Machine spec and Windows 7

[Bomoh]

I have suffered a house fire and need to completely rebuild my vid edit capabilities.
What is now considered a decent (not extreme ultimate) machine spec to run MSP 8?
What are the compatibility issues with Windows 7?
Would I be better to build the system with XP installed.
I do not want to move away from MSP8 as I am familiar with it and always found it to be better than all alternatives.

[Ron P.]

Any of the current PCs will have more than enough resources to run MSP. What you do not want is Win7 or Vista for that matter. MSP 8 will run on Vista, however there are some quirks, like only being able to hear the audio in Quick Play mode. If you have the ability to use Win XP that's what I would do. I still have my old WinXP desktop, and still use it along with MSP 8.

[Gorf]

MSP7 works fine in Windows 7 if you run it using something like Oracle's VitrualBox. Obviously, it will require a beefier machine because it means you're running two operating systems.

I see no reason as to why MSP8 will not also work. I just saw my install CD - I'll try it out and report back this afternoon...

[teknisyan]

Hello Bomoh,

MSP8 is not compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7, we cannot stop you from using 3rd party programs like what Gorf is suggesting and even use the Windows Compatibility mode, since MSP 8 was created even before Windows vista was in develop, we cannot assure the stability of the program.

[Gorf]

MSP8 runs acceptably on a WinXP guest using VirtualBocx on a Win7 host. There is a bigger relative difference in performance between MSP7 and MSP8 - on my old laptop running XP native they seemed to respond fairly equally, whereas through VirtualBox MSP8 seems more sluggish compared to MSP7. I reckon it's because Ulead saw fit to write use their own GUI for MSP8 whereas the windows API was used for MSP7

[Gorf]

MSP7 works fine in Windows 7 if you run it using something like Oracle's VitrualBox. Obviously, it will require a beefier machine because it means you're running two operating systems.

I see no reason as to why MSP8 will not also work. I just saw my install CD - I'll try it out and report back this afternoon...

OK - here's a video of MSP8 being installed and updated using Oracle VirtualBox with Windows 7 as the host and Windows XP as the guest. There's also a very brief edit to show it working.

VirtualBox is configured to use fullscreen/seamless mode. It means the whole laptop screen can be used instead of running XP in an window - but it can get confusing having the two taskbars.

The laptop is a dualcore 2.4 Ghz machine with one gig allocated to XP - MSP8 runs about as well as it did on my old 1.6 GHz laptop running XP natively

The video was captured using screen capture software and edited on the very same MSP8 install to speed up or remove any unnecessary bits, and hide my serial numbers. I've mistakenly referred to the service pack as SP3.