#90

ToolWiz Cares' "Time Freeze" is not a back-up and restore software. It is a software that creates a virtual environment that you can use to protect your system. As soon as you restart your PC, every change made during an active 'Time Freeze' session is abandoned and your PC returns to the identical state which it was in before "Time Freeze" was enabled.

Does Paragon's software do the same thing? You can use ToolWiz "Time Freeze" on any OS. So, wouldn't the protection be the same as Paragon's software?

In fact, since it is an all-in-one virtual environment creator, which doesn't require any additional software to perform it's function, wouldn't 'Time Freeze' be a much better software to use, ?

p.s. I know the offer has ended and there may be no one who reads this or replies, but I decided to post the question on the off chance someone reads this and can help me understand the differences between ToolWiz Cares' "Time Freeze" and Paragon's Virtualization Manager 14 compact edition.

#16. How do you know what the NSA will or will not do with the data it gets from snooping on our hard drives? How do you know it won't use our computers to launch some DOS attacks on the businesses of other countries or the computers of other governments?

#85 Roman: No, you can't transfer the 'core runningness' of an old computer into a new one. That's not how 'physical-to-virtual' works.
This programs squeezes your current computer into one large file. In a VM program on your new machine, that file is opened and up pops your old machine in a window. Finit.
It's like an alternative universe: your old computer is running 'inside' your new one. And it's your old computer, warts and all.
It would be best to clean up your existing old machine, and then decide what you can do with it. Just install today's program, get your product registration key from Paragon, and execute it some later day; after the cleanup.
Work with Freefixer, CCleaner, KCleaner, Autoruns and the like. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear..

Hi, very late comment to add my point of view. First of all - Today's Giveaway might truly give hope to those who consider keeping XP in virtual form (from April.., ah, sad) - either to simply have access to their Data on it (Folders, Programs a.s.o) - within now Win7, or 8 without Security issues (updates) or still being able to use it for other purposes (like myself) - to play older Games not compatible at all with newer Windows in any shape or form..(I tried and failed with Win7, trust me), to give just one example.

My old PC 'machine' with Win XP on it crashed some time ago and without it (no OS as such) - I was not able to have access to my (even older) HDs connected to that machine, until I put clean HD, installed XP back on it, and at least other old Drives are present on it again and I can play handful of older, much loved Games (HD that crashed sadly cannot be physically connected, otherwise nothing works..) Problem is that new C Drive there is rather modest in size, so if I were (still not decided) to use Today's Paragon Software - it would have to be on my external Drive I can switch between old PC and laptop with Win7. Most of my Games are on external Drive anyway, but connected to laptop with Win7 won't play. I did try Oracle Virtual Box pretty much in the beginning of moving into (brand new) laptop, after that fiasco with main PC - but got stuck not knowing for sure how much Memory to allocate to 'virtual box' to make XP functioning and not 'cocking up' the lap. So, my 'dilemma' here was how to keep Games, as trivial as it sounds - under one roof for convenience.

Many Folks today have similar 'fears', but asking these important questions and learning from advice of more experienced Users and Experts - can be so, so helpful. It is after all more complicated matter than using..face beautifying make-over Softs! Accidently - how mean of some is to down-vote those asking questions, only because someone doesn't 'find it helpful'.., sad!.

With Today's Giveaway I personally learned much, much more, especially how to create 'XP File' (or find it not remembering it's name) to put it simply, needed to ship that OS to it's virtual 'new home' and to be more confident going about it. Thanks for that.

If I want to use this on 2 different computers, can I extract the .msi file today, visit the registration link twice to get 2 different keys, and then install the .msi file and activate each copy with the keys sometime in the future?

Re: #81 and playing old games... I find that VMware generally handles relatively non-demanding games pretty well. Today's giveaway only helps "package up" your currently running OS so that it can be run inside a virtual machine - basically just a convenience so that you don't need to reinstall from scratch. If you have a legal Win98 install disc and are willing to do a clean install, just ignore today's giveaway and instead, download VMware Player (legally free for personal use) and do a clean install of Win98 inside a VMware virtual machine, then install your games into the VM.

I like the idea, but I have a feeling it still won't solve my problem. I have several programs that I got from this site, that are already installed under XP; if/when I upgrade to 7 or 8 (probably 7) I will not be able to use them because I won't be able to install them again... unless I can keep my current registry under 7, and keep all the files in the same path they're in at present.

My other idea is to keep XP on this machine but just take it offline and use another machine, running 7, to go online. Use this XP machine to run any of these GotD programs...

Does anybody have a better solution to this, running my GotD programs under 7 (perhaps using Paragon Virtualization Manager 14 Compact)?

"...the difference between today’s ‘Paragon Virtualization Manager’ giveaway and ToolWiz Care’s ‘Time freeze’ function?"

Time Freeze is backup and restore software. Today's offering allows you to create a special file (one LARGE file) of an older OS, you then copy that file to a new system with a new OS and, with the correct software, run that old OS in a window on the new system.

The arguable security issues with XP are thus negated since it would be essentially running as a program under W7 or W8 and their security would be in use.

