Virtual PC

Virtual PC is an x86 emulator for PowerPC Mac hosts and a virtualization app for Microsoft Windows hosts. It was created by Connectix in 1997 and acquired by Microsoft in 2003. The Mac version was discontinued in 2006 following the Mac transition to Intel, while the Windows version was discontinued in 2011 in favour of Hyper-V. Until version 4, Virtual PC only supported Classic Mac OS hosts. Version 4 was released in 2000 for both Mac OS and Windows, and version 5 (2001) added support for Mac OS X hosts. After Microsoft acquired Virtual PC from Connectix in 2003, the program was renamed Microsoft Virtual PC. In July 2006, Microsoft released the Windows version free of charge. In August 2006, Microsoft announced the Mac version would not be ported to Intel-based Macs, effectively discontinuing the product as PowerPC-based Macs would no longer be manufactured. In 2009, Microsoft released Windows Virtual PC, which is only compatible with Windows 7 hosts, and is the technical foundation for the latter's Windows XP Mode. Windows Virtual PC does not officially support MS-DOS or operating systems older than Windows XP Professional SP3 as guests. Connectix Virtual PC, Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and Windows Virtual PC are successive versions of the same software. Windows Virtual PC only runs on Windows 7. The earlier Microsoft versions which run on older versions of Windows were still available and support operating systems older than Windows XP. Starting in Windows 8, Microsoft replaced Virtual PC with Hyper-V. Virtual PC was originally developed as a Macintosh application for System 7.5 and released by Connectix in June 1997. The first version of Virtual PC designed for Windows-based systems, version 4.0, was released in June 2001. Connectix sold versions of Virtual PC bundled with a variety of guest operating systems, including Windows, OS/2, and Red Hat Linux. As virtualization's importance to enterprise users became clear, Microsoft took interest in the sector and acquired Virtual PC and Virtual Server (unreleased at the time) from Connectix in February 2003.