Goal: Run Win7 x64 full time, run 1 or 2 distros of linux simply for recreational purposes, run XP x86 sometimes for software that refuses to work on vista, run DOS occasionally. It would also be nice to have another XP to use for sandbox for untrusted software. If possible, I would like to do all this without having to reboot for each OS I'm a little overwhelmed with the options for this. I have an ASUS M4A77TD with Phenom X2, 4GB DDR3 @533mhz, Radeon 4870, and 3x 320GB SATA 3.0 hdds in RAID0. CPU-Z claims my processor supports AMD-V. I have a spare sata drive I can throw in here just to test things out. This box is for personal use, no servers will be hosted on it. I'm leaning more toward a bare-metal VM or JeOS but I'm open to any real suggestions. My technical level is decent, I've setup 5 different flavors of linux, hundreds of installs of windows 9x/XP/Vista/7, have taken some cisco certification courses, can follow nearly any scripting language etc, etc.
Vmware, Virtual Box, and Windows Virtual PC are all good programs in the order listed from best to less best lol.
haha, I've done my homework. I'm asking about personal preferences or experiences. In my research, I seem to always find that each person prefers either VBox or VMWare for this reason or that. What I'm hoping to find is someone who has used a similar setup for similar reasons and this person could tell me which solution he/she chose to finalize on. Anyway, I posted this on MSFN forum and it was explained to me that a bare metal solution is probably not what I want since I will always be using the machine locally and those are meant for headless boxes. As of yet, I'm leaning hard toward a JeOS with either VirtualBox or VMWare.
The good thing about VMware is searchengine had done excellent program for modding patching vmware bioses with slic 2.1 for windows vista and windows 7 and slp 1.0 for XP so you can install OEM SLP versions and be permanently activated. Personally i used to use MS virtual PC 2007 but have since changed to a Lite version of Vmware 7 i,e, repacked that will only do windows install all i need it for only 65MB rather that 500 odd MB for full version in fact i have a version of 7.1 only 38Mb still to give that a shot.
Virtual pc has to few features, and I thought virtual box needs more mouseclicks than vmware to create a new vm and link isos etc to the vm, so that's why I use vmware. No experiance with parralels, they also have a windows vm
Vmware Workstation, Parallels (requires activation), Vmlite, Virtualbox, VPC 2007, VPC XP Mode If you are new to VM then thay are all equal really (with probably Vmware much easier to get BIOS modded) sebus
thx guys, this is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for, I never had any intention of running VPC, this is the first I've heard of VMlite If I have slic 2.1 in my onboard bios, will it be used or would the bios for my VM need to be modded after all? @urie: is VMlite what you are speaking of? I'm interested, even though I don't think it will fit my criteria, I'm just naturally curious.
Looking for Suggestion, new to Virtualization Hi Guys, I may be in wrong post to put. due to looking for some advise from Pro or who had the experiences... I had brought a New SATA HDD (250GB) which I had install "Win 7 ULTIMATE" x86 into WHOLE HDD (thinking of can install WinXP @ WVPC) later found out the My Com does not support Virtualization... (which mean unable install VPC, right?) So thinking reformat the SATA HDD (250GB) and reinstall the "Win 7 ULTIMATE" x86 into WHOLE HDD again (But about Win 7 activation shall I redo it again or should I need to Deactiva 1st before Format te HDD) into may 120GB and then the Half of the HDD install into WinXP Pro and make as a dual boot... so does anyone got a Suggestion for this... due most of my software is for WinXp as Win 7 which I wanted to learn the New thing...
Sovle! Looking for Suggestion, new to Virtualization Hi Tito, Yes it does... I did dig in more to find on that part about Virtual PC ... which the LINKs is useful even got how to delete the VPC so .... thankyou Tito.
well my personal opinion is VMware 7.0 just easy for setting up server environment's and single stand alone os's from Ms-Dos to unix and any other os you can imagine. as long as the main system has the resources for each VM system .