A downside to all this, beyond the technical legerdemain it may require to get everything functioning well together, is that you must have a fast enough cpu and enough RAM to run two OS, plus programs, simultaneously on one system.

At the top of this page we are told that VM Compact will be offered for sale for $29.95 after this giveaway ends.

I DON'T BELIEVE THAT FOR ONE MINUTE.

Paragon has made similar promises about other "Compact" programs it has promoted on GAOTD. And NOT ONE OF THEM WAS KEPT !!!

If you doubt me, go to Paragon's site and see how many "Compact" versions are available at any price.

According to Paragon's user's manual (see "getting started/about system virtualization") "After transferring Microsoft Vista and later versions to a virtual disk, you will need to re-activate license of the system. It’s normal behavior as these systems keep tracking any change of hardware. Re-activation is legally justified in this case, as you transfer your system to another PC". This sounds like you can virtualize an XP computer with no reactivation of a license, so a computer with an OEM version of XP should be okay.

#70, #80:
Certain websites claim that following a recent judgement in Germany, people in Europe are now allowed to transfer Windows license from one computer to another, including the OEM license (as essentially the customer has paid for it and is able to use it the way he wants), and the OEM license should work in a different hardware configuration also. For this one is expected to deactivate license from previous computer and inform Microsoft (presumably on phone) and then it can be installed on the new system. Does anyone know if there is any element of truth in it. I have seen a similar judgement online, but it was in German language and too difficult to for me to understand.

Hello folks,
My PC with W7 is dying and i have already installed many GAOTD softwares. Can i use today's program to clone my PC and use it in a new computer so i would be using my programs and also files? Is that possible?
any hint is appreciated.

@FrancisBorne #14, thanks for that info - very helpful
@batsdude #62 - YES - that works. You are right, how do I know? I thought about writing the same thing here, but people usually don't believe me about Linux. I did not even believe in anything except windows, that is, until I saw Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Debian in person.

NOW, the only time I use windows online is when I activate GOTDs (I love GOTD). Once it's active, I click to disconnect the network, and finish installing the GOTD. GOTD works great with Linux as far as browsing and downloading (I'm here on Linux right now for example).

I never would have believed a 10 second PC boot time, but Linux on my PC is cold booted in 11 seconds or less, then I have a desktop that's more full featured than any windows I've seen. Plus, everything runs FAST! WiFi starts in less than 4 seconds - always. Windows WiFi with the same machine takes 35 second to two minutes.

I LOVE GOTD. When I want to run a GOTD program, I switch to windows, and in 5 or 6 minutes, it's booted and ready to go - 100% offline of course. When I want to use the Internet, I dual-boot back to Linux.

People should get on youtube and look at videos showing how fast Linux desktops are.

Thanks GOTD and Paragon for offering one of the most useful programs of the year.

I was happy to see so many comments for this giveaway, because I know very little about virtual systems/pc environments and need all the advice I can get.

Thank you GOTD users/commenters.

Even though there are many comments and a lot of advice offered by GAOTD users, I am still not certain about some things. I didn't see what I was looking for in the comments, unless I accidentally missed it.

For example:

Can anyone please tell me the difference between today's 'Paragon Virtualization Manager' giveaway and ToolWiz Care's 'Time freeze' function?

Will this enable a person to run Win98 in order to play old games that were never updated for Win2000, XP or later?

For those who haven't tried virtualizing a WinXP system with an OEM license, I have, and I can assure you that with or without an internet connection WinXP will detect that it is running on different hardware when it starts in the VM and it will require activation. In my experience it would not activate online, but I didn't try calling in to Microsoft, having found their 1st-line support staff to be fairly useless in the past with other license glitches.

I really don't see the point of this program. You have to drop everything and install it today otherwise it will cost $29.95. Oracle's Virtual Box is free every day, your host OS can be almost anything, as well, your guest OS. They have a great support forum to help you over the rough spots. I have VB running on a Win7 host with XP guest and again on my wife's computer with Ubuntu host and Win 7 guest. I was even able to get the XP guest to recognize and use a 20-year old legacy impact printer. The VB XP works about 200% better than the built-in Win 7 to XP virtualization system.

So someone is certain to complain that I am touting VB rather than reviewing this giveaway. But I am reviewing it. I'm saying you don't need to jump into virtualization today just because these guys are giving something free for the next 12 hours. You can get VB any day of the week for free. And because it is always free, you will never see it offered or reviewed here.

Although I don't know much about virtual machines and virtualization, I intend to use this very important program to protect my beloved windows XP.
It is not just that I like it, but I love it. Killing windows XP is not only like killing one of my relatives but is also like killing me myself.
I know that what I will say in the next few lines may seem outside the scope of the subject but I feel that I must say it.
Why should Microsoft kill one of its nearest and dearest operatig systems?
How many virtual machines will we have to have when, as I expect, Microsoft kills windows 7 and then 8 to force us to use a windows 9 and so on.
Improving operating systems does not justify cancelling older ones thus imposing financial loads on users.
How much money microsoft will make out of that unjust decision?
I am sorry to say this, but what a cheap, unrespectable way to make a living!!
What I wrote above is not only out of my love to windows
XP but also out of anger and desrespect.
I do not care wheter you posted this comments or not or deleted it and I do not care how many negative votes it may receive because I know in my heart of hearts that it is true, very true and sincere.

