VMWare Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC are two workstation programs that allow users to run various operating systems in a virtualized environment. Workstations are manufactured by the well-known virtualization company VMware, and Virtual PC is a product of Microsoft. Pricing is the most notable difference between the two.
VMWare Workstation vs Virtual PC
The main difference between VMWare Workstation and Virtual PC is that the Virtual PC is extremely user-friendly and involves very little setup on the user’s part. The setup for VMWare workstations is more complex and time-consuming. Although sophisticated users may not be concerned about this, beginners will undoubtedly be drawn to Virtual PC. Virtual PC makes it easier to enable sound than VMware. For a long time, obtaining audio on VMware has been a challenge.
VMware Workstation is a virtual machine program that allows you to run different operating systems on a single physical host on x86 and x86-64 computers. A single instance of any operating system (Microsoft, Linux, etc.) can run in each virtual machine at the same time. VMware Workstation supports hard disks, USB devices, and CD-ROMs, acting as a bridge between the client and the virtual system.
A virtual machine is a virtual representation of a physical computer, often known as an emulation. They are frequently referred to as guests, whereas the machine on which they run is known as the host. On a single physical machine, virtualization allows you to create several virtual machines, each with its own operating system (OS) and applications. Windows Virtual PC is a Microsoft software that allows multiple versions of the Windows os to operate on the same computer today.
Comparison Table Between VMWare Workstation and Virtual PC
| Parameters of Comparison | VMWare Workstation | Virtual PC |
| Cost | Virtual PC is free. | VMWare workstation cost some amount. |
| Operating | VMWare is more difficult to operate. | Virtual PC is easy to operate. |
| Sound | VMWare has numerous sound difficulties. | Virtual PC provides sound support. |
| Features | VMWare provides a lot more functions. | Virtual PC has fewer features. |
| Performance | VMWare performance is better. | Virtual PC lacks in performance. |
What is VMWare Workstation?
VMware was founded in 1998 and has a number of virtualization-related products. VMware Workstation was first released in 2001. Many versions of operating systems, including client and server operating systems, can be installed using VMware Workstation. It aids system and network administrators in examining, testing, and verifying the client-server environment.
In addition, the administrator can move between multiple virtual machines at the same time. Device model, operating system difficulties, and network protocol issues are only a few of VMware Workstation’s drawbacks. VMware Workstation is a desktop hypervisor that allows users to run virtual machines, microservices, and Kubernetes clusters.
VMware Workstation is a set of hosted hypervisor solutions for x64 PCs that lets users run virtual machine instances, container, and Kubernetes groups on a physical machine, and systems use them all at the same time. Each virtual machine can run its operating systems, such as Microsoft, Ubuntu, BSD, and MS-DOS versions. VMware, Inc., a Dell Technologies business, created and sells the software.
VMware Workstation, in layman’s terms, enables the simultaneous installation of numerous computer systems, both in client/server operating systems. It aids network or system administrators in inspecting, testing, and validating the client/server environment. Users with permission can switch between many virtual computers at the same time. The utilization of dual-core processors on the Virtual PC host enables a user to host multiple guest operating systems and to use the host while the visitor is running.
What is Virtual PC?
A virtual machine (VM) cannot communicate with a physical computer. Instead, it requires the coordination of a lightweight software layer known as a hypervisor between it and the underlying physical hardware. Each VM is given physical computing resources, such as processors, memory, and storage, via the hypervisor.
It separates one VM from the others so that they don’t interfere with one another. Virtual PC is a Microsoft virtualization technology that makes it easy to create and deploy virtual machines (VMs) on Windows 7 and later versions of Windows (OS). It allows you to run an older or legacy OS in a virtual machine on compatible systems. Virtual PC can’t take full advantage of a dual-core processor, but VMWare Workstation can. While the system in a given system running Virtual PC can utilize both cores, the operating system is unable to do so.
Windows Virtual PC is another name for Virtual PC. Virtual PC displays and provides a fully functional Windows-based desktop within an existing machine. While having the same features and functionality, it shares computation, storage, ram, input/output (I/O), and other material assets with a host/parent PC.
Virtual PC can be loaded with apps and services and utilized to create additional virtual machine instances. It supports the majority of Windows end-user operating systems. Professionals and people that need to test multiple copies of Microsoft or older apps that aren’t compatible with newer windows systems frequently utilize Virtual PC.
Main Differences Between VMWare Workstation and Virtual PC
- Virtual PC is free, while VMWare Workstation costs some amount.
- VMWare requires more effort to use than Virtual PC, whereas Virtual PC is very easy to operate.
- Virtual PC includes sound support, but VMWare has a lot of issues with sound.
- In comparison to Virtual PC, VMWare has a lot more features, whereas Virtual PC has fewer features.
- Despite having the same hardware, VMWare runs better than Virtual PC.
Conclusion
Apart from the pricing, there are a few big differences between the two. Virtual PC is extremely user-friendly and needs very little setup on the user’s part. VMware workstation is a little more complicated and time-consuming to set up. Although sophisticated users may not be concerned about this, beginners will undoubtedly be drawn to Virtual PC.
Virtual PC makes it easier to enable sound than VMware. For a long time, obtaining sound on VMWare has been a challenge. VMWare has been around for a lot longer than Virtual PC, and it is considerably more reliable. Many of the software’s problems have been sorted out throughout the years of development. VMWare has a lot more functionality than VMware.
References
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/979968.979990
- https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-6806-3_4