Virtual PC vs Virtual Server
At the taping of our second podcast show (which should be hitting the airwaves shortly), we were talking about the new Service Pack 2 for Virtual Server and how wonderful it was adding new functionality (as well as how wonderful VS was). I debated switching again. I've been using Virtual PC for awhile and like it. For a short time, I had VS running and it was okay. I did a quick check and reinstalled it and tried out a few things to convince myself it was worth it. I mean, if you're going to be a virtual as I am (which is everything virtual, including myself sometimes) then having a single tool would be nice. The great thing about Virtual Server is that it can read VPC hard disk images and, in some cases, read the VMC files as well so setup was a snap.
Okay, here's a rundown on the pros and cons I found with both. It's not much and feel free to add your own in the comments section (please don't get into quibbles about VMWare vs VPC or how you have to buy licenses for each OS you run). I'll let you make your own decisions about what's right (and if right means installing VMWare, knock yourself out):
| Pro | Con | |
| Virtual PC | Drag and drop files from desktop | One icon in taskbar for each VM running |
| Resizing window resizes guest desktop dynamically | More memory overhead for VPC client | |
| Faster save state time (at least for me) | ||
| Sound card support | ||
| Shared folders from host OS | ||
| Virtual Server | Scalability | No drag and drop from host OS |
| Better performance over VPC | Can't resize guest desktop by resizing window | |
| Scripting and WMI integration | Need web server running to manage VMs | |
| SSL connections to guest OS |
In the end, I decided to go back to Virtual PC and just keep that setup. Of course screwing around with all my VMC files I had to rebuild them, but it's a small price to pay for the exploration. The big thing is drag and drop. Of course the drag'n'drop is there in VPC because VS is meant to be running on a server, while VPC is aimed at a desktop user and provides visual things like drag and drop. Until Virtual Server add drag'n'drop for the most part, I won't be going back anytime soon. *YMMV.
*YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary (or yellow milk makes vitamins)