Thanks GAOTD.

Downloaded and tried installing. Running the setup.exe results in nothing happening at all. This is on an old Windows XP install which works fine with all other programs and setups but I tried many times and it simply will not run nor even show up in the Task manager as having started. Should not have expected anything fully compatible from Paragon. This custom build computer never took any MS service pack upgrades without blue screening so that may be part of the issue seeing others have installed it but this system has hundreds of programs installed with no need for the SP's so why this one .... as I have often found Paragon programs aren't that well written.

Wow! My ol' senior head is spinning. OT, what happened to Ashraf & Giovanni - did they give up on us? I'm running a Win7/64 Pro system & have long wanted to set up a virtual drive because I love to download new software & try it out. But inevitably it screws up my system at some point, & I have to re-install. Frankly, after reading all of the comments, I'm thinking maybe it's not worth the confusion. Sounds like too many manual operations have to be followed to make a VM work properly, and I wouldn't remember to do all of the required stuff to keep it viable. Don't use XP but whatever data is left, works inside 7/64. Maybe some Palm stuff. I'm thinking I'd rather re-install than deal with complicated VM. The one time I tried it, the VM erased with every re-boot. Maybe I'm not bright enough to figure this out. If I download today's offer, do I have to implement it immediately & create a VM, or can it reside on my system until I get a better grip on how it would work?

How about this: Would this be a good scenario? Run the virtualization in WinXp and have win7 be the virtual program. IE: i would ahve all my daily old things available to play with, but when I want to look at secure sites (banks.etc..) launch the virtual program with win7 inside and use that for my browsing and surfing?

Some users are wondering whether XP will be fine after April 8. The answer is YES. Why?

1. Because XP will still benefit from some security updates (see MS web site for more details) until June 2015 at least.
2. I do NOT use any antivirus and never catch a virus wherever I go. Relying on antivirus software is a big mistake. Worries about the future of XP is an issue only if you don't know how to protect the system from malevolent people.
_____________________________

My current XP partition is 16.6 GB, with 5 GB free. After a quick 1 mn cleaning, used space is less than 9 GB. It took about 8 mn to create a 9 GB .vdi file. (Do not check the "Take all space" otherwise the .vdi will be the size of the partition, unless you need the whole thing of course).

Now, trying to launch XP with Oracle VirtualBox 4.3.6 (I filled a bug for 4.3.8).

-> Creating a virtual disk from an existing partition.

Small bug: I saved the .vdi on a 2 TB disk with 2 partitions. The software remembers the path but not the drive, so be careful with the path to the .vdi.

Try #1. Fail: the VM freezes before XP starts.

Correction:
- Moved .vdi from IDE to SATA. I installed XP with SATA drivers on a floppy. The .vdi created does not take this into account, it defaults to IDE.

Try #2. Fail: XP starts, but VB complains and shutdowns the VM. Reason: not enough memory.

Correction:
- Reduced memory from 1 GB to 768 kB

Try #3. Eventually XP started after I ejected VboxAdditions.iso. Load (and install) VboxAdditions after XP starts.

I've been doing this before for a Vista partition with Paragon. It was so cumbersome to remove all the drivers that I abandoned and did a fresh install instead.

Conclusion: it works.

I'll keep this GOTD and try with a few other systems on my PC.

Assuming the allow my last post (most seem to be blocked here and it's not that they are all negative) for anyone wanting to try my method of saving XP with newer hardware you'll probably need to set your BIOS to IDE mode for your old hard drive with XP unless it was already on a SATA drive. Newer BIOS have the option of choosing between SATA and IDE mode and you need to choose based on which hard drive you are booting or you'll get the BSOD. (OS crash).

I have three computers all running Wxp-SP3
No problem of course installing today this Paragon utility on all those machines.

The ground of my question is about the special offers to buy the full product (the virtualizer) and also the full Paragon Suite 14 (which to my understanding includes also the full version of the virtualizer) for a quite interesting discounted price.

That said:
May I use the full paid for version for all those three machines or do I have to buy three separate licenses?

Also a tech question:
To virtualize a system, would be possible to run the virtualizer from an external support (like a CD) or the virtualization process must be run exclusively from within the system where the virtualizer has been installed?

Last but not least:
Possibly I missed the answeer but I did not see a follow up to the problem of the reactivation af Wxp Professional.

The license that I have for all my three Wxp machines is OEM and it seems that will not be activated on a different hardware.
Considering that MS consider a virtual machine a new install on a diferent machine do I have to conclude that I am stucked?

