How long does it take to boot a virtual machine?

[russianheman]

I have 64-bit Windows 8 and I want to play some old Windows games I have around the house. A virtual machine seems like the only real option. Rough guess, how long would it take to load something like VMware with Windows 95? I ask because I'm running XBMC as the Windows shell, and I'm aiming for an appliance-like feel to my system. For me, Windows 8 boots in 10 seconds.

AMD A4-5300
8Gb DDR 3
120 Gb SSD

Also, Let's get everyone's opinion on which VM would be the best fit for this situation. VirtualBox, VMWare, or Windows Virtual PC

 

[13thmonkey]

depends on the disk speed that the virtual disk is on. I'm booting a win8 VM machine in maybe 15s off an SSD, just like a physical really.

 

[maddogfargo]

Agreed. VMs usually boot at close to native speed, sometimes even faster depending on how the virtual disk and RAM usage is optimized.