Post by mikkh on Jun 1, 2014 1:45:56 GMT
Virtual Machines have always interested me - that is, the running of one operating system inside another
It's an ideal way to try a new system without changing your current system but it does have it's drawbacks
You're running on virtual hardware (software emulated) and your real system is still running in the background so you need plenty of free resources, RAM in particular
It depends what you're trying to achieve but a typical scenario is running an older version of Windows inside Windows 7/8 Linux or MAC
You can also use it to run Linux in Windows, or as I have done recently, run an Android operating system (AndroVM) so you can play games usually only available on tablets or phones
Normally you would require the original installation media (for Windows) but I've just discovered a new (legal) source for Windows images which prompted this thread
modern.ie/en-us/virtualization-tools#downloads
Here you can get images (fully installed Windows installations) from XP up to Windows 8.1 They are 90 day trials but as one of the many tools available to virtual machine programs is the ability to 'snapshot' the entire system, it's pretty simple to customise the system how you like it and then save a copy which will be frozen at say 89 days and revert to that when needed - or simply start again
I've got a decent PC with 8 GB of RAM, so I tried the Windows 8.1 inside Linux (see below) And yes it does go full screen, I just left it in a window for display purposes
I already started customising it by adding 'classic shell' because I find the standard Windows 8 interface so annoying. Classic shell is great because it allows you to make it behave like Windows 7 or even XP
If you're going to try it in Windows use 'Virtualbox' rather than the Windows 'Virtual PC' program which Microsoft tout because that is 7 years old now and starting to look it!
Have (virtual) fun
It's an ideal way to try a new system without changing your current system but it does have it's drawbacks
You're running on virtual hardware (software emulated) and your real system is still running in the background so you need plenty of free resources, RAM in particular
It depends what you're trying to achieve but a typical scenario is running an older version of Windows inside Windows 7/8 Linux or MAC
You can also use it to run Linux in Windows, or as I have done recently, run an Android operating system (AndroVM) so you can play games usually only available on tablets or phones
Normally you would require the original installation media (for Windows) but I've just discovered a new (legal) source for Windows images which prompted this thread
modern.ie/en-us/virtualization-tools#downloads
Here you can get images (fully installed Windows installations) from XP up to Windows 8.1 They are 90 day trials but as one of the many tools available to virtual machine programs is the ability to 'snapshot' the entire system, it's pretty simple to customise the system how you like it and then save a copy which will be frozen at say 89 days and revert to that when needed - or simply start again
I've got a decent PC with 8 GB of RAM, so I tried the Windows 8.1 inside Linux (see below) And yes it does go full screen, I just left it in a window for display purposes
I already started customising it by adding 'classic shell' because I find the standard Windows 8 interface so annoying. Classic shell is great because it allows you to make it behave like Windows 7 or even XP
If you're going to try it in Windows use 'Virtualbox' rather than the Windows 'Virtual PC' program which Microsoft tout because that is 7 years old now and starting to look it!
Have (virtual) fun