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Virtual PC 5.0 was the first version of Connectix's PC emulator to be compatible with Mac OS X, but it was rather slow so Connectix's first priority with Virtual PC 6.0 was to speed things up a bit. However, it also added some neat new features. Connectix claims this version is up to 25% faster, although this will depend on the speed and memory configuration of individual Macs. We couldn't put a precise figure on it, but we certainly noticed an improvement in performance, particularly when opening new document windows and using the Windows Start Menu in Windows 98. Windows XP, though, still feels sluggish even on fast Macs. You'll still need a reasonably fast Mac to run Virtual PC properly under OS X (at the very least a 500MHz processor with 256Mb of RAM), but this speed improvement alone will justify the cost of the upgrade for many users. The other aspect on which Connectix has concentrated is Virtual PC's integration with OS X. There is just a handful of new features here, but they're really ingenious and make the alien Windows environment feel a lot more natural to work with. The key here is Connectix's clever use of the Dock. If you go into the Settings menu within Virtual PC, you'll see a new entry for the Dock. Clicking on this takes you into a dialog that provides two new options. The first one is to show Windows applications in the Dock. When this is selected an icon appears in the Dock for any Windows application running within Virtual PC, just as it would for an ordinary Mac application. This icon behaves like any other application
Dock watching So, if you're a Web designer and you use Virtual PC to test your pages with the Windows version of Internet Explorer, you could have its icon placed permanently in the Dock. Clicking on this icon would then launch Virtual PC and open Explorer for you. To avoid confusion, these Windows icons are labelled with whatever name you've given to your Virtual PC setup file, so you can tell them apart from Mac applications. The only small niggle we have here is that the Windows Explorer (the Windows equivalent of the Mac Finder) doesn't show up in the Dock, presumably because it's not a conventional application. However, there is a second new Dock option, which is ingenious to the point of being downright bizarre, as it lets you display the Windows Start Menu within the Dock, even when Virtual PC isn't running. This allows you to locate any file, folder or application within your Windows setup and launch it from the Dock. You can also mount your Virtual PC hard disk file on the Desktop as if it was an ordinary hard disk attached to your Mac. Just click on the Virtual PC disk file and its contents are displayed in a window on the Mac Desktop. You can use the Mac's search facility to locate files, and drag and drop files between your Mac and PC hard disks, or removable storage devices such as a Zip drive. You can also use backup programs, for example Retrospect, to back up Windows files along with your normal Mac files. Natural look These new integration features make working with Windows feel much more comfortable, because Windows applications now feel more like a normal part of your Mac setup. The only word of warning is that these Dock integration options only work with versions of Windows from 98 onwards. Of course, these Dock-integration features aren't available if you're running Virtual PC under Mac OS 9. People who are still using OS 9 may therefore feel that they don't need Virtual PC 6.0. However, this really is a must-have upgrade if you're using Virtual PC with OS X. By Cliff Joseph |
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