Hyper-v, VMware player, or Virtualbox for XP?

cyclone3d

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Messages
16,244
Setting up a new/heavily upgraded computer for a friend. They would like to use Microsoft Picture It! which only works with up to XP.

I was looking at Hyper-V and saw that the host OS runs on top of Hyper-V as well.

Not sure if this will hurt timing as far as video editing goes so want to get some input on which VM platform would be best in this situation.
 
If Hyper-V is an option (IIRC it requires a Windows Pro license, and is not available in Home) I'd start there, and try VMware Player if that doesn't work out. VirtualBox is kinda crap, really.

Otherwise, they may need to keep the old box around or consider new software.
 
Ok, I'll try Hyper-V first. I actually already installed it but wanted to see if something else would be better after I had looked into how it works.

The old system was running Windows 10 Pro already but my friend had been mentioning that they missed using Picture It!
 
Well, the current version of Hyper-V kinda really sucks for XP. Reasons are:
1. Once you log out of XP, the password field on the login screen no longer works. Must restart VM to get back in.
2. No video driver for XP. Max resolution for 32-bit color is 1152x648.
3. Mounted physical or USB HDDs/SSDs will not show up in XP.
4. Cannot connect to network shares.
5. Must use RDP to transfer files between host and VM... ftp or something else would work I guess.
6. RDP only supports 16-bit color.
7. Must log out of XP to be able to RDP.
8. Super inconvenient to switch between Hyper-V and RDP because VM will have to be rebooted after using RDP - see #1.

When I get a chance, I'm going to try VMWare player.
 
I've used virtual box for simple use cases like Win98 to play old games or for work running Linux VMs from the desktop. It may not be as robust as some virtual offerings but it's free and very simple to set up and give a try. You can easily do folder sharing too between the VM and host.

Are you planning virtualization on the hardware (esxi, hyper-v..etc) or is it preferred to have Win10 and then a VM to do work when it's needed?


*edit
I can't speak to video editing. I only spent a few min playing with it but didn't see video editing in there.

Edited sample lillypad picture on right with Picture It, original picture is on the left. And a screenshot of the settings.
1633054468491.png
 
Last edited:
Has to be Win10 with a VM running on top.

I've been using ESXi for years at work so pretty used to VMWare products.

Also looked up a comparison between Virtualbox and VMWare player and VMWare looks to be faster and more stable.
 
Both vmware player and virtualbox work well and should be easy enough to setup.
 
Has to be Win10 with a VM running on top.

I've been using ESXi for years at work so pretty used to VMWare products.

Also looked up a comparison between Virtualbox and VMWare player and VMWare looks to be faster and more stable.

Fair enough. I did mess with VMware player for a couple min. It did feel a little smoother with the same resources allocated. Another thing is it looks like you can allocate much more VRAM (8GB+) over VirtualBox (256MB) which may be necessary with the images being edited.
 
Fair enough. I did mess with VMware player for a couple min. It did feel a little smoother with the same resources allocated. Another thing is it looks like you can allocate much more VRAM (8GB+) over VirtualBox (256MB) which may be necessary with the images being edited.
Is that not still a software accelerated gpu? I was under the impression that both vmware and virtualbox were equally inadequate for graphic intensive tasks. With that said empire earth ran great on virtualbox
 
Last edited:
Is that not still a software accelerated gpu? I was under the impression that both vmware and virtualbox were equally inadequate for graphic intensive tasks. With that said empire earth ran great on virtualbox
Correct both software accelerated but I was thinking more is still better in this case, at least a little bit since Virtualbox is only 256MB at max. Really depends on what they are doing in the photo editor... but for a 32bit app, I can't imagine it being too demanding on modern hardware.
 
VMware player looks to support hardware accelerated 3d. Not like the ancient program is going to support any type of acceleration anyway.
 
If you decide to use VirtualBox and decide to use the Extensions pack, be careful because Oracle aggresively monitors where it's downloaded from and used. If they suspect that a business is using it, they will come after you. It's only free to use for personal use.
 
If you decide to use VirtualBox and decide to use the Extensions pack, be careful because Oracle aggresively monitors where it's downloaded from and used. If they suspect that a business is using it, they will come after you. It's only free to use for personal use.

Yeah, it would be strictly for personal use anyway.

Sounds like one more reason not to use it though... ¢¥¢°¢%®©✓®] Oracle!
 
Yeah, it would be strictly for personal use anyway.

Sounds like one more reason not to use it though... ¢¥¢°¢%®©✓®] Oracle!
If you decide to use VirtualBox and decide to use the Extensions pack, be careful because Oracle aggresively monitors where it's downloaded from and used. If they suspect that a business is using it, they will come after you. It's only free to use for personal use.

yup. My company sent out an edict a couple of weeks ago, instructing folks to uninstall virtualbox if using it. I don't, but rolled my eyes at oracle anyway...
 
So just an update... Used the VMware p2v utility... Had to track down 5.5 because the newer versions won't work with XP. Got it converted and then uninstalled Hyper-V.

Got the VM loaded up in VMWare player and after a few quick config changes and reboots of the VM, it works like a charm.

Not only is remoting in not required to get to external drives, it can be set to connect to the host drives through the config. Network shares don't even have to be set up on the host.

Video also works way better and to top it off it runs way way way faster than on Hyper-V.

And with Hyper-V uninstalled from the host, the host runs way faster as well.
 
VMware became difficult in install in the last couple of releases (on Ubuntu, anyway). But, VirtualBox is still going strong and runs (mostly) smooth.
 
Back
Top