Welcome to Virtual Acorn
01/04/21 - VirtualAcorn website overhaul
Here at VirtualAcorn there's one thing that drives us mad (well one thing about other people's websites that drives us mad) and that's broken links. Missing content and links that point to holding pages or nowhere are a
menace, especially when the pages concerned have instructions you really do need right now. That's what happened to us a couple of months ago and apart from the gnashing of teeth there was also a little nagging voice in the
back of the mind saying 'When did you last check all the links on virtualacorn.co.uk?...(Read more)
Latest News from VirtualAcorn:
06/03/20 - Offices have now fully re-opened
This is just a quick message to say that our offices have now fully re-opened following the refurbishment work. We apologise for the limited service that we have been able to offer since late January, we suffered from a 'perfect storm' of damage to the roof, staff illness and then internal damage to the main office. Whilst the work was being undertaken......(Read more)
22/10/2019 - Running a 32bit VirtualRPC on a 64 bit version of Mac OS X.
We've been doing some experimentation of the last week to see if there's anything that can be done to run a 32 bit VirtualRPC on the 64 bit only Mac OS X 10.15 (Catalina). Suprisingly the answer is yes. In fact there are several different working approaches that can be used, plus a couple that occured to us but which we haven't been able to test. So if you are waiting for a 64 bit VirtualRPC one of the methods covered in this article might help...(Read more)
18/10/2019 - Mac OS X Catalina, VirtualRPC 64 bit .
As expected Apple have now disabled the execution of 32 bit Applications in the latest version of Mac OS X (10.15 Catalina) released this week. The previous version of Mac OS X (10.14 Mojave) is a 64 bit OS running on 64 bit Intel processors that runs 32 bit code without problem. The running of 32 bit Intel binaries on 64 bit Intel processors......(Read more)
21/01/2019 - 'VirtualRPC in Use' Supplements 3rd Edition now available.
The expanded and revised 3rd edition of 'VirtualRPC in Use' was published at the end of last year. Now the authors have given the companion Supplements e-booklet the same treatment and so we are pleased to announce that the 3rd edition of 'VirtualRPC in Use Supplements' is now available for free download...(Read more)
02/11/2018 - 'VirtualRPC in Use' 3rd Edition now available.
To celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the launch of VirtualRPC the wonderful people at T.O.M.S. have produced a fully updated 3rd edition of 'VirtualRPC in Use', the free guidebook to using VirtualRPC in real world settings. 'VirtualRPC in Use' has been updated to include information on Windows 8 and Windows 10. As well as changes to Windows other changes...(Read more)
21/07/2018 - Archived versions of the VirtualAcorn Forums now available
We are pleased to announce that the archived versions of the VirtualAcorn forums are now available here. Although all the content is available and all links between pages have been preserved the pages are 'dumb' HTML and do not include any of the forums systems, such as the ability to reply to or edit posts. Nor is there any facility to create new topics...(Read more)
21/05/2018 - Updated Privacy Policy and the VirtualAcorn Forums
With the imminent introduction of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) on the 25th of May 2018 we have revised our Privacy Policy to reflect the new rules. We encourage any users of the VirtualAcorn website to have a look at the changes that we have made and to contact us if there are any queries. A link to the current Privacy Policy is...(Read more)
12/12/2017 - Updated CMOS Restore tools now available
Having listened to customer feedback we have released new versions of the CMOS Restore tools. These are now available from the Recovery Utilities page. The CMOS Restore tools are designed to resolve the problems caused by a sudden loss of power...(Read more)
31/10/2017 - VirtualAcorn website, Google Chrome and https
For some time now Google have been proposing to flag any website that doesn't use https as 'insecure' even if https isn't needed. The first step in this questionable approach started with the Google Chrome 62 update and was activated a couple of days ago. From now on any website that has a form without an https address will be targeted. Security is important but there are a number of different ways...(Read more)
22/09/2017 - Replacement Unlock Code Handling System (RUCHS)
We have been working on a replacement unlock code request handling system (called RUCHS) for some time and it's now in service on the VirtualAcorn Registration site (the address is in the VirtualAcorn registration window). RUCHS is designed to offers a faster service as it checks all the information before sending it to us (Read more)
07/11/2016 - Update to our guidelines for buying a new PC
We have just completed an update of our 'Buying a new PC' article. The article has been modified to reflect the...(Read more)
28/09/2016 - Windows technical support refresh
Over the last few weeks we have refreshing the Windows technical support section of the VirtualAcorn website. As part of this process a number of articles have been updated to reflect changes in Windows 10. In addition we have now published several new articles which have been prompted by recent support requests by customers:
Two of the new articles...(Read more)
04/03/2016 - Important update for VirtualRPC-SE white disc versions
A fairly serious fault with some white disc versions of VirtualRPC (numbers 12019-VRP to 12028-VRP inclusive) was reported to us this week. After testing we have determined that those versions of VirtualRPC were assembled with a faulty HostFS component.
