When Microsoft purchased Virtual PC last year, reaction was mixed.

“They’re trying to kill Windows emulation!” some people cried. There were fears that Microsoft might “butcher” VPC, at the time a much-loved and much-used program.

“Only Microsoft can make Windows emulation better,” others pointed out.

The second bunch had a good point, and the new release of Virtual PC 7 may go some way to supporting their view.

New features include better graphics support, easier printer integration, G5 processor support, and “Fast Save”, a means of closing down the emulated PC with one click.

Another feature I certainly like the look of, and tried (in vain) to use on my lime green iMac about five years ago, is copy-and-paste between platforms. Now, the Mac and the virtual PC share a clipboard, which should make this most common of actions useful once more.

For anyone who has never witnessed Virtual PC’s clever act, Microsoft’s Flash demo tells you everything you need to know.

And if you are a newcomer to this kind of technology, a word of warning: you can never have too much RAM. Running a entire extra OS, plus the applications you want to use within it, on top of your normal Mac stuff is very memory-hungry activity. I write from bitter experience.

The official minimum requirements are a 700MHz G3, G4 or G5 chip (so that’s my old 600MHz iBook out of the question - but then I’d be amazed if any G3 machine could run Virtual PC at any kind of tolerable speed); Mac OS X 10.2.8 (or 10.3 if you’re using a G5), 3GB hard disk space, and 512MB of RAM.

Is Windows emulation important for your work?