Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Richard asked in Computers & InternetSoftware · 5 years ago

Is there a free virtual machine environment that works on Windows 10 and run XP in a VM with full USB and DirectX support?

I have an old Kodak dye sublimation photo printer that still produces excellent images; better than my recent HP ink jet printer. Kodak stopped supporting this type of printer some years ago, and there appear to be no drivers that work on Windows 8.1 or 10. I also have an editing package I use with this printer that requires DirectX 9 or later.

I have looked at Microsoft's Hyper-V, but unfortunately this does not work for Windows 10 home. I have also been told that Hyper-V does not offer USB support.

I have tried Oracle's Virtual Box on Windows 10. This runs XP, which can read and write to USB memory sticks and works with a USB DVD drive. It recognises the USB printer, but the printer software reports that the 'RPC server' is not running. I don't know whether the server is supposed to be in the host or VM system, or how to fix this problem.

Also, certain features of the editor suite come up with the error message that it requires DirectX 9 or later.

I can still run all of this on my old XP netbook. It used to work on Vista, but some editing tools stopped working following a service pack upgrade to Vista. I retired my Vista system around 12 months ago, and tried the software native on 8.1 and 10 on my replacement system, but the printer driver will not install and those editing tools continue not to work.

Are there any other free VMs that will run XP and give me full USB and DirectX support, or can anybody suggest fixes to allow Virtual Box run the full package on XP.

1 Answer

Relevance
  • 5 years ago

    Try VMware Workstation (there should be a free trial available). I've had good luck with free Virtual Box, but VMware always does better. Good luck.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.