Thread: Virtual machine programs in windows

Virtual machine programs enable multiple operating systems to run simul¬taneously on a single Pc. The two most popular are Microsoft Virtual PC and VMware Player. Microsoft's product both creates and runs virtual machines, while VMware Player plays preconfig¬ured virtual machines only. Creating your own VMware virtual machines requires an upgrade to VMware Workstation 6 for Windows.
VMware Workstation offers many more features than Virtual PC does, including system-state snapshots and the ability to create an image of another computer on your network. Either is a good choice to begin exploring virtualization. .
Got an install able copy of an as you'd like to give a whirl? Download a free copy of Virtual PC or a 30-day trial version of VMware Workstation.

Tasks from the Past
If you're like me-hopelessly immersed in the past-you may be unusually attracted to certain benefits of desktop virtualization. For example, by running multiple ass simultaneously, you can:
• Overcome Vista's incompatibility with older applications, particularly older games, by running earlier versions of Windows within Vista.
• Run antiquated versions ofInternet Explorer to see how your MySpace page, TypePad blog, or business Web-site cus¬tomization will look in Grandma's IE 4.
• Keep using that trusty custom application that someone wrote for your small business years ago, while for other things you move up to a flashy new as.
If these prospects seem even more exciting to you than uncovering your old Superman comics up in the attic, you're in for a treat.

How It's Done with Virtual PC

Three essential parts make up a virtual machine: the application itself, a virtual hard drive, and a virtual machine. The virtual hard drive is really just a file on your physical hard drive, and the virtual machine is a file that contains settings used to run the virtual hard disk and emulate the supporting hardware.

To begin, install Virtual PC and fire it up, then click New on the Console screen. You can typically follow the prompts for the default installation. Use the Vir¬tual Disk Wizard to create a new, blank virtual hard drive as well-this will not affect anything else on your hard drive. When you finish the installation you're not really done; the new virtual machine will be listed in the Virtual PC Console screen, but it won't yet have an operating system. Select the new virtual machine and click Start, then choose CD I Use Physical Drive and choose the drive in which you've placed the installation CD for the OS you want to install. Now sim-

If you're the futuristic, Buck Rogers type, virtualization has benefits for you, too. Of course, if you still refer¬ence Buck Rogers, you're really not all that futuristic, but you still might want to try a suspicious application before exposing your whole machine to its "benefits," or test a fashionable new Linux distro without having to dedicate a whole partition or even a whole machine (and probably a whole day) to the experiment.

Because VMware is clearly more committed to supporting open¬source OSs than Microsoft is (hmm, I wonder why?), I suggest that you try VMware if you're seized with a sud¬den urge to run Linux. ply follow the same steps you would to install the OS on a physical machine. To install applications, repeat the process, choosing CD I Use Physical Drive and install from application CDs exactly the same way.

When you start, it helps to have a workable, installable copy of the quaint old OS you've chosen as your guest operating system-not, say, a Windows 98 upgrade disc. Similarly, if you want to create a virtual Windows XP machine to run classic games within Vista, you'll need an actual copy of Windows XP.

Remember, each virtual machine you run claims its own share of RAM and disk space (although Virtual PC takes less than 40MB itself) so you'll have to expect some limits on overall performance.

While you'd probably install the Vir¬tual PC program files on your physical C: drive just as you would any other applica¬tion, the virtual-machine file and the vir¬tual hard-drive file can be located on an external hard drive just as readily. That way, in a pinch you can even use Virtual PC on a crowded laptop to run space¬hogging applications from an external hard drive.

I've also discovered that, even though Microsoft's documentation insists that Virtual PC is supported only as a host on Windows XP Professional and above, I've installed it on Windows XP Home Edition without difficulty. The program bellyaches that it's not running on a "supported" operating system, but it runs nonetheless. How much support does Microsoft give to free applications any¬way? Zilch, so it doesn't matter.

Do you crave the thrill of repeatedly installing strange new operating sys¬tems? The fastest method is to download preconfigured virtual hard drives, or Virtual Appliances in VMware parlance. There's a whole raft of'em, configured to run just about every popular open¬source OS, as well as several unpopular ones, at Virtual Appliance Marketplace, Virtual Appliances, VMware Appliance - VMware. It's pretty simple to run a virtual appli¬ance that you've downloaded; just go to the Home screen in VMware Worksta¬tion, choose Open Existing VM or Team, and browse to choose your preferred vir¬tual-machine file. The file extension for a VMware virtual machine file is .vMX. Opening an existing VM automatically launches the boot-up sequence for that particular operating system.

Another approach to adding an oper¬ating system is to import an image file in the ISO format. Your virtual machine will read from that file as if it were a physical CD-ROM. Choose New Virtual Machine from the VMware home screen and fol¬low the prompts from there to locate your ISO file. You can find ISO files for most open-source OSs on dozens of open-source fan sites.



After you've installed a virtual machine with an operating system in VMware, you can go on to install and run applications. After that, you can eas¬ily "clone" the entire virtual hard drive. That's fine for open-source operating systems, but touchy for operating sys¬tems that require a license (Windows, for example). Technically, it's a no-no to run multiple instances of a copyright-pro¬tected application without extra licenses, just as it's a no-no to share your MP3 col¬lection with your friends. 0