[CQ-Contest] Microsoft Virtual PC - multiple operating systems

[doug smith]

Seems to me a virtual machine is probably overkill in the hamshack?

The PC in my shack "triple-boots".  I have Windows XP, Windows 98
(configured to boot to a command prompt as "DOS 7"), and Red Hat Linux
all installed.  When the machine is started, a menu appears asking me
which operating system I want to use.

Whichever operating system I choose gets 100% of system resources and
full direct access to the hardware.  (how much of that access it
passes along to the applications depends on the OS!)  All of the
necessary software is available free under the GNU Public License.
WinXP can see the files in the Win98 partition.  (I think with a bit
more work I could get it to work the other way around, and if I wasn't
completely lazy both sides could interchange with the Linux side too.)

Downsides:
- Only one of the three operating systems can be active at a time.
- Because I installed Win98 and Linux first, WinXP ended up installed
on the "F drive" - F:\Program Files\N1MM Logger, F:\Windows\System,
etc...  Most programs don't care but a few have the drive letter C
hard-coded & end up dumping files in the Windows 98 partition.
- It was a bit difficult to set up.
- In my case, the PC has adequate traditional parallel and serial
ports.  If you're having to use USB serial/parallel ports or multiport
cards that don't have DOS drivers, multibooting to DOS/Win98 isn't
going to give you access to those ports.

==
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View, TN  EM66
http://www.w9wi.com