I run Oracle VirtualBox with a lot of OS's but this Paragon method seems a lot more work than how I saved my old XP system. My solution was to simply keep it on it's original hard drive, install Win 7 on a new hard drive and put them both in the same newer computer and simply update the drivers on XP for the newer hardware. Boot the BIOS startup menu and choose which hard drive you want to boot today ;)
From previous bad experiences (as a computer tech) with Paragon products I am not likely to trust this program. BTW I also have no concerns about XP security as I setup my own security and have ignored MS's updates since day 1 and have never had a problem with extensive use of XP. That may not work for everyone as you need to be knowledgeable though in keeping your OS secure.
Homesick? LOL

If I understand this - install a VM and I need another license?
I have XP on machine, but no extra license, so when I install VM, Microsoft wants another key?

Does this mean I have to buy another Microsoft product to run on VM?

@Karl et al, truly appreciate your contributions.

We have a ton of work product created in the 90's using the now defunct Micrografx Draw. Microsoft torched that and other programs when we migrated to Vista. We cannot afford to update to Win7 at this time. Hate Microsoft.
The Mgfx Draw! vendor offered zero support to the many people who voiced frustration on forums and sought a workaround. The deathknell we and many others began seeing was "The application has failed to start because MGX40.DLL was not found." Vista won't even let us launch or even inspect/access exe and dll files from the original CDs. Loathing Microsoft we are. Compatibility mode worked as well as system restore did/does for us *cough* i.e., never.
I'm extremely reluctant to simply d/l and register a wild copy of MGX40.DLL for security reaons. We have our orig OEM disks for XP as well as Draw!, but all are in storage. grrrr Microsoft!
I have no experience with the virtual sandbox process and little time to learn. Still, it would be wonderful to think Paragon's Virtualization Mgr could eventually get the original Mgfx Draw! CD to open without crashing and maybe finally allow access to the archive now trapped on floppies, an external HD and an ancient TrueImage HD image that Vista also refuses to even recognize.
?? Should I make an image or clone or just backup C: to an external HD before installing this? Do I need the orig OEM disks as there is no way to get them out of storage before this offer expires?
TYVM for any feedback.

Intel Pentium III i7 @2.67GHz 4gb RAM
4 Core/hyper-threaded 8 logical processors
C: has 88gb defragged/optimized free space
Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP2

The claim that this software could be used on a new Mac has disappeared, the fool who claimed I was stupid has not apologized however.

I don't know about this one, as it seems directed at all XP users. If you are wary of win7 or 8, keep xpm and dl Linux Mint (it's free and excellent) and set it up for a dual boot (the installation will set up everything for you!) and continue to use XP off line, using Mint as your primary net setting. You'll not have to worry about malware (Linux does not have that problem), or the possible problems that a virtual machine can cause the inexperienced. Except for gaming, and some wifi drivers, Mint is small, fast, very cleanly written, and has literally 10's of thousands of free (yes- TRULY FREE) aps including an Open Office type suite that is 100% ms office compatible. If "virtual", and "sandbox" scare you, it's well worth a try!

#53: "Before anyone panics, even though updates, security or otherwise, stop, don’t think you’ll ” suddenly be under attack by hackers. ” XP’s a good system. Whether you decide to use Paragon Virtualization Manager or not, keeping a good anti-virus and checking your computer with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware Professional, you’ll be just fine. TY GOTD !"

FWIW, yes, you can expect more targeting by the bad guys/gals. XP still has a significant user base [~30% per some stats], so it's worth it as a target for exploits. Lots of security software still works in XP, but lots of it doesn't work as well -- Bitdefender for example hangs XP Pro SP3 on this rig during startup unless I turn off auto-updates -- so in that respect it could be easier to write mal-ware that escapes detection by security apps when/if you target XP. Besides being less secure theoretically & statistically, XP still has security holes that will continue to be found -- when [not if] that happens MS will not patch it, and those holes will be exploited, probably a lot as low hanging fruit.

Also FWIW, many infected systems got that way by not running up to date security software. BUT, when the companies writing security software report a new exploit &/or malware etc., have you ever wondered how they found out about it? Much of the time it's because systems running their security software got infected. Read the tests, the reviews, the stats, & nothing is 100% successful blocking 100% of malware. However much you rely on security software, know that it isn't perfect.

Also, also FWIW, not only would access be arguably cheaper [with no money spent of countermeasures], but the online world would be a nicer, faster place if there were no bots & none of the traffic they generate. So, all those infected PCs/laptops making up the botnets really are effecting you. Besides the bootnets, every time a crook is successful stealing whatever from a server or PC or laptop etc., that's more motivation for more people to try and steal more. Again those people & companies that were/are a bit lax when it comes to security do effect you. IF this bothers you, it should.

I have XP running on an old machine because it is the only one that will service a few old printers, my camera, and so on. I intend to do a fresh install of XP before April 8 to get optimum value out of the old machine. Nothing like a clean install.

However, the first thing that happens after a fresh install is a couple of days downloading all of the security updates since day 1.

I am happy to run the old XP machine off-internet just to service the few pieces of equipment, as long as it's up to date at April 8.

My question is - what happens if the old machine dies after that? I can do a clean install on another old machine, but would never get all of the updates. Can this giveaway preserve the pre-April 8 installation, complete with updates, for future use? And could I then restore my backed up files to that installation?

