[AccessD] VM for different versions of Access - Resolved for now

Tina,

See comments below...

At 01:00 PM 4/4/2008, you wrote:
>From: Tina Norris Fields <tinanfields at torchlake.com>
>Subject: Re: [AccessD] VM for different versions of Access - Resolved
>         for now
>To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
>         <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
>Message-ID: <47F6474B.9020407 at torchlake.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>Hi All,
>
>In order to just get my client's database functional - not perfected,
>just functional - so they can record contributions and send out
>acknowledgement letters, I did install a VM (using VMWare Server) and
>load it with Win98 (with second edition update), then I installed as
>much of Office 97 as I needed (Access and Word, essentially).  About the
>only problems I really had with that are: 1) it is slow to work in,

First mistake was Win 98. You should not be running anything under Win XP SP2.
That is one of the major reasons for the speed you are experiencing.

>2)
>the screen resolution is awful, and

Depending on your screen resolution on your base OS machine, you may 
have to adjust
to a poor resolution. Also, Win 98 drives for video inside of a vm is 
probably the
issue here.

>3) it won't see my USB ports,

A Win 98 issue, not a VM issue. Go to XP.

>so I
>couldn't use my flash drive or my USB-connected printer (I installed it
>and had the print feature print to a file, because I just needed to be
>able to preview my reports, not really print them).  For the future, I
>have to learn a lot more about this virtual machine business.

I bought the VMWare Workstation. I think it was about $169. With it I can
create any number of VMs. I can also control the amount of RAM and disk
space when they are created. I can also allocate more or less RAM when I
run them.  If you are going to do this on a regular basis. I would recommend
getting that version.

Also, remember that RAM is where the VM runs. The more you have the better
it will run.  I have 4 gb on the notebook that I use most of the time.
And, even though XP uses on 3 gb, I can easily run 2 or 3 VMs at a time by
allocating 750 meg to 1 gb for each to run in.

Robert