Install Windows Vista in Virtual PC 7

Jun 12, '06 07:30:02AM

Contributed by: frgough

Being a glutton for punishment, I thought I'd download the Public Beta of Windows Vista and install it in Virtual PC 7 on my G5 iMac. I also admit that I was curious to see just how it would perform and just how much MS ripped off from OS X. So, with more anticipation than I'd like to admit in public, I downloaded the DVD ISO, fired up VPC and created a new machine with 512 MB of RAM.

I started it up and dropped the DVD ISO on the CD/DVD icon. No go. I then learned that VPC doesn't recognize DVD images greater than 2.2 GB. I didn't really want to burn a DVD, so I thought I'd try using Toast to mount the image, since Toast does a good job of making OS X think you've popped a real disk in the drive. I tried it, then did Capture disk from Virtual PC, and voila, it booted from the image and began copying files. Then it choked on me saying that my BIOS was not ACPI compliant.

I gave a sigh and an oh, well, and went back to work. Later in the afternoon, the thought occurred to me that if it was a BIOS problem, surely VPC used a BIOS. Maybe I could get into the setup and change the setting. It turns out you can! When the virtual machine is just starting up, hit the Delete key. I tap it several times just to make sure I get it at the right moment, and it takes a bit of timing.

If you hit it at the right time, though, you'll get into the BIOS setup screen. There's not a whole lot you can do here, but one of the things you can do is set 'ACPI Aware OS' to 'Yes.' Exit and save changes. Vista will now boot and install. It took about two and half hours to finish the installation, but everything seems to run, though obviously, you don't get the full Aero effects.

One note of warning. Expect your Mac to drop to its knees and beg for mercy once you start running Vista. If you thought XP was slow under Virtual PC, you're in for new vistas of slowness.

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