User Guide

6
Virtual PC 4.0 for Windows User Guide
• • • •
About the host PC
The host PC, where you install Virtual PC and create one or more vir-
tual machines, must be running Windows Me, Windows 2000, or
Windows NT 4.0. (For details of other host PC requirements, see
page 12.)
Components of a virtual machine
A basic virtual machine (or guest PC) consists of three components:
!
Settings that determine the operating relationship with the host
PC, such as the amount of RAM allocated for the virtual
machine, or the assignments for the COM1 and COM2 ports.
!
A disk image file that represents the boot drive (Hard Disk 1) of
the virtual machine. By default, this disk image is a dynamically
expanding file that grows in size as you install applications or
store data on it. (Optionally, you can designate other disk images
as Hard Disk 2 or Hard Disk 3 for a virtual machine.)
!
An operating system installed on the boot disk image file. This
OS can be almost any x86 compatible operating system,
including Windows 95 or Windows 98. (An operating system
running on a virtual machine is also called a guest OS .)
More about disk images
Virtual PC supports several types of disk images, including:
!
Dynamically expanding — the size of the disk image file expands
as you add information to it. For example, if you create a 1 GB
dynamically expanding disk image, the initial file is only about 3
MB in size.
!
Fixed-size —the size of the disk image file is fixed at a size
representing the entire virtual hard drive. For example, if you
create a fixed-size hard disk image that represents a 1 GB hard
drive, the image file is 1 GB in size.
!
Differencing —information you add is written to a differencing
image file only, not to its associated disk image.
You can create, examine, or modify disk images using the Virtual
Disk Wizard. (See page 69.)