Alex Hardy

Hello there!

Microsoft allows virtualisation with Vista Home

Via MacUser:

Microsoft have decided to relax their previous stance on virtualisation, where only Windows Vista Business and Ultimate editions were permitted to run inside a virtual environment such as Parallels or VMware.

This may not seem like a big deal since you could run it under Boot Camp. Anyone who has used Boot Camp will tell you that it’s great option for processor intensive activities (like playing games), but a total pain in the ass if you have to regularly restart between platforms when working.

I found this recently when building a CD-ROM using Adobe Flash on Mac OS X and Zinc on Windows Vista.

This won’t cost them anything in the long run. It may help to shift a lot of copies of Windows Vista to Mac users. This is a straightforward response to customer demand and should be applauded.

All I want now is an IE6 testing solution for developers and I’m happy :)

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Posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 am under Apple, Toolbox. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

5 comments for “Microsoft allows virtualisation with Vista Home”

  1. Neil Woodman
    January 23rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm

    I run a Ubuntu and Win XP virtual machine on my Mac but I would love to try bootcamp to get some of my PC games going, well Grand Theft Auto Vice City would be it for me really.

  2. Alex
    January 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm

    I played Half Life 2 on the Core Duo MacBook Pro I use at work and it ran very well.

    I’d be lying though if I said I didn’t enjoy sitting on a bean bag in front of the telly, playing it on my Xbox 360 more…

    I’d use Windows mainly for the odd bit of development, and until 4oD, BBC iPlayer et al stop treating Mac owners like second-class users.

  3. Neil Woodman
    January 24th, 2008 at 10:43 am

    Awesome, I must try and get that going. Alex say if I upgrade to Leopard, can I do a bootcamp partition at that stage?

    You are right though bean-bag, big TV and a console with your mates is a great thing. Sitting infront of a PC at 2:00am on your own wandering down dark corridors in a deserted spaceship station looking for a switch to open a door is no longer my idea of fun.

  4. Alex
    January 24th, 2008 at 11:13 am

    Setting up Boot Camp is a separate process to the Leopard install, but it’s straightforward. It’s easy to delete the partition if you decide to.

  5. Neil Woodman
    January 25th, 2008 at 10:35 am

    excellent thanks

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