Just as a by the way, I see nothing wrong with Win 7 64bit. For me it's every bit as good as, if not better than, XP. (That should get me a few negative votes:).

No-one has used these words yet, so please allow me: When you run a 'virtual machine' your are running a 'computer' inside another computer.
Today's program, installed on your old, say, XP computer, will compress a copy of it into one huge file; many gigabytes. You then copy that file to your main, modern computer.
You run a Virtual Machine Program - the major ones have been cited in the comments above - on your main computer, and, with that, load the file copied over - and up in a window pops your old 'computer'. Everything your old computer was appears as a self-contained computer within that window. Magic! :-)
Licensing requirements persist: you must be able to validate your new virtual computer, so be prepared; you might need to talk to a Microsoft Licensing Help Desk. Have your Product Key handy. Tell them the story and they'll most likely help and wish you well.

re #43 above - About a year ago I used Laplinks PCMOVER to move my XP to Win7 Ultimate. For two weeks the support was almost non-existent and the machine was a mess --- and I mean a nightmare mess

I was about to give up but I really did not want to reinstall all my software again. Then, I found ZINSTALL (zinstall.com) and it all worked pretty darn good. I only had one weird message that appeared every once in a while, but it did not affect anything.

Forget anything to do with LapLink or PCMOVER and save yourself a BIG headache. Actually, Laplink purchased the software from a good guy when it was called "spirit ... something or other" software. At that time I used it to migrate from MT to W2000 and later from W2000 to XP. Then, it worked fine and the support was excellent from the person who developed the program. But, alas, he is gone and only God knows how this LapLink runs things.

This Paragon Product is a good product. Now, I use it with the half dozen PCs I have. I run Linux Debian Mint with Virtual Box and Will be moving all my XP systems using Paragon's Virtual PC Manager. Good support also.

Re.#14 and #52:

Thanks for talking about Puppy Linux. I discovered it a few months ago and now my wife and I use it almost exclusively for out old laptops which run XP somewhat slowly, with their 1gb ram. We have one laptop that only has 660mb ram, and XP is really slow on it but Slacko Puppy screams. Puppy can be installed in a folder or your hard drive (rather than needing to boot from aCD or flash drive or be installed into a separate drive or partition) wi th not change to your Windows installation at all except for adding a single line to your windows boot.ini file, making it extremely simple and problem free to install or uninstall, for that matter. It loads completely into ram, running very fast and includes all of the software needs 90% of people want. And best of all, it's completely free.

You can also install Oracle Virtualbox in Puppy, so I am now experimenting with using on my desktop with 4gb ram. Since puppy itself uses so little ram, #52, most of my ram is therefore left available for a virtual machine, so dividing up the ram between the 'host' and 'guest' machines, as the terminology goes, is much less of a problem.

#4: "Sorry, forgot to ask:
What about Linux?"
.
#7: "“Even if you moved from PC to Mac, you can continue using your Windows as a virtual machine on a new Mac;
Does that mean this software can be installed on a Mac?"
.
VirtualBox is available for Windows, OS X, Linux, & Solaris. While you may run into some gaps, most features should be cross platform. You should be able to create, test etc. a V/Box VM in Windows using Virtualization Mgr., & then get that same VM working in V/Box installed to your Mac, installed in Linux etc..

* * *

#8: "1)Does it mean the converted virtual image file(using this GOTD Paragon Virtualization Manager 14 Compact) can be converted back to physical image if someone have a full version of paragon software that support it(virtual to physical)?"

That was originally how Paragon marketed their virtualization software, so yeah, it works. OTOH when you migrate Windows to new hardware you leave in place the old driver files & some of their registry entries -- the more you do that the more garbage accumulates & the higher the potential for problems.

"2)Is the converted paragon virtual image file compatible with other virtual system like virtual box, parallel desktop, vmware etc?"

I've done it, used one VHD with different VM host apps, but because of what I wrote above I prefer to create one for VPC, one for V/Box etc.

#13: "I’m a total novice in this field… I’m a big XP fan and I’m using Windows XP Pro. with lots of important photo and graphical programs!
My question is: If I install this; “Paragon Virtualization Manager 14 Compact” on my PC with my old Windows XP, is it possible for me, additional to install Windows 7 and still keep and run my XP, together with all my important graphical programs, and without any problems?"

One thing to check out 1st, is you say lots of important graphics apps -- if any of them use the computer ID for activation, putting them in a VM will change that ID. If for example you have a newer version of P/Shop, if you don't de-activate it beforehand, it can be almost impossible to get it activated in it's new home. 2nd thing to check out is if any of that software uses graphics hardware assist -- if so it will not have that in a VM. 3rd thing is I would personally suggest win8 rather than 7, because win8 has better compatibility with old software than 7 does -- you won't know how the software will run in a VM until A) you try, or B) you find someone who runs it that way now, & if it doesn't work well, you *might* have better luck getting it running in win8.

The closest you can come to any guarantees that whatever apps will work in whatever VMs is to find someone that has run the exact same software in a VM.

