Hi John, OK, I just downloaded Virtual PC and took a quick look at the docs. First of all, the old Connectix and Microsoft Virtual PC came with a pre-installed DOS virtual machine. I see that Microsoft has yanked that from the latest version. As somebody else said, you can make a bootable DOS CD - it doesn't have to be a floppy. Also, you don't need to boot your PC with it, you just 'boot' the virtual machine with the floppy or CD in the drive. 'Booting' the vm just means clicking an icon. However, there is another complication. Virtual PC does still include what is called 'Virtual Machine Additions for MS-DOS'. You install this after you create your DOS virtual machine. It allows you to do lots of useful things, such as share the disk drive on the host PC, etc. Your virtual DOS will be much less useful without it. But note the 'MS-'. These might not work with non-MS versions of DOS. I don't understand why they yanked the pre-installed DOS. Do they expect you to buy a copy of MS-DOS 6.22? Is it still for sale?? Why does it seem that everything Microsoft touches, they make worse? Anyway, I'll sort this all out and let you know. Regarding your second question, yes, DOS runs in a sort-of virtual machine in XP. However, Virtual PC goes much farther. Virtual PC's vm is much more isolated from the guest PC. For example, if you are running a DOS program in XP and it tries to directly access the video card, XP will display an error and shut down the DOS program. VPC however will intercept the call and handle it gracefully. I've heard that many versions of Linux run in Virtual PC, although Microsoft doesn't officially support them. Nick Original message: --------------------- Excuse me butting in! I have downloaded and installed Virtual PC, but have a major problem. You see my computer does not have a floppy drive. Therefore I can't load a boot-up DOS into the Virtual disk which I created. I'm reluctant to change the boot order in my BIOS, to get a CD or the Virtual PC to boot the computer. (And that presumes I could get a bootable DOS onto a CD... it's on floppies.), I've been thinking, too, that "isn't that what happens in XP, DOS runs in a virtual machine"? If so, where's the advantage into trying to get DOS and Fractint into Virtual PC? Linux? Maybe, but so far I have not found sufficient information regarding Virtual PC to allow me to install and run it. Could be that the thing is obvious to more computer-savvy people than I. Let us know if you suceed. I'm holding my breath. :-)