How to setup virtual OS in Vista?

I don't think the fact I am using Vista changes anything but I need some help. For the longest I have been using Vista as my primary OS and not had any issues.

However once in a blue moon I run into a old game that I want to play that requires XP (in this case I just got Worms Armageddon and it wont run in Vista) I have a dual boot on both my laptop and desktop but I really hate to boot over just to play a game and I have used Vista so long now I really don't like XP anymore.

I don't know why it didnt strike me sooner, but when I was browsing the forums for worms, I found people talking about Virtual Computers. They just use Microsoft Virtual PC or VMware and run a virtualized windows xp. Sounds like the perfect way to go.

So I downloaded both the newest VMware player and MS Virtual PC and tried to run thru them and I am stuck.

I just get a DHCP connecting screen and then errors and it repeats, I guess you have to take your OS and make it into a virtual pc file somehow kind of like an ISO but different. I tried to google for guides to no avail they are all totally off topic.

I would assume since I have a dual boot there must be a way to tell one of these programs to just "boot" my other partition and I can run windows.

The only program I have had any success with is MS Virtual PC, I told it to use my CD drive as a boot device and put my XP disk in and I could install windows XP if I wanted into my virtual hard drive but I really don't want to do that because then I will have to have it installed 2x and go thru all the driver installs and windows updates ect. Is this the only way to do it?? I cant even seem to figure out how to do that with VMware.

 

VMWare, Virtual PC or any other Virtual machine will not let you run an already installed OS as a guest inside another OS (in your case the existing XP installation inside existing Vista). That is not how they work. You have to install a new copy on the virtual machine. A VM emulates a full machine (in a sandbox kind of an environment), it will map your actual devices using it’s own set of virtual drivers. 3D acceleration is still experimental at best. Therefore, even if you somehow manage to get a game running, it will be very slow.

 

You can boot an OS already installed on another partition, but this is considered "Advanced" usage, and you should not do it unless you know what you are doing. The OS will see a different set of hardware than it was installed on, and could easily crash. This isn't as much an issue for linux, but it is for Windows.

Virtual machines are terrible for gaming. Gaming is pretty much the only thing they can't really do for now (other than high volume databases), so even if you got it to work, the games wouldn't. That said, VMware is the best and is worth playing around with.

 

Worms is an old game tho its not 3d, it uses direct draw (wich vista no longer supports) thats why I need to emulate an older version of windows. I think for anything I would be emulating it would be so old that my pc will eat it up with no problems.

Guess I will stick with Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 since it seems the easiest to use and just bite the bullet and sacrifice some time and hdd space to install xp. Its a good learning experience if anything.

 

VMware player does not let you create a new machine, it can only use an existing one. There is a free version of Vmware server, and that lets you create new machines.

Another option is the open source "virtual box"

 

I found a nice site that lets you make a new virtual machine for VMware, still it got me nowhere fast. Im about 1/2 thru the install of XP via microsoft virtual pc 2007 all is going well so far.