* * *

#14: "My idea is running XP afterwards only offline i.e. without danger.
A lot of people like me don’t want to throw away older machines not apt for Windows 7/8 and I want to use further on old scanners, printers etc. for which no Win7/8 drivers are available."

That's the best solution by far IMHO. As I mentioned elsewhere, getting hardware to run with a VM can be iffy. You can stick XP in a VM, but it will run slowly -- the more you have installed the more unwieldy it becomes. If there's one or a few apps you must run in XP, better to start out with a fresh XP install in a new VM, then install that software.

* * *

#17: "There are many users like myself who wish to remain with XP but would like to improve our security when we continue to use it. My question is how, would we use, or is it worth using a virtual machine to improve our security?"

I'll start out by saying that I don't think you'd be happy using any VM as your main system because it's too slow -- when corporate IT sets up all these VMs for a company's employees/users they use a special VM host rather than host software running in a full-blown copy of Windows. Where a VM can provide greater security it's because it can be isolated from everything else, so while the VM might become infected or damaged, hopefully the host system & network escape any ill effects. If you had a minimal install, i.e. Windows without much software, it's also fairly easy to restore -- just copy a copy of your vhd & paste it over the old copy. Since a minimal Windows install might mean a 15-20 GB VHD, that's not a big deal -- I wouldn't want to regularly copy too much more than that.

* * *

#19: "Well if I want my Windows 2000 computer on my new Windows 7..."

1st thing I'd suggest is research win2k in the different VMs & read user reports to make sure in the end that it will be usable enough to do what you want it to.

* * *

#28: "I have a program running on Windows 7 64 bit that I need to run on Windows 8.1 64 bit. Is this the answer, or does it just work with XP?"

You can create a VM running just about any OS, though I'm surprised there's something 7 will run that 8 won't. AT any rate you create a new VM in your host software, using either a virtual disk that's already been created, or a new one. If it's a new VHD, you install the OS normally. If it's one you created with Virtualization Mgr., it'll start that copy of Windows.

* * *

#29: "One thing I have found out about Windows virtual PC is that it supports a maximum virtual disk size of 127GB.
As far as I can see this means it only works if the disk you want to virtualise is 127GB or less (not the space used but the whole disk size)
As most of us have disks bigger than that, Windows Virtual PC would be no use."
.
What you need to do is get rid of the free space on your partition -- if it's then still over ~100 GB you'll need to uninstall some software or delete some files to get it below that if you want to run VPC, but I think an awful lot of people [most?] have less than 100 GB actually in use by installed software in XP. The big exception I can think of is games, but they won't run well in VPC anyway -- use V/Box then as it has some limited DX support.

You can defrag to put your files at the start of the partition, then shrink the partition, then use Virtualization Mgr. Or you can back it up & restore the partition image to a VHD, where again you can shrink the partition.

One thing that nobody's asked... how does creating and running a XP virtual disk in ANY environment, protect you from the same bad stuff, as just running XP from it's native hard disk installation?

Cheers, Al

All this talk of Microsoft withdrawing support for XP is nothing more than scaremongering. I for one stopped downloading windows updates 7 years ago after one of them ruined a perfectly good operating system (and there were thousands more who suffered due to their incompetence).
So, NO, I will not be suckered in by their tactics.
I will stick with XP, and if it does get something nasty I will re-install it, and will keep re-installing it.
Sod it, I think its time to get a Mac!

Whenever I find that my XP.3 has become infected with virus, if I can not clean the system , I reformat the system and reinstall xp again. Microsoft would then activate it.

My question is, does anybody know whether Microsoft will continue to activate the xp system after April? Surprisingly, I have not seen this important raised by anybody !!

Bachupan.

#33: glnz basically asks what it's like running a VM

Well, your VM host in Windows is just another app. For VirtualBox & VMWare you start it like any other software -- Microsoft's Virtual PC is started from a special folder view in Windows Explorer. Which one to try? VMWare is expensive so that tends to eliminate that for most home users. Virtual PC is easier, but much slower with the regular versions of XP in my experience -- it may still be worth a try however since you're new to this.

For VPC... Once you're in that folder view I spoke of you create a new VM, use the VHD Virtualization Manager created for you, start it, & watch the VM add all sorts of drivers. Then you add the VPC extensions. It's not possible to include everything here, so you will have to do some research on the various settings to use with VPC. Once it's all set up, you just have to start the VM & you'll get your old copy of Windows running in a window on your desktop. If/when you open Windows Explorer in your VM you'll see the files & folders not just for your VM but also your host PC/laptop.

For V/Box... You start the host software, which opens in a regular, though smaller window. Here you'll create a new VM -- again you'll have to research a little bit for where everything is -- using your new VHD for your new VM. Once you start it you'll see the same adding drivers etc., then you'll add the V/Box additions [included in an ISO in the Oracle VirtualBox folder]. With V/Box you have to designate what folders you want to share with your host Windows -- they can be permanent or temporary. TO run your VM you start the host software, select the VM you want to run, & click the Run button -- your old copy of XP again appears in a window on your desktop.

