Virtual Machine

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
BTRY B 529th FA BN

BTRY B 529th FA BN

Lifer
Nov 26, 2005
15,188
401
126
I'm looking to setup a VM machine for some experience. I've never worked with it or even know why or how I would use it.

I have Win7 Pro with 6Gb, and an i7 970 (12 thread)

What are my best options in the free realm?
 
Last edited:
R

readymix

Senior member
Jan 3, 2007
357
1
81
you have the prerequisites for msft's virtual pc and xpmode. doesn't get you much more than that afaik but it's free. virtualbox, idk, I'm sure it's better than the head banging time I had 5 years ago, but, again it's free. VMware workstation, I use it, costly and costly to upgrade but 50% off on upgrades. free trial it and the stand alone converter.
 
blurredvision

blurredvision

Lifer
Oct 19, 2000
17,860
4
81
readymix said:
VMware workstation, I use it, costly and costly to upgrade but 50% off on upgrades. free trial it and the stand alone converter.
Click to expand...

VMware Workstation is the bomb but doesn't fit into his definition of free.

If you're wanting to stick with VMware (not sure if you know that's an actual company or not), then VMware Player is your free option. It works just fine, nothing special.
 
smakme7757

smakme7757

Golden Member
Nov 20, 2010
1,487
1
81
As mentioned above Hyper-V is available for free from within Windows (Add remove windows components). So turning that on will give you very powerful virtualization capability out of the box.

Available with Windows 8(.1) PRO
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN

BTRY B 529th FA BN

Lifer
Nov 26, 2005
15,188
401
126
Ok, I'm getting lost. So some people are suggesting downloadable software. VMware is a software company that offers VMware as their virtual machine software - didnt' know that. Thought it was some over-generalization term used for describing a users scenario. Some are suggesting using different operating systems like Debian, Arc, Fedora. Now people are suggesting Windows 8 ???

I have windows 7 Pro on an old i7 970 with 6Gb of ram. All I want to do is get a little experience with running a virtual machine at the cost of 'Free'.
 
code65536

code65536

Golden Member
Mar 7, 2006
1,006
0
76
Just download VirtualBox. :p



* VirtualBox: free, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux; the tongue-in-cheek mention of Linux earlier is because VirtualBox is also distributed by some Linux repos, so if you happened to be using one of those flavors of Linux, you can just get VirtualBox via their repo (but that's all irrelevant since you're using Windows, in which case, you go to the VirtualBox website to grab the installer)

* VMware Workstation: has the most features; not recommended because it's expensive and most people don't need all those extra features (I use a lot of VMs, yet I still don't see a reason to ditch VirtualBox for VMware)

* Virtual PC: Microsoft's solution, available for Windows XP/Vista/7. Free. I don't recommend it because it's been abandoned (not available for Windows 8) and because it can't do things like run a 64-bit guest OS.

* Hyper-V: Microsoft's "replacement" for Virtual PC. Requires Windows 8 (or a Server edition of Windows). Also not recommended because it's a type 1 hypervisor, and what you really want is a type 2 hypervisor (which is why I put "replacement" in quotes since Virtual PC was type 2, but Hyper-V is type 1, so HV is not really a direct replacement for VPC). (To oversimplify, type 1 is really designed for servers and type 2 for non-servers; you want type 2.)
 
Last edited:
BTRY B 529th FA BN

BTRY B 529th FA BN

Lifer
Nov 26, 2005
15,188
401
126
code65536 said:
Just download VirtualBox. :p



* VirtualBox: free, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux; the tongue-in-cheek mention of Linux earlier is because VirtualBox is also distributed by some Linux repos, so if you happened to be using one of those flavors of Linux, you can just get VirtualBox via their repo (but that's all irrelevant since you're using Windows, in which case, you go to the VirtualBox website to grab the installer)

* VMware Workstation: has the most features; not recommended because it's expensive and most people don't need all those extra features (I use a lot of VMs, yet I still don't see a reason to ditch VirtualBox for VMware)

* Virtual PC: Microsoft's solution, available for Windows 7. I don't recommend it because it's been abandoned (not available for Windows 8) and because it can't do things like run a 64-bit guest OS.

