My VPC Runs Slow? Why?
In the past few weeks, I've had several friends IM me and ask why their VPCs were running so slowly. (Brian Randell has blogged about this in the past, and his points are valid, but in the cases I've seen, the problem was far more obvious.) Brian also hints at versioning issues here. In my experience, this is the real problem: people build VPCs using Virtual PC 2004, and then upgrade the Windows XP operating system to SP2. It seems like the right thing to do, but the original version of Virtual PC 2004 runs quite slowly with Windows XP SP2.
When you create a new virtual machine using VPC, you need to install the virtual machine additions--a set of drivers that make the VPC interact better with the screen, mouse, and more. The problem is, those additions are specific to the version of the Virtual PC 2004 software that you used when you created the VPC image. In both cases I've seen recently, the exact same scenario ensued (and this is why I'm mentioning it here, with a little more specificity than Brian had in his entries): we had VPC images with Windows XP SP2 running under Virtual PC 2004 without applying the service pack. In each case, the VPC had the non-SP1 additions installed, causing the performance to deteriorate.
In both cases, the solution was the same:
1. Boot the slow VPC, and uninstall the VPC additions.
2. Shut down the VPC.
3. Install Virtual PC SP1.
4. Reboot the VPC.
5. Install the new additions.
For both friends, this solved the slowness issues. When Paul Litwin tried it, his VPC was so slow it took overnight to install the new additions. No kidding. Russ Nemhauser tried it today, and saw an immediate improvement without indulging in the long nap.
For more information on Virtual PC and VPC optimizations, check out these sites:
RobertMoir.co.uk
Ben Armstrong's blog (Program Manager on the VPC team at Microsoft)
Brian Randell's blog
and, of course, the VPC site at Microsoft.com