Printing with Vista OS, Virtual PC 2007 on XP and VPN on XP

I have a relatively new Vista 64-bit system and have installed Virtual PC
2007 in order to run Windows XP for my work VPN. I know Virtual PC 2007 does
not support USB ports in my PC. It is a royal pain to print anything from the
virtual PC because I have to constantly logoff my VPN in order for the
virtual PC to recognize my real PC as they are considered two separate
networks.

Windows Virtual PC does support USB but only works with Windows 7 -- is this
true? Or can I install Windows Virtual PC on my Vista PC?

What are the chances of Virtual PC 2007 being upgraded to support USB? Or do
I have to upgrade my operating system from Vista to Windows 7 ... not my
preference.

Any other suggestions for printing from my VPN would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:03:01 -0700, Can''t Find A Name
<> wrote:

>I have a relatively new Vista 64-bit system and have installed Virtual PC
>2007 in order to run Windows XP for my work VPN. I know Virtual PC 2007 does
>not support USB ports in my PC. It is a royal pain to print anything from the
>virtual PC because I have to constantly logoff my VPN in order for the
>virtual PC to recognize my real PC as they are considered two separate
>networks.
What does that have to do with your ability to use your host PC?
Your statement makes no sense....
You can just minimize the VPC guest and you are back in your host
system and can do whatever is possible there. No need to log off the
virtual machine.
>
>Windows Virtual PC does support USB but only works with Windows 7 -- is this
>true? Or can I install Windows Virtual PC on my Vista PC?
Not possible. WVPC is a Windows 7 x64 function exclusively.

>What are the chances of Virtual PC 2007 being upgraded to support USB? Or do
My guess is that it will never happen. I have long ago given up and
moved to VMWare.

>I have to upgrade my operating system from Vista to Windows 7 ... not my
>preference.
Do that if you like, but not only in order to get a virtualization
solution with USB support.

>Any other suggestions for printing from my VPN would be greatly appreciated.
>
The absolutely simplest solution is to:
1. Download and install VMWare Player 3
2. Open the VPC2007 virtual machine with Player. It will offer to
convert it for you.
3. Now you will have USB support in your virtual machine (and also
DirectX if you need that).

VMWare Player is a free product like VPC2007.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Thanks for your reply.

> What does that have to do with your ability to use your host PC?
> Your statement makes no sense....
> You can just minimize the VPC guest and you are back in your host
> system and can do whatever is possible there. No need to log off the
> virtual machine.

My problem is that my printer is a USB device on my host system. It is a
shared printer and therefore I should be able to use it for my virtual
machine. However, when I am logged on to my VPN (to access my office network
offsite), my virtual machine only recognizes that network and not my home
network so I've lost my printer on my host machine. I then have to log off my
VPN (not my virtual machine) in order for my virtual machine to "see" my host
machine again to get access to the shared printer. Does that make sense? I'm
probably not explaining it clearly but thanks for the VMWare suggestion. I
had never heard of that application before.


"Bo Berglund" wrote:

> On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:03:01 -0700, Can''t Find A Name
> <> wrote:
>
> >I have a relatively new Vista 64-bit system and have installed Virtual PC
> >2007 in order to run Windows XP for my work VPN. I know Virtual PC 2007 does
> >not support USB ports in my PC. It is a royal pain to print anything from the
> >virtual PC because I have to constantly logoff my VPN in order for the
> >virtual PC to recognize my real PC as they are considered two separate
> >networks.
> What does that have to do with your ability to use your host PC?
> Your statement makes no sense....
> You can just minimize the VPC guest and you are back in your host
> system and can do whatever is possible there. No need to log off the
> virtual machine.
> >
> >Windows Virtual PC does support USB but only works with Windows 7 -- is this
> >true? Or can I install Windows Virtual PC on my Vista PC?
> Not possible. WVPC is a Windows 7 x64 function exclusively.
>
> >What are the chances of Virtual PC 2007 being upgraded to support USB? Or do
> My guess is that it will never happen. I have long ago given up and
> moved to VMWare.
>
> >I have to upgrade my operating system from Vista to Windows 7 ... not my
> >preference.
> Do that if you like, but not only in order to get a virtualization
> solution with USB support.
>
> >Any other suggestions for printing from my VPN would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> The absolutely simplest solution is to:
> 1. Download and install VMWare Player 3
> 2. Open the VPC2007 virtual machine with Player. It will offer to
> convert it for you.
> 3. Now you will have USB support in your virtual machine (and also
> DirectX if you need that).
>
> VMWare Player is a free product like VPC2007.
>
> --
>
> Bo Berglund (Sweden)
> .
>

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:07:01 -0700, Can''''t Find A Name
<> wrote:

>Thanks for your reply.
>
>> What does that have to do with your ability to use your host PC?
>> Your statement makes no sense....
>> You can just minimize the VPC guest and you are back in your host
>> system and can do whatever is possible there. No need to log off the
>> virtual machine.
>
>My problem is that my printer is a USB device on my host system. It is a
>shared printer and therefore I should be able to use it for my virtual
>machine. However, when I am logged on to my VPN (to access my office network
>offsite), my virtual machine only recognizes that network and not my home
>network so I've lost my printer on my host machine. I then have to log off my
>VPN (not my virtual machine) in order for my virtual machine to "see" my host
>machine again to get access to the shared printer. Does that make sense? I'm
>probably not explaining it clearly but thanks for the VMWare suggestion. I
>had never heard of that application before.
>

OK, I misread your post as saying you had tto log off your VPC machine
in order to use the host...
But the VPN systems are always screening off the computer tha connects
to the remote site from the local site. This is by design since when
using VPN you are supposed to join the remote network and therefore
you have to leave the local one. The host system is part of the local
system and therefore is now isolated from the guest system.

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it except to capture
the USB printer into the guest system so it appears as a local printer
rather than a shared network printer.
This of course requires USB aware virtualization, i.e Windows VPC on
Win7 or VMWARE products on any operating system.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)