* Hyper-V: Microsoft's "replacement" for Virtual PC. Requires Windows 8 (or a Server edition of Windows). Also not recommended because it's a type 1 hypervisor, and what you really want is a type 2 hypervisor (which is why I put "replacement" in quotes since Virtual PC was type 2, but Hyper-V is type 1).
Click to expand...


Thanks alot. I appreciate it :)
 
PliotronX

PliotronX

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
8,883
107
106
Can't beat the price of VB but it still doesn't have working drag'n'drop at least on my Windows 8.1 work PC.. I have to laboriously set up shared folders to transfer files. VMWare 9 and 10 have no problem.
 
PingSpike

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,753
599
126
VMware has a more polished product than virtualbox and the player may have all he needs. But virtualbox can do a hell of a lot more stuff than vmware player can at the same cost.
 
JackMDS

JackMDS

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 25, 1999
29,522
410
126
Virtual machine and Win XP virtual are part of Win 7 Pro/Ultimate, other Microsoft and none Microsoft OS' can be installed on it too.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7

There is also a Stand alone Virtual Server.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/dn205299.aspx

---
That said, what other people Think (Wish) is meaningless. Define for your self in functional terms what would like to do on a virtual computer.

Look at the selection of available software and choose the one that is right for you (Not the One that is right for "Tom,Dick, and Harry").



:cool:
 
ultimatebob

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,450
126
VMWare Player is free for personal use. I like it better than Virtualbox for running VM's on Windows, but they both would work.
 
A

ArisVer

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2011
1,345
32
91
Using VirtualBox here. W7 6GB RAM.

VB-Capture_zps9818c357.png
 
Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,558
248
106
Make sure 'Virtualization Technology' is enabled in the BIOS, as both your CPU and motherboard support it.

I like VMWare player, it is also free. Personal preference though.
 
D

DrGreen2007

Senior member
Jan 30, 2007
748
0
76
vmware player is free and can do most of the things workstation can do, if its for learning VM's, then it fits the bill.
 
Steltek

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,298
1,043
136
I used to use Virtualbox a lot, but it started having a lot of problems (VMs crashing back to the host desktop randomly) when I changed my host video card from nVidia over to an AMD Radeon 7950. VMware didn't have that problem, so I've pretty much given up on Virtualbox at this point. However, if you have an nVidia card, Virtualbox is great.
 
code65536

code65536

Golden Member
Mar 7, 2006
1,006
0
76
Steltek said:
I used to use Virtualbox a lot, but it started having a lot of problems (VMs crashing back to the host desktop randomly) when I changed my host video card from nVidia over to an AMD Radeon 7950. VMware didn't have that problem, so I've pretty much given up on Virtualbox at this point. However, if you have an nVidia card, Virtualbox is great.
Click to expand...

I have a 7850 (and before that, a 6670), and I've been using VirtualBox for years without seeing those kinds of issues. How odd. I wonder if there was something else going on in your system?
 
Steltek

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,298
1,043
136
code65536 said:
I have a 7850 (and before that, a 6670), and I've been using VirtualBox for years without seeing those kinds of issues. How odd. I wonder if there was something else going on in your system?
Click to expand...

I've since wiped and done a clean Windows reinstall, and the newest versions of VirtualBox are still having the same issues with the 7950. Older versions will work just fine, and no other application has a problem except the last 3 or so revisions of VirtualBox in both the 4.x and 3.x trees. It drives me nuts as I really prefer VirtualBox to run Linux guests over VMware.

The problem is definitely something related to video acceleration - some sort of interaction between VirtualBox and the video driver is causing the hypervisor to crash while running Linux guests (Windows guests continue to run with no problems whatsoever, while Linux guests won't run reliably unless video acceleration is disabled). I've yet to try the new 03/14/14 VirtualBox releases (which were supposedly intended to fix a bunch of regressions) - if it doesn't fix the issue, I'll eventually get around to submitting a bug report at some point when I have time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom