Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone tried out the XP virtual machine for Windows 7 with JFW/We?
Andrew:
I've tried it with Window-eyes, and it works, but badly. It basically sets up an XP VM, and you RDP into that with a special client. The virtual synnthesizer doesn't work so speech is sluggish, and Window-eyes doesn't pass commands through properly either.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Hodgson
Hi,
Here is a blog on the subject:
http://www.gwmicro.com/blog/index.php/all/?title=window-eyes-and-windows-7-xpm&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Will probably use a separate machine for accessing the relevant programs (I have one for testing patches anyway).
Thanks.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart
Sent: 10 December 2009 19:41
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone tried out the XP virtual machine for Windows 7 with JFW/We?
Andrew:
I've tried it with Window-eyes, and it works, but badly. It basically sets up an XP VM, and you RDP into that with a special client. The virtual synnthesizer doesn't work so speech is sluggish, and Window-eyes doesn't pass commands through properly either.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Hodgson
OK, not to rat on GW-Micro because I know Aaron didn't have that much time to test this, but that blog post is just plane funny. The reason its "so slow" is that Window-Eyes speech is not being passed over the virtual RDP channel, its just using sound redirection. I don't know why using the virtual RDP synthesizer doesn't work, I've tried. I suspect it may have something to do with the stripped down RDP client being used not supporting custom channels but that's just a guess, if so GW-Micro might not be able to fix that. The problem about Window-Eyes commands, like ctrl+backslash, not being passed to the remote Window-Eyes session is also seen when using the remote app feature in Windows Server 2008 terminal services, so that's a TS issue, either on Microsoft's side or GW-Micro's side, not too sure. But I'd go far from saying "it just works." As an FYI, I ran Windows XP using the XPM, then installed another XP in VMWare Workstation on the same machine, and the performance differences were just gone. The Windows XP running inside Workstation wasn't slow at all and was very responsive, so if you want to run XP in a VM I very much recommend that route. I just upgraded to Workstation 7 a while ago and its even more responsive, and while this won't matter to many people here, Workstation 7 can take full advantage of 3D, so all the fancy visual effects from aero glass work in a VM just as they would in the real machine. Plus its great for testing patches since you can snapshot, apply the patch, run for a while, go back to your snapshot and try again. Or if your patch fails you can get back to a working environment in seconds. My company just bought VMWare's Lab Manager product, which takes those consepts even further and that's a lot of fun to play with. Some accessibility problems, but I've found work arounds so far.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 2:50 AM
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone tried out the XP virtual machine for Windows 7 with JFW/We?
Hi,
Here is a blog on the subject:
http://www.gwmicro.com/blog/index.php/all/?title=window-eyes-and-windows-7-xpm&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Will probably use a separate machine for accessing the relevant programs (I have one for testing patches anyway).
Thanks.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart
Sent: 10 December 2009 19:41
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone tried out the XP virtual machine for Windows 7 with JFW/We?
Andrew:
I've tried it with Window-eyes, and it works, but badly. It basically sets up an XP VM, and you RDP into that with a special client. The virtual synnthesizer doesn't work so speech is sluggish, and Window-eyes doesn't pass commands through properly either.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Hodgson
OK, not to rat on GW-Micro because I know Aaron didn't have that much time to test this, but that blog post is just plane funny. The reason its "so slow" is that Window-Eyes speech is not being passed over the virtual RDP channel, its just using sound redirection. I don't know why using the virtual RDP synthesizer doesn't work, I've tried. I suspect it may have something to do with the stripped down RDP client being used not supporting custom channels but that's just a guess, if so GW-Micro might not be able to fix that. The problem about Window-Eyes commands, like ctrl+backslash, not being passed to the remote Window-Eyes session is also seen when using the remote app feature in Windows Server 2008 terminal services, so that's a TS issue, either on Microsoft's side or GW-Micro's side, not too sure. But I'd go far from saying "it just works." As an FYI, I ran Windows XP using the XPM, then installed another XP in VMWare Workstation on the same machine, and the performance differences were just gone. The Windows XP running inside Workstation wasn't slow at all and was very responsive, so if you want to run XP in a VM I very much recommend that route. I just upgraded to Workstation 7 a while ago and its even more responsive, and while this won't matter to many people here, Workstation 7 can take full advantage of 3D, so all the fancy visual effects from aero glass work in a VM just as they would in the real machine. Plus its great for testing patches since you can snapshot, apply the patch, run for a while, go back to your snapshot and try again. Or if your patch fails you can get back to a working environment in seconds. My company just bought VMWare's Lab Manager product, which takes those consepts even further and that's a lot of fun to play with. Some accessibility problems, but I've found work arounds so far.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 2:50 AM
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone tried out the XP virtual machine for Windows 7 with JFW/We?
Hi,
Here is a blog on the subject:
http://www.gwmicro.com/blog/index.php/all/?title=window-eyes-and-windows-7-xpm&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Will probably use a separate machine for accessing the relevant programs (I have one for testing patches anyway).
Thanks.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart
Sent: 10 December 2009 19:41
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone tried out the XP virtual machine for Windows 7 with JFW/We?
Andrew:
I've tried it with Window-eyes, and it works, but badly. It basically sets up an XP VM, and you RDP into that with a special client. The virtual synnthesizer doesn't work so speech is sluggish, and Window-eyes doesn't pass commands through properly either.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Hodgson
participants (2)
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Andrew Hodgson -
Ryan Shugart