7 Reasons Why I Prefer VMware Player over Windows Virtual PC to Run My Virtual Machines on Windows 7

7 Reasons Why I Prefer VMware Player over Windows Virtual PC to Run My Virtual Machines on Windows 7

I like VMware products and prefer using them over the other products, e.g. Windows Virtual PC or Sun VirtualBox, but don’t get me wrong that I hate the others. I still like and use both of them on my main working Windows 7 machine occasionally, and I do keep my eyes on them for future developments. It’s just these reasons that keep me using VMware Player most of the time.

Reason #7: hardware requirements are lower

There is no Virtualization Technology or AMD-V limitation on processor level that keeps those who don’t have them from using it. You can turn it on or off from the Preferred mode dropdown menu in Virtual Machine Settings window if you want to. It’s an option but not mandatory.

Reason #6: The process of creating new VM is easier

Just go through the wizard, fill in necessary information, start the VM, and 30 minutes later, done. A new virtual machine is up and running, and ready for you to play with. It seems like, as long as you are not installing a customize-type of OS, you don’t need to interact with the installation process that much.

Reason #5: Support file drag and drop between host and guest machine

If you look at Windows Virtual Machine more closely, you will find that it’s actually integrating RDP client with the Virtual PC. So it’s actually not running a real virtual client on the desktop, rather, just a RDP session that connects to the VM running at the backend. Sounds quite cool but it misses one feature that I particularly liked before, file drag and drop. So here you go, having this feature back makes me like VMware Player a little bit more over Windows Virtual PC.

Reason #4: Support upstream VMware Products

It may not be benefit to you if you don’t use ESX or VSphere to run your servers. But it does matter to me because all my servers are running on ESX, which will be a huge benefit to me if I can create Virtual Machines that can be seamlessly used on the server platform.
Besides, it has the ability to run the Virtual Machines that are created by Windows Virtual PC.

Reason #3: Support multiple screen setup

If you are using dual-monitor setup like mine, you will love it. It has the screen setup icon on the toolbar that allows you to extend your virtual guest OS across the monitors. Cool.

Reason #2: The only one out there that supports Aero

If you run Vista or Windows 7 as guest OS in your virtual machine, you will love the Aero support. And it seems to me that VMware is the only one out there that supports Aero natively. Yes, Windows Virtual Machine does support that too, but that’s because it’s using RDP, a shortcut to achieve the same result, which doesn’t really count to me.

Reason #1: Better XP-mode support

Yes, we have it covered in this post, using XP mode without Windows Virtual PC running.