Running Access 2003 in Windows Virtual PC & XP Mode

[Jim Franklin]

Hi,

I have just bought a new pc with Windows 7 Professional. I am planning to
install either MS Office 2010 or MS Office 2007 on it. However, I have the
same problem that no doubt lots of people on here do: I need to support
Access applications written in Access 2000 and Access 2003.

At the moment I simply have a dual-boot Win XP & Win XP setup, with
Office2003 on one and Office 2007 on the other. Simple. But I wondered with
Windows 7 whether it would be easier to install Windows Virtual PC & XP
Mode, and to set up a different virtual machine for every version of Access
I need to support. (New pc has a 60GB SSD so I would rather not have to
partition it up for multiple OS's etc.)

Has anyone tried this? Can you tell me if the virtual machine is truly
independent of the host (e.g. I want to avoid known issues having Access
2003 and Access 2007 on the same OS) and are there any disadvantages/issues
I need to consider before going down this route?

Many thanks,

Jim

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Yes, virtual machines are truly disconnected from their hosts.

I'm not sure what the licensing is, though: the OS for your virtual machine
isn't free.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Yes, virtual machines are truly disconnected from their hosts.

I'm not sure what the licensing is, though: the OS for your
virtual machine isn't free.

On Windows 7, if you're using the downloaded WinXP mode, you have a
legal license to the guest OS, along with your Win7 license, and can
use the WinXP license in as many VMs as you need.

That said, I don't know what the licensing issues are for, say,
copies of Office installed in the VM. I'd think you'd only be
installing it in the VM if you needed to (because it wouldn't run
well in the host OS, for instance). Another scenario would be to
test on different service packs of the same version of Office.
Again, I don't know what the licensing rules are, but it doesn't
seem to me like something that would violate the spirit of the
EULAs, whether or not it violates the letter of them.

 

[Jim Franklin]

Thanks guys. Good to know that the virtual machines are truly disconnected.
I don't see any licencing issues as each installation of Office would be a
separate licenced copy. i.e. I have licenced versions of
Office2000,Office2003, Office 2007 and Office2010 and each is only going to
be installed once. As you say, the licence for the guest OS (i.e. WinXP)
comes with the downloaded WinXP mode.

I have always avoided having more than one version of Office (specifically
Access) installed on the same OS. I just wondered if this was a genuine
alternative way of achieving this, but am worried about performance issues
etc. I am supporting existing client applications, most of whom are running
WinXP, so I need to know my Access app is going to behave in the same way in
my environment as it is in theirs. Has anyone tried this setup?

Once again, many thanks,

Jim

 

[David W. Fenton]

I have always avoided having more than one version of Office
(specifically Access) installed on the same OS. I just wondered if
this was a genuine alternative way of achieving this, but am
worried about performance issues etc. I am supporting existing
client applications, most of whom are running WinXP, so I need to
know my Access app is going to behave in the same way in my
environment as it is in theirs. Has anyone tried this setup?

I have always run multiple versions of Access in order to support my
clients. My present work machine has A97, A2000, A2003 and A2003. I
have a Win7 PC with A2003 and A2010. Both work just fine.

For production use (i.e., for users), I would want only one version
installed, and if there was some need for multiple versions (such as
some app I didn't write that is based on the Access runtime, but not
a compatible version for the client's app), I'd now consider running
in a VM, but only on Win7. But I'm a huge fan of Win7 -- it's the
first Windows version I've ever considered viable as an upgrade
(assuming the machine passes the tests of the Win7 Upgrade Advisor).

 

[a a r o n _ k e m p f]

I've always used one version of Access per machine. I've just got a
lot of machines. and of course, I only use the latest version really.