In both cases you can move your mouse from Windows to your VM just as if it was any other software -- when you type it appears in whatever Window has the focus. It's really just like running any other program, except in this case that other program is a copy of Windows.

* * *


#39: "I guess the only question I have is: will I be able to save files (from the VirtualXP session) to a physical hard drive?

It can get a bit sticky depending on which VM host you use, but you *might* want or need to save your files to the VM's VHD, then copy them to a folder outside the VM. In V/Box I'd set up a shared folder, map that folder in the VM, & see if the scanning software worked with that, & how fast/slow it was.

"I have a full-page scanner (with slide/negative attachment) that I want to use, but it won’t run in Win7 (Xp is the latest). I don’t have an XP machine to hook it to, but I do have XP discs that I can install XP with."

First off you'd probably be better off using Vuescan -- it comes with drivers for most scanners. That said, assuming the scanner is USB, it may or may not be compatible with the VM host software. Microsoft's Virtual PC host can be a little better than V/Box for USB, but it's really up to your scanner & what it will work with. In any case you attach the USB device to your PC/laptop, then go into your VM & assign or attach that device to the VM, then see if it works.

* * *

#42: "Most people have WinXP OEM licenses on their old computers, and Microsoft will not allow an OEM license to be activated on a different computer, including a virtual machine."

1st, MS changed their licensing for Windows, more than once, so I'd suggest anyone interested check it out at microsoft.com. 2nd, restrictions preventing installing an OEM copy of Windows elsewhere was AFAIK built into the Windows install discs that came with the PCs/laptops people bought -- not in Windows itself. In this case it's no different than moving your copy of Windows to another PC/laptop [P2P] -- Windows does not know it's in a VM. That said, if in doubt do not remove your original copy of XP you have installed until you have the VM running & are sure it's activated. Then either leave it in place -- sure beats a boot or rescue disc -- or get rid of it, reclaiming the disk space. If/when removing XP bear in mind that partition may also hold the boot files for win7/8 -- you can easily fix that with EasyBCD, which does run portably, but you need to be prepared for that.

Before anyone panics, even though updates, security or otherwise, stop, don't think you'll " suddenly be under attack by hackers. " XP's a good system. Whether you decide to use Paragon Virtualization Manager or not, keeping a good anti-virus and checking your computer with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware Professional, you'll be just fine. TY GOTD !

I was curious and installed it for testing. It works well, however, the speed by running two operating system has diminished a lot. The memory were subdivided in two parts and CPU had to work at about 90% of capacity all the time while in virtual mode. Some programs took a while to load and ran very sluggishly. Some graphics programs are still loading after 18 minutes wait and have not come up on the screen.

If the idea is to be able to run VM on top of your regular OS, it works, however it is not practical from effectiveness and speed. It feels like your computer will crash any moment and is very slow to respond and run.

Then I shut down the computer and started it in normal XP mode and then run it in virtual mode already installed on XP too.
The results are much better and faster response.

I suggest to install it on your XP OS and not on win 7 or 8 because you will be running out of resources and CPU can not handle regular OS in the background and VM in foreground, no matter how fast your machine is because you are sharing resources.

#44 Microsoft is a business, first and foremost. To remain in business it must improve its products in order to keep selling them. Once users buy a software, learn it well, and are comfortable -- it is natural for them to want to remain in that comfort zone and not purchase "upgrades" which often lack several of the features the original software had. So to "encourage" users to upgrade, Microsoft discontinues support for it.

In my case, not only Win-XP but FoxPro. Yes, we dislike being dragged into the future against our wills. But as Microsoft would probably say, "It's business, nothing personal!"

RE: Comment #42

If you only use the virtual xp file when you are off-line, could Microsoft detect it? I have a lot of software on my xp machine that I don't want to have to repurchase. None of it requires that I be on-line. It seems pointless and unfair to have to purchase a new license for XP when Microsoft considers it to be obsolete.

Today's 'Paragon Virtualization Manager' seems to install easy and runs as described. It certainly could use more documentation [especially], for new users.

New virtual system inductee's, need something fast and simple to get their feet wet, and without detailed instructions, get too discouraged, too quickly.

Secondly - Thank you Microsoft for the heads up, [no XP support after April 8] , and sufficient reason to finish digging the bomb shelter. Please forward any remaining XP updates to me at, Gullible dot come. Till then, I'll be happily using today's [free] Virtualization Manager, as it works as claimed.

Paragon's Virtualization software is unique -- you should grab it if you have any interest, or think you might have future interest in VMs. SysInternals at Microsoft has their Disk2vhd program -- it's usable but not nearly the same thing.

In a nutshell Paragon's Virtualization Manager clones a hard drive partition to a virtual hard drive [VHD], which is a single file that Windows sees as a real hard drive. Step 2, it removes Windows registry entries for the old core hardware drivers, the one's that let Windows talk to your hardware to start Windows. Step 3, the drivers for your VM host software are added, & you then add a special set of software to your new VM [Virtual Machine] tailored to the version of Windows [with the free VirtualBox they're called Additions], that allow you to do stuff like copy/paste text between the two.

