A question about the virtual pc

[Stefany93]

Hello guys,

I have been wondering for some time about the virtual pc option, and I can't fully understand what it does. I have read numerios documents about it and I still can't get it. My question is, what is its primary purpose, can I install another OS on it and is it something like a '' sandbox '' for files? Since I am still learning how to install Win 7 if the virtual pc offers an installation of another OS it will be great to test myself there, but I am still very confused about that stuff.

Please help!
Best Regards
Stefany

 

[Jonathan_King]

You seem to have a good perception of it. Virtual PC allows you to create virtual computers, which you can install operating systems on like a real one. It is a good tool for "sandbox".

Since you have Windows 7 Ultimate, you can get XP Mode for free. That is a virtual XP machine.

Here's a link: Download Windows XP Mode

 

[whs]

Stefany, a virtual sytem (some call it Partition) is essentially another PC on your system. You can install another Windows OS (XP, Vista, Win7, even Win98), Linux, Solaris or even OS-X (although that is not recommended) on it. It shares the resources (RAM and Disk space) with your Host system.

If you want to venture into that, I highly recommend Virtual Box. It is the easiest to setup and operate. Make sure you activate the Guest additions within your guest OS. Then you have seamless operation of the guest and the host (at the same time).

There are many people here who are real experts (not me though). Do not hesitate to ask further questions as they come up.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I looked at it briefly and was not impressed.

Yes, it works and yes you can install an OS, install programs, etc. The "virtual PC" is just another file on your "real PC".

But there are limitations.

How much RAM are you willing to let it have?

How much of a reduction in response time are you willing to tolerate compared to what you are accustomed?

You might not be impressed with the graphics end of things.

But all you can do is try. You can get a feeling for it in a day or two.

I was considering it in order to run a 16 bit application that won't run on 64 bit Windows.

You may decide that dual-booting another OS is preferable.

 

[whs]

I looked at it briefly and was not impressed.

Yes, it works and yes you can install an OS, install programs, etc. The "virtual PC" is just another file on your "real PC".

But there are limitations.

How much RAM are you willing to let it have?

How much of a reduction in response time are you willing to tolerate compared to what you are accustomed?

You might not be impressed with the graphics end of things.

But all you can do is try. You can get a feeling for it in a day or two.

I was considering it in order to run a 16 bit application that won't run on 64 bit Windows.

You may decide that dual-booting another OS is preferable.

My experience is just the opposite. Ubuntu in vBox is really fast for e.g. picture manipulation, the internet (but I use Chrome in lieu of FF which is a dog) and any other operation I have thrown at it. I guess you could not do any gaming there, but that is not my thing anyhow.

I have a 2.5GHz duo core CPU and vBox got 1GB of my total 3GBs, plus 25GB of my SSD space.

The beauty of that setup is that I can seamlessly switch between the host and the guest (courtesy of the Guest Additions) and I still have access to my Win7 host taskbar and my tweaked sidebar from my Vista system as well as my Win7 Rocket Dock. I sometimes use host features (e.g. snips) on the Ubuntu guest machine which runs (nearly - less the Win7 bars) full screen on a 22" monitor.

 

[Stefany93]

Thank you very much for the useful tips, guys. Now I completely understood what that thing meant

Merry Xmas everyone!

 

[Kari]

You already got good explanations, but let me add something.

A virtual machine is simply a "computer" running on virtualized hardware, in Windows it means you can have a virtual machine running as an almost real computer in an Explorer process (window or full screen). Depending on which virtualization application you use to run a virtual machine, it can really be almost as any real computer. The most common free applications to use and start testing and ""playing" with virtual machines are Microsoft Virtual PC, Oracle VirtualBox and VMware Player. You can read more about virtual machines here: Virtual machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Some examples. Here you can see five operating systems running on single computer. Four guest virtual machines, two older versions of Windows (NT 4 and 2000), alongside with Linux (Ubuntu) and Unix (Solaris), all four running in explorer windows on my host computer's Windows 7 desktop. I can freely and seamless move between different operating systems, mouse and keyboard are captured by currently active one. All computers are shown in my network as individual computers, with their own IP-address:



Here a scenario that I really like and use quite often. Windows 7 on dual screen system. Screen 1 on the left running Solaris Unix in full screen, screen 2 on the right Windows 2000 in full screen. Because taskbar is visible, I can also use all Windows 7 resources and applications, as here in screenshot I'm having my Win7 webbrowser on top of the Windows 2000 window:



Virtual computing is really fun!

Kari

 

[whs]

Kari, this is a very nice posting. Unfortunately I have to give you virtual reps because of the 15.

 

[Kari]

Thanks, Wolfgang. It's the thought that counts

 

[Stefany93]

Thank you Kari for the nice pictures and explanation. Now I think I have overcomed my fears and will going to install a virtual pc on my pc and practise on it installing Windows 7. If everything goes well, I will post here in a few days. But if everything falls apart, I wouldn't be able to post because the pc will be repairing

 

[Kari]

You know, you can also download dozens of free virtual machines, ready to be run in for instance VirtualBox. Here's one site worth to check out: VirtualBoxImages.com FREE Downloads | VirtualBoxImages.com

Notice that these are so called virtual appliances (= a virtual machine already containing an operating system). Appliances on this site are all in vdi-format (virtual disk image). It is the default vhd (virtual hard disk) format of VirtualBox. Other virtualization applications have different default formats, but normally you can mount (=use) vhd's on other virtualization applications as well. For instance, you can easily mount a Virtual PC .vhd image to a VirtualBox machine.

This tutorial might interest you. The steps to create a VirtualBox virtual machine described are globally valid, you can follow those steps to install OS to a vm (virtual machine). Just choose the install media you want to use, ISO image or CD/DVD, and follow the procedure described in part 1 of that tutorial, and the launch then vm and follow instructions on screen.

If you want to practice, you could for instance download a free 90-trial of Windows 7 Enterprise here, and install it. The tutorial I mentioned tells you how to do it in VirtualBox, this tutorial shows how to install a free and working XP in Virtual PC.

If you need help setting up your first virtual machines, post your issues on our virtualization section. All our virtualization tutorials can be found here.

Kari

 

[WartHog]

Kari, this is a very nice posting. Unfortunately I have to give you virtual reps because of the 15.

That cracked me up.