Mac guys, for the last few weeks I've been playing around w/ Strat-o-matic
V6 for Windows running on Virtual PC (VPC) 4.0.2 with Windows 98. After
making a few adjustments to Virtual PC (VPC) & Win 98 I'm glad to report
that everything has been running very smoothly. Below are just a few
tips for optimizing Virtual PC's (VPC) performance.
Before I get started first let me tell you some of my configurations.
I have a Power Mac 8500 but I have a G4 400 mhz Sonnet processor upgrade
card and 448 megs of ram and am running system 9.2.1. ( I also have
pci cards for usb, firewire & ata drives) And one more important note
before we get started, here are two links that have system requirements
for running VPC on your Mac:
For 4.0.2 click here-Detail Form
For 5.0 click here-
Connectix Virtual PC 5 For Mac
TIPS TO OPTIMIZING VPC
1-The most important change for me regarding speed on VPC was to turn
OFF the MMX Compatibility option under Processor which can be found
in the settings window. I believe the effects of having this on for
my system was more troubling than a system that has no processor upgrade
card. So if you do have an upgrade processor card definetely turn this
off; if you don't I'd still recommend turning it off as I see no reason
why this needs to be on to run SOM.
2-Turn off Virtual memory in your control panals of your mac.
3-Allocate at least 96 megs of ram to VPC if running Windows 98. This
may be more if you're running Windows 2000 and above. On VPC 4.0.2 and
above you do NOT allocate ram from the Get Info dialog box in your mac.
Instead you do it from within the program in the settings window.
4-Set the color depth for the Windows OS to match that of the Mac's,
under VPC there will be no benefit to running in 32-bit color made.
5-If after doing all 4 of the things mentioned above VPC is still running
slow you may want to do the following to your settings on your Windows
system (note, advise is for Win 95 or 98, not sure about 2000 or above)
- From the "Folder Options" General tab (from the "View" menu of My
Computer), set Custom, based on settings you choose" option to be
the following: Active Desktop: "Use Windows Classic Desktop" View
Web content in folders: "Only for folders where I select "as Web Page"
(View menu)"
- From the "Folder Otions" View tab (from the "View" menu of My Computer),
set "Folder views" option, "You can make all your folders look the
same", to be "Like Current Folder".
- From the "View" menu of My Computer:Toolbars: Standard Buttons:
off (unchecked) Address Bar: off (unchecked) View as Web Page: off
(unchecked) Explorer Bar: none
- From the "Effects" tab of the "Display" control panel:Visual Effects:
Turn off "Show Icons using all possible colors" Turn off "Animate
windows, menus and lists"
That's all I have for now. I'm sure I'll be learning more as time goes
by. I'll keep you informed the moment I discover new information. If
you have any questions please feel free to email me.
