Microsoft Virtual PC

[zxcvbob]

I know almost nothing about VM's.  (This is a learning exercise more than anything else) I want to run an old 16-bit computer game that my wife used to use when tutoring math on a Windows 7 64-bit laptop.  (it ran fine on XP, and I think I tried it on a 32-bit Win7 netbook and it was okay, but maybe I imagined that)

So can I install a dusty old Windows 2000 OS in a Win7Pro window using Virtual PC?  Is there something better that I can use that's also free?

What do I have to enable in BIOS for hardware virtualization?  The CPU supports it but supposedly the BIOS defaults to disabled.

[GigaBuist]

I like Virtualbox myself.  It's just more flexible than Virtual PC.  It's also free.

Before dinking around in the BIOS I'd try installing and using Virtualbox.  Maybe the virtualization extensions have been enabled already.  If not reboot and dig around and you'll know it when you see it.  It'll either have 'virtual' or 'VTx' in the name.  Once you get a blank VM booted you can install anything (almost) on it like you would a regular computer.  Windows 2000 or XP, if you have a license, should be fine.

Is this old game a 16 bit Windows game or just something that ran in a DOS shell?  If it's an old DOS program then you could try running it on the FreeDOS OS.

Or, now that I say that, if it is DOS you could skip the VM and just use DOSBox:  http://www.dosbox.com/

[Ben]

Giga beat me to it on the dosbox (if it applies) but I would additionally throw in D-fend reloaded as an easy to use shell for it (I learned about both of them here).

I also use Virtualbox, though VMware has a free prg as well. I have no experience with MS Virtual. You should google turning virtualization on for your particular computer. While it's usually obvious in the bios menu, I had an Acer netbook where it was a pain in the ass to find it and it didn't have an obvious name. It bugs me that so many manufacturers turn it off by default now. I've never had to turn it on in a desktop MB - it's always been on laptops.