There are 3 main VM Host apps, Oracle's VirtualBox, Microsoft's Virtual PC, & VMWare. VMWare *may* be the best, but it the most expensive. VirtualBox is free, it's what I run, but V/Box & VMWare require you to setup a folder or folders that are shared with the host copy of Windows that's running everything, & that's how you get files in/out of the VM. Microsoft's solution, free with win7 [it's the XP Mode VM that's restricted to certain versions], uses the remote features built into Windows, which means you can see & access all the files & folders you can normally see in Windows Explorer from inside the VM. The big catch is that you can only use certain versions of Windows, and the size of the VM's VHD is restricted. Of the 3 V/Box is the only one that has an unofficial portable solution in the form of a launcher, that adds the needed drivers to Windows, starts your VM, then uninstalls those drivers once you close V/Box.

Stuff to be aware of...
Microsoft has changed their licensing agreements for Windows regarding VMs, a few times, so check for the latest for the version(s) of Windows you want to turn into a VM. And yes, it will have to be re-activated, because as far as Windows knows you are using it on a new PC. Backup software doesn't like VHDs as well as regular files, at least major brands like Paragon & Acronis, so I back them up by copying the VHDs somewhere else. I also delete the VHDs on my system partition prior to performing a backup. A minimal Windows VM will have a VHD of about 15-20 GB -- that grows as you add software. I run 4 VMs off my system partition, restoring them by copy/pasting copies I store elsewhere on top of those files -- doing it that way, just copying VHDs rather than cloning etc., nothing changes so I don't have to always re-activate Windows. I also use Dynamically expanding VHDs that start out small & grow as stuff's added -- CloneVDI can help, a Lot, making them smaller by getting rid of free space that will accumulate https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=22422

V/Box can work with virtual hard drives in the Windows VHD format, or virtual disks formatted for VMWare or V/Box. Using the Windows VHD format gives you more options, since you can mount that VHD in Windows and work with it just like any other hard drive. To do the same sort of stuff with a V/Box .vdi file I have to either fire up the VM on that .vdi, or attach it to another V/Box VM -- in that 2nd case it's like adding a 2nd hard drive to your PC. As far as that sort of thing goes, you can do most stuff with a VM you can do with a regular PC, e.g. you can have a VM dual boot.

---

As far as migrating your installed copy of XP to a VM...

Here's what I've done & found... You need another OS obviously, & do most everything while running that other version of Windows. If you dual boot between say XP & win7/8, you can preserve your XP install until you're sure everything's working as planned, then remove it or keep it in place. If you're replacing XP you can get it ready, preparing it to become a VM, then made a disk/partition image backup & create your VM from that. Some of Paragon's virtualization software can work with their backups as source, while with others you'll have to restore that backup to a new VHD you create in win7/8, then delete once you've got your VM. I kept XP in place & bootable, so I restored a backup to a VHD so I could do stuff like get rid of the partition's free space without having to change the original or anything, but that's just one way to do it -- I could have as easily changed everything I wanted to & then restored a backup of XP for example.

Because I was working with a clone of my XP install that was not running I rename folders for stuff like AMD's Catalyst Control Center, which is software for my AMD graphics card that starts with Windows, & I try to disable at least temporarily anything that does start with Windows. You could as easily uninstall that sort of thing while running the original copy of XP. The point is that you do not want anything starting with Windows that might be avoided, *Especially* security software. That's because when you first start your VM there will be all sorts of drivers to install, then more to install once you add [what V/Box calls] the Additions. VMs are a bit slow when you're running the VM host software in Windows -- after all you still have to use your CPU & RAM etc. for the host copy of Windows, split off some of your CPU & RAM for the VM, and have that new software layer in between your VM & your actual hardware. When you're going through that flurry of activity as Windows adds all these new drivers in a slower VM you Do Not want anything else running that can slow things down. I wait until everything is running before I deal with any folders I renamed, removing &/or getting software working that starts with Windows -- if you worked with the original Windows partition rather than a clone in a VHD this part's easier since you could uninstall stuff running that copy of Windows rather than disabling things by renaming folders.

Thank you, Karl (#21) for the explanation, and for a few the others who explained this software in simple English. This old woman will download and install it. THANK YOU!

Tried several times this morning to register for the Product Key and Serial Number.

No email received for any of the attempts - nothing is blocked as spam or junk mail...

Without this information this software cannot be installed.

Wow! The comments are growing in no.! Only goes to show how popular XP still is... Pity that microsoft is killin' it.. Some of my first memories with computer were with XP as the OS.. It sucks that its gonna be no more.... Paragon will be quite helpful to many people the world over.. Thanks GAOTD..

Quote from this site: "Even if you moved from PC to Mac, you can continue using your Windows as a virtual machine on a new Mac." Unquote.

I can only understand this as I can install this software on a new Mac and then use Windows. My earlier question about this has not been answered, someone regarded this even as a stupid question.

What does "you can use Windows as a virtual machine on a new Mac" mean? Is it my lack of understanding of the English language or my general ignorance?