Multiple XP Mode's

So I realy like Windows 7 and XP Mode... but having a lot of software/programs I was thinking that having more then one virtual machine would be best.... Siemens machine, AB machine and other

Anyone do it? Do you like it?

I have 2 XP modes using VirtualBox. The reason was so I could have two different versions of Factory Talk View Studio. I'm guessing it's not technically legal though since I only have one XP license and one FT license.

It is handy but I'm kind of burnt out on it. If my computer is off and I need to look at a program, I have to boot into W7 first, then into XP mode before I can open my program. I'm just impatient. I have all of my Rockwell software working in W7 so I haven't booted into XP mode in a while. I keep it just in case though.

I liked Virtual PC a little better than VirtualBox, but I couldn't get FTVS to work in it.

We have not yet met a software that did not run with VMWare... on Linux... but we have not tried them all...

Give it a try... its slower but we do it for testing...

RS is OK.

My base OS only has RSLinx Classic and a couple of utilities; everything else lives in various VMWare VM's on the laptop (VMWare Workstation 7) and on a couple of surplus servers (VMWare ESXi 3.5). I have volume licensing for Windows and RSI stuff so that's not a problem.

This is especially good for when I'm working Tech Support; I can open up RSNetworx v7 and v10 right next to one another and see the differences.

When I chafe at the extra start time and window switching for the VM, I think about how much easier this is than battling DLL conflicts and version conflicts and FactoryTalk patches and .NET variations.

In my opinion, VMWare Workstation is one of the very best investments you can make in stability and compatibility.

You do need some good hardware; my old D610 with 2GB of RAM would slow to a crawl with one VM. The new Latitude E6410 also has only 2GB of RAM but the Core i3 processor makes a world of difference.

I have about 8x separate XP machines in VMWare workstation for each manufacturer, and absolutely recommend it. Running win7 64bit as well, is superb!
I have a core7 with 8gb of ram, have often had 3 VM's open with a little impact, but generally no issues that are as frustrating as fighting install issues, slow boot-up etc compared to a sluggish machine.

I changed from player to workstation, to try and get some support on USB issues that we have been having with Omron, but not followed it up yet. There is not a huge advantage going to workstation if you don't need the few extras that it provides.

Have also uses the XP mode, and that is pretty good too, but VMWare seems to have a better feel.

Another solid vote for VMWare Workstation 7. It runs flawlessly, and handles USB devices just fine. I've stopped loading programming software on my main machine, and just put it on separate VM's. That finally ends problems and version conflicts.

The only 'problem' I've ever had was installing a Windows 98 workstation, but that was fixed by using a different VMWare platform. I think I installed that on the VMWare 5 hardware emulation platform.

rdrast said:

Another solid vote for VMWare Workstation 7. It runs flawlessly, and handles USB devices just fine.

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What about serial ports? I am facing imminent upgrade in my company with migrstion to either 64-bit XP or 64-bit Win 7. I know that most of my currently used 32-bit PLC and related programs would not even install on 64-bit XP. I am particularly concerned about the 16-bit Quick Designer for Total Control/GE/Pro-face touchscreens which for support reasons does not go anywhere and which was especially picky with COM port control.

Does VNWare solve these issues?

VMWare handles serial ports fine, up to 4 per VM. The usual stricture applies, VMWare can directly map a VM Serial port to a physical port on the host machine, as long as nothing on the host is using it.

It also handles USB serial ports (well, not under DOS).

Another nice trick, is you can have it create one or more purely virtual serial ports that actually hook up to a file on the host machine. I've started using that for debugging communications drivers and such.

So first, back to the OP question. Yes, I have run multiple XP mode virtual machines using Windows Virtual PC. Runs just fine. I greatly prefer VMware. I use it on my home and work PCs.

For VMware what I do usually do when I am done is suspend a VM instead of closing it. Resuming the VM is worlds faster than restarting.

Now pardon me while I switch from this XP VM and go to my bittorrent VM (attached to my neighbors Wi-Fi) to go get the latest Top Gear Australia episode.

OG

LadderLogic said:

What about serial ports? I am facing imminent upgrade in my company with migrstion to either 64-bit XP or 64-bit Win 7. I know that most of my currently used 32-bit PLC and related programs would not even install on 64-bit XP. I am particularly concerned about the 16-bit Quick Designer for Total Control/GE/Pro-face touchscreens which for support reasons does not go anywhere and which was especially picky with COM port control.

Does VNWare solve these issues?

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Yes, I have a 98 VM machine that will even run DOS Based Pac Sci Driver from the 80's.

As for the orginal question we have 3 laptops in our shop and my laptop runs 5 virtual machines directly with a few others on external drives. The other 2 laptops run 3 or 4 virtual machines.

One word of warning when using virtual machines. You will eventually see file fragmentation. To fix this remove your VM from your host. Defrag your host. Then reinstall your VM.

We save countless hours of computer dramas simply by using VMware images.

Must have upwards of 17 lying around on portable hard drives!

One word of warning when using virtual machines. You will eventually see file fragmentation. To fix this remove your VM from your host. Defrag your host. Then reinstall your VM.

Click to expand...

Funny coincidence, my VM had slowed to a crawl, although I've been regularly defragging the PC. Yesterday I finally had the idea to defrag the VM itself (from inside the VM) I've never seen so much red in my life as when I started the defrag, two hours later and normal service was resumed.

@ Ken Roach

Ken how much memory do you typicallt assign for your vm's. How much ram in MB or GB?

Also using rockwell software do you typically install multiple programs per vm or just 1? Do you install multiple versions of that program in snapshots?

I use vm ware all the time just curious as to how others use it.

I know this is an old thread but I thought it might be useful to others that are trying to get multiple XP modes to work.

I ran across a free tool call XP-More that allows you to set up as many XP Mode VM's on Windows 7 as you have disk space available. I've been using it the last few months and it works great - plus the price is right.

All XP-More really does is copy the images for you whenever you want to create a new VM, plus it gives you a nice central location to launch and manage them all. So you don't get clones like VMWare - the VMs are are full copies instead so they use up more disk space than VMWare. But since I now have terabyte drives I'm not too worried.

I've been a VMWare workstation user since it was first introduced and I've always liked it. But I must say that Win 7 XP Mode did an incredible job of integrating graphics and file sharing that is SO EASY. So, as hard as it is to admit I like a Microsoft product, I think they really hit the jackpot with Win 7 and XP Mode.

I now use XP mode to keep a copy of each version of the HMI's I develop with and each version of the PLC design software so I have around 10 VM's right now. It sure is nice to be able to switch between PLC and HMI development versions instantly.

After posting this suggestion to use XP-More to create multiple XP Mode Virtual Machines I realized it had a couple bugs that made it potentially difficult to start using.

So not to make a liar out of myself (that XP-More actually works), I poked around in the XP-More C# source code and fixed the two problems I ran across. I created a new fork at codeplex with the fixes - so if anyone happens to notice that XP-More has been modified by nwboson, its the plcs.net posting that lead to the modifications, not vice-versa.

Anyhow, happy VMing. I REALLY like Windows 7 since it has the XP VMs - keeps my PLC life in order.