My first impression of Virtual PC 2007 is good overall. Even though Windows XP Home is technically not supported, I was able to install the software and run DSL Linux on XP Home without any problems whatsoever. All I had to do was bypass the warnings that were displayed during installation.
I went ahead and captured screenshots of all the steps along the way, in case you would like to see it in action before you install it or if you need help along the way. Note: this tutorial shows how to successfully setup and run DSL from a CD, not to install it on a virtual disk.
1. Create a new virtual machine
2. Choose a location
3. Choose OS type. ‘Other’ for DSL.
4. Choose RAM amount. 128 is plenty for DSL.
5. Choose virtual hard disk
6. Choose hard drive location and size. I chose 3 MB, which is the minimum size. This is because DSL will boot directly from the .iso file or CD.
7. Virtual OS is now added to the console
8. Choose ‘Start’ from the console to begin virtualization. If you have a DSL CD inserted, it should run automatically. If you want to run from an .iso file, nothing will run when you start except the ‘Argon PXE Boot Agent’. Now choose ‘CD -> Capture .iso image’ and select the DSL iso (you can download it from the DSL web site). Then choose ‘Action -> Reset’ to reboot the console.
9. DSL should now boot. Press enter to launch when you get to this screen.
10. Voila! DSL is up and running.
Conclusion: very easy to accomplish. Free software at its best. The only problem I had was with performance, possibly because I was running on Windows XP Home. It ran fine except mouse input would momentarily hang about every 5-10 seconds. I’ll have to tweak the configuration with more RAM, etc. My only gripe with the interface is that you cannot choose an .iso image prior to booting the OS. You have to boot it first, select an image, then reset. It’s really not that big of a deal, though.
