Kasper JadeAfter several months of delay, Microsoft is preparing to release a new version of its Virtual PC Windows emulation software to manufacturing.
Retail copies of Virtual PC 7.0 and Office 2004 Professional edition will see about three to four weeks in transition, and should begin appearing on retail store shelves by early October.
During the transition period, sources said that the Redmond, Wash.-based development team will continue to work on a maintenance update to the software that will be made available at a future date.
According to earlier reports, Virtual PC 7.0 will support dual processor Macintosh systems and will featuring G5 compatibility and optimization. The software is also said to boast improved support and management of peripherals and native graphic card support.
Microsoft originally announced Virtual PC 7.0 along with Office 2004 for the Mac in January, but reported stability issues delayed the release into the summer. In July, Microsoft said that it would further delay Virtual PC till October while it awaited the completion of Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released to manufacturing earlier this month and is slowly making its way to customers.
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6 Comments
According to earlier reports, Virtual PC 7.0 will support dual processor Macintosh systems and will featuring G5 compatibility and optimization. The software is also said to boast improved support and management of peripherals and native graphic card support.
Could this bit about the video card mean that a high-end Mac could maybe run some older PC game titles like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, etc?
Could this bit about the video card mean that a high-end Mac could maybe run some older PC game titles like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, etc?
God, I hope so! Maybe even Doom as well! I mean, sure they were available on Macs, but the graphics were so much cleaner/crisper on PCs, it was like I was walking around a nazi fortress.
I also don't know how they can get native graphics card support unless they install a kext to communicate to the card directly. And I'm not sure I'd want that....
God, I hope so! Maybe even Doom as well! I mean, sure they were available on Macs, but the graphics were so much cleaner/crisper on PCs, it was like I was walking around a nazi fortress.
I also don't know how they can get native graphics card support unless they install a kext to communicate to the card directly. And I'm not sure I'd want that....
Really? I find that RTCW ran prettier on my Quicksilver than my roughly equivalent PC I once had. It's just the ready availability of older/ less demanding games for Windows at next-to-nothing prices that makes my mouth water.
The three most important issues with VPC for me are the ability to increase the amount of RAM that can be allocated to it (over the current max of 512), to be able to capture the PC card slot on the PBs and significant speed increases.
I have to demo a WIndows program on my PB and use 98, 2000, and XP. Boosting speed would help a lot, but being able to demo on any of the 3 platforms is rather impressive to prospects.
Yah I am loaded to the gills on RAM practically. I might consider getting this version if it gets good reviews / truly performs well on a G5.