The fault shows itself if the user has VirtualRPC in a window and click on the 'Tools' option along the top of the VirtualRPC window and then clicks on 'Options'. VirtualRPC will then crash when it ...(Read more)
13/08/2015 - Windows 10 support
Over the last few weeks we have been testing and collating support materials for Windows 10. We have now updated our Windows support index to include Windows 10. We have done extensive testing and, provided the suitable installation instructions are followed, there have been no significant problems running VirtualAcorn products...(Read more)
13/02/2015 - Technical Support Assistant for Windows 2.0
We are pleased to announce that a new version of the Windows Technical Support Assistant (TSA) is now available. The TSA is designed to provide quick access to the type of technical support
that can only normally be provided by a member of staff...(Read more)
02/02/2015 - Technical documentation updates
As part of our on going support overhaul two further new articles have been added to the support section of the VirtualAcorn website. The first article cover testing of Windows Drivers for Windows Vista and later...(Read more)
13/01/2015 - Technical Support Assistant for Mac OS X.
VirtualAcorn are pleased to announce that a beta version of our Technical Support Assistant (TSA) for Mac OS X is now available. The TSA is designed to help diagnose and suggest solutions for the more common support issues...(Read more)
12/01/2015 - Reading floppy discs on PCs or Macs with no floppy disc drive.
Our next pair of support articles document a useful workaround for reading the data from Acorn formatted floppy discs on Windows or Mac OS X computers without a floppy disc drive. The problem is that many computers only support USB floppy...(Read more)
9/01/2015 - Installing VirtualRPC on a PC or Mac with no optical (CD/DVD/Bluray) drive
Increasingly modern PCs and Macs, especially small form factor (SFF) machines, are supplied without optical drives. As VirtualAcorn products are currently supplied on CD you might think that an external CD/DVD drive would be needed...(Read more)
8/01/2015 - Recovery of data from RISC OS hard discs
It's the start of the new year and we have already been busy. The first update of this year is the release of a new article dealing with file recovery from RISC OS formatted hard discs. There are versions of the new article for...(Read more)
5/9/2014 - New Windows versions of VirtualRPC-SE, VirtualRPC-SA and VirtualRPC-AdjustSA now shipping
From today's date we will be shipping upgraded versions of all our Windows products designed to better support Windows 7 and Windows 8. Earlier this year we released an upgraded VirtualRPC-AdjustSA and since then we have been working on similar improvements to VirtualRPC-SE and VirtualRPC-SA...(Read more)
26/8/2014 - 'Incompatible host' error documented with new solution
We are still working on the Support section of the VirtualAcorn website with new articles appearing at a regular...(Read more)
30/7/2014 - Latest updates to technical support articles
As part of our continuing product support 3QD Developments Ltd is constantly updating our support database. Over the last 30 days there have been two new issues that have not presented before and that were not covered by existing technical support...(Read more)
26/6/2014 - New VirtualAcorn website launched
3QD Developments Ltd are pleased to announce that a new version of the VirtualAcorn website has now gone live. We have been working on the re-designed website for several months with every page and every graphic on the site being updated. The new site is easier to navigate with a crisper more modern image. In addition the...(Read more)
13/5/2014 - VirtualRPC-AdjustSA for Windows updated
We are pleased to announce that from today we will be shipping an updated version of VirtualRPC-AdjustSA for Windows. There have been numerous...(Read more)
18/4/2014 - New support articles in the VirtualAcorn website
A number of new support articles are now available in the support section of the VirtualAcorn website. New articles that help users with the Windows Event Viewer have been added along with direct fixes for common problems. Articles relating to UAC (User Account Control) on Windows...(Read more)
14/2/2014 - VirtualRPC-AdjustSA for Mac OS X - updated for Mac OS X Mavericks
Over the last couple of months 3QD Developments Ltd has been refreshing and updating VirtualRPC for Mac OS X. There have been a great many changes based upon customer feedback. In particular we have completely re-built the product installers to fix a long term issue...(Read more)
About VirtualAcorn
Virtual Acorn allows you to run the Acorn operating system RISC OS on a Windows PC with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. You can also run RISC OS on a G4, G5 or Intel Mac with Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Any RISC OS programs can then be run on the PC/Mac. VirtualAcorn can operate inside a window, just like any other Windows application, but can also run full screen. In full screen mode the PC looks and feels just like an Acorn computer. VirtualAcorn requires no extra hardware to be fitted in your PC and can be installed in minutes.
Every copy of VirtualAcorn comes with appropriate software and documentation including:
- An appropriate version of the Acorn RISC operating system.
- Complete HTML RISC OS user manual with EasyStart front end.
- Virtual ADFS hard disk drive with the latest !Boot sequence.
- Facility to read Acorn floppy discs and CD-ROMs.
- Power management and networking support.
- Bundled ROM based applications such as !Paint and !Draw.
- Full commercial versions of Ovation, DrawWorks and Mr Clippy.
- Sample software packs of Public Domain, Freeware and Shareware programs.
- Pre-configured memory settings which allows VirtualAcorn to run "out of the box".
- Access to the many thousands of RISC OS applications available.
VirtualAcorn really is the best of both worlds. You can run the operating system you want, RISC OS, on cheap fast modern hardware. Why have two computers, when you can have everything you need in one?
Customers should note that VirtualAcorn products require an unlock code before they can be run. You will need to install the software then contact VirtualAcorn with your unique Product ID and serial number. We will then provide an unlock code, currently we are only able to provide codes during normal office hours.
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