.

So why are we now talking about hardware here? When Windows 7 was created, Microsoft had anticipated about application compatibility on their new operating system, since a native Virtual PC has limited capability, Windows 7 has a new feature called Window XP mode. This is a combination of Microsoft Virtual PC, Windows XP mode together with Virtualization Technology; all of your legacy application can now run into Windows 7 environment.

Now you have all the reasons to upgrade to Windows 7.