Product Reviews

While PC emulation software is a necessity for many, it often ends up creating more problems than it solves. The aim of Connectix Virtual PC 3.0 is to make running Windows or DOS on your Mac straightforward and fast. There are three versions of Virtual PC 3.0, differentiated only by the PC OS bundled with them - Windows 98, Windows 95 or DOS 2000. Each comes with a fully-licensed, shrink-wrapped copy of the relevant PC OS. We tested the Windows 98 version.

Installation is easy as long as you have a G3 processor, 64Mb of RAM and at least 540Mb of free hard disk space. Anything less and you can forget about Windows 98, although the Windows 95 and DOS versions will run on a 180MHz 603e or faster processor. Once in place, the new Virtual PC Setup Assistant guides you through the configuration. The Setup Assistant will be familiar to anyone using Mac OS 8 or above, as it has the same look and feel as the Mac OS Setup Assistant. This is a nice touch which reduces the fear factor for anyone concerned about finding themselves in unfamiliar territory.

Virtual PC can be further tweaked from the Preferences dialog box, which is where some of the new features of version 3.0 can be found. The Shared IP feature enables the Mac OS and Virtual PC to use the same IP address. This is particularly useful on local networks that use IP, but also makes connecting to the Internet via a modem easy, as Virtual PC uses the Mac's dial-up settings. Double-clicking on the Internet Explorer 5.0 alias on the Windows desktop launches Explorer and makes the dial-up connection automatically, just as it does on the Mac.

Emulating a USB PCI card enables Virtual PC to provide USB support for a range of scanners, printers, removable storage drives and other USB devices. Up to 15 devices can be connected simultaneously, and all recognised devices appear in the USB dialog box. There's a full list of compatible hardware on Connectix's Web site. However, USB support is enabled by changes to the USB firmware in Mac OS 9, and so requires Mac OS 9 to work.

Sound support

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is now handled via SoundBlaster 16 emulation - a vast improvement on previous 8-bit sound support - and video is handled through emulation of an SVGA video card which can be configured to hold between 1Mb and 4Mb of VRAM. The PC hard disk can be expanded to a maximum of 1Gb, as long as you have enough hard disk space.

Perhaps Virtual PC 3.0's most impressive new feature is its support for AppleScript. Scripts are fully recordable and, once recorded, can be edited like any other AppleScript. They will then appear in the Scripts menu and can be used to perform tasks such as launching applications, setting preferences, and sharing folders between the Mac OS and Windows.

The Configuration Manager allows users to set up and maintain multiple sets of preferences for Virtual PC on the same machine. If you use Virtual PC on a PowerBook, for example, you could have one set for office use, with appropriate network settings, and one set for home with dial-up Internet access settings.

But these additions aren't the only changes: performance has also been beefed up considerably. Previous versions of Virtual PC have proved sluggish, even on fast Macs, and it lacked robustness. The latest release sees a 22% improvement in disk performance and a 72% improvement in networking performance, according to Connectix's own tests. These tests were carried out on a 233MHz iMac, and the program's performance does, of course, depend on which Mac it's run on. In other tests, conducted on a 400MHz blue-and-white Power Mac G3, the application felt remarkably stable, and ran faster than we'd have expected: windows opened snappily, and applications launched at a decent speed. Surfing the Web using Internet Explorer 5.0 was fast and smooth, and applications such as FileMaker Pro ran as smoothly as they would on a desktop Mac.

This is all very well on a high-end Mac, but what about other systems? As you would expect, performance showed significant degradation on slower machines. However, even on a Performa 6400 upgraded with a 320MHz G3 card and 88Mb of RAM, Virtual PC 3.0 remained perfectly usable, if a little slow.

Ultimately, Virtual PC 3.0's usefulness depends on what you want from it. Software emulation is no substitute for buying a PC, and if you need to use Windows-only applications regularly, or use applications that place high demands on system performance, a PC is still your best bet.

If all you want to do is access a Windows-only online banking service, run some Windows financial packages, or check your Web pages in a Windows browser, Virtual PC 3.0 will serve you well - provided you have the hardware to handle it.