Using a virtual copy of XP for hardware?

[Scubastevie00]

Can I run a virtual windows XP machine to use hardware whos drivers only work with XP? I have a microscope I use with a camera attached and the drivers do not work on my X64 based windows 7 computer. Is this possible to do? Otherwise I need to buy an updated circuit board to have the camera work. THANKS!

 

[dbwillis]

Only if you can pass that actual hardware to the VM XP install, AND use the camera through the VM, if you cant pass it to the XP VM, then your looking for a circuit board

 

[Scubastevie00]

Thanks, I guess I'll try it and see what happens. I think I have an old laptop floating around that has XP on it that I could use solely for this purpose.

 

[acid_burn]

I had a very similar situation happen recently. I have a spectrophotometer that connected to the pc through usb with software that controlled it. The pc was upgraded with win 7 on it, the software would install and run however the drivers wouldn't install. Installed every thing in xp mode on virtual machine and it worked perfectly. If you're not familiar with xp mode just remember to use the usb tab at the top of the screen to attach the device so it will install the drivers.