Whats the best virtual environment to use?

liamcrane

liamcrane

liamcrane

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Hi everyone im studying for my A+ exam and i would like to have a virtual environment to play with so i can mess around with settings etc but i dont what im really lookin for, im running win 7 at the mo i also have xp on another hd dont no if this really matters what os im running.

hope you can help

many thanks
 
They do in the form of Microsoft Virtual PC, 32 and 64bit versions though guests are limited to 32bit.

If you have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate then you could use XP Mode, a free download from Microsoft with a fully licensed XP Pro virtual install.

If you don't mind paying then VMWare is my preferred solution.

EDIT: Beaten again :( Damn it Burnsy :p
 
cool thanks so much i just went to the vmware site and there is loads of versions you could download, not to sure which one i need tho? just want a basic one where i can change settings in the bios etc crash the virtual pc just genreally play around with it
 
Burnsy2023 said:
VMware server is free :)
Click to expand...

As is ESXi 4, which is my preferred hypervisor at home.

At work we are full blown ESX :)

liamcrane said:
cool thanks so much i just went to the vmware site and there is loads of versions you could download, not to sure which one i need tho? just want a basic one where i can change settings in the bios etc crash the virtual pc just genreally play around with it
Click to expand...

VMware player will do you fine now that the current version lets you create as well as run VMs.

If you only need it for a month, then VMware workstation is a better product, kind of a halfway house between Player and Server.
 
cool thanks so much for the link mate, i take it this just runs when you launch it on the desktop? just want to make sure its not going to interfear with my current boot sequence thats all, also will this come with all different OS i do you have to download a specific one i mainly wanna play around with xp
 
Correct, player has no "back end" (like VMware Server does), and only runs when you want it to either boot or manipulate a VM.

You need to install the OS yourself, all any virtualization software will do is create a virtual computer for you to test with. That is to say that a freshly created VM will have a simulated BIOS on it and nothing else. So you'd create a VM, boot it for the first time from a Windows XP CD, and install XP to a virtual hard disk (.vmdk).
 
i cant seem to find the vmware version i need as far as i was aware it was free but all i keep getting is trials could someone be so kind to link me what im meant to have

many thanks
 
http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/ < Use this if you have a spare pc and can destroy the OS as this would overwrite any current OS (unless you install to a seperate partition). This is free and very good.

http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/ < Use this to install on top of your OS, but it's a paid for license but you get 30days free trial.

TBH I think both the above are overkill for what you need, so...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...02-3199-48A3-AFA2-2DC0B40A73B6&displaylang=en < Virtual PC 2007 from Microsoft. Again this is free, prob the easiest one to get going from the offset but not the greatest product.
 
its saying i have to register? asking me for my buisness name etc.....................................downloaded from file hippo now thanks again
 
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