Computer requirement for Virtual PC

The minimum requirements that your system should meet so you can successfully deploy Virtual PC 2004 will vary depending on the number and type of guest operating systems and applications you plan to install on the virtual machines. For example, to run multiple virtual machines simultaneously, the physical computer must have at least enough memory to cover the requirements of the host operating system and each guest operating system that will run simultaneously. Refer to the system requirements in the following sections to ensure that your system resources will support your deployment.

Physical computer and host operating system requirements

Following are the minimum system requirements for the physical computer and the host operating system:

• An x86-based computer with a 400 MHz or faster (1 GHz recommended) processor with L2 cache. Virtual PC supports the use of AMD Athlon/Duron, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium II, Intel Pentium III, and Intel Pentium 4 processors. Virtual PC also can use AMD Opteron processors, but only with 32-bit host operating systems. You can run Virtual PC on a multi-processor computer, but it utilizes one processor only.
• CD-ROM or DVD drive
• Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher resolution monitor recommended
• Keyboard and Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device
• Host operating system: Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• For host disk space and memory, refer to the following table to determine the minimum required by the host operating system. This disk space is only a starting point in determining how much disk space you will need. You also must calculate the additional space that will be required by adding the requirements of all guest operating systems you plan to deploy.

Note

• Virtual PC supports up to 3.6 GB of RAM per virtual machine, up to a total of 4 GB of RAM on the physical machine.

Host operating system	RAM	Disk space
Windows XP Professional	128 MB	2 GB
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition	128 MB	2 GB
Windows 2000 Professional	96 MB	2 GB

Guest operating system requirements

The following table lists the disk space and RAM required by each operating system that Virtual PC supports as a guest operating system. The minimum required disk space is the sum of the required disk space of each guest operating system and the host operating system, in addition to additional disk space for any applications to be installed on the operating systems. If you plan to run more than one guest operating system simultaneously, you will need to add the RAM requirements for all of those operating systems in addition to the RAM required by the host operating system. To enhance performance, consider increasing the amount of memory beyond the minimum requirement.

Guest operating system	RAM	Disk space
Windows XP Professional	128 MB	2 GB
Windows XP Home Edition	128 MB	2 GB
Windows 2000 Professional	96 MB	2 GB
Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Service Pack 6 or higher	64 MB	1 GB
Windows Millennium Edition	96 MB	2 GB
Windows 98	64 MB	500 MB
Windows 95	32 MB	500 MB
MS-DOS 6.22	32 MB	50 MB
OS/2 Warp 4 OS/2 Fixpack 15, OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 1, and OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 2	64 MB	500 MB