Using Virtual PC / VMWare virtual computers

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What's a Virtual Machine

A virtual machine or virtual computer (we'll call them VMs for short) is a "software computer" that runs inside your real physical computer. There are several programs that can create and run these VMs.

The Virtues of Virtual

A virtual computer is really just some software and files that run inside your real physical computer. You can start up and shut down virtual computers at will without affecting your real computer. You can work on both real and virtual computers at the same time and even copy information and files back and forth between them.

But the virtual computer has only limited access to your real computer and its files, and only the access that you grant it.

This means that you can install beta or other potentially damaging software, open suspect files, visit untrusted web sites and generally do anything you like, all without risk to the real computer that the virtual comptuer is running on.

Or install and run multiple versions of Office without worrying about them interfering with one another.

And since a virtual machine is just a set of files on your real computer, if something goes wrong, you just delete the files and start over (quite quickly if you follow the method we explain below).

Let's get Virtual

Here's how you go about installing VM software and creating virtual machines. For this example we'll use Microsoft Virtual PC; it's a good product and it's now free. If you prefer to work with other products like the inexpensive and excellent VMWare, the steps are pretty much the same.

Here's the general plan:

• Install Virtual PC (VPC) or other software that'll let you create and manage VMs
• Use the software to create and configure a new VM
• Start the VM and install Windows
• Configure Windows
• Back up your VM
• Create a new copy of your VM, launch it and install software

Here we go ...

Preparation

Does your PC support the VM software you plan to install? VPC and VMWare have different hardware and software requirements, but your PC (the "host" in VMspeak) should have a fast processor, plenty of RAM (a gigabyte is a good starting point, though you can certainly manage with less), lots of hard disk space and a supported operating system (Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP Pro and several others ... check the manufacturer's site for specifics)

You'll also need a Windows CD or some other bootable means of installing Windows. Check your end user licensing agreement for specifics on whether it's permissible to install your copy of Windows in a VM.

Install the VM software

If you plan to use VPC, you can download it from Microsoft here (or just google "Microsoft Virtual PC" to get to the Virtual PC site).

Run the setup program you just downloaded (or the setup program for whatever other VM software you plan to use). The setup program will create a "console" or "control center" for your virtual machines.

Create a Virtual Machine

The console software will have an option to create a new virtual machine. Usually you can set it up manually or use a wizard ... we suggest using the wizard the first time or two.

The wizard will ask how much RAM and hard disk space you want to devote to your virtual machine.

While it's tempting to hand the VM all the RAM you can, we've had the best luck keeping it to 512mb on a computer with 1-2gb of RAM. More RAM actually seems to slow the VM down. Virtual PC Guy has more/better information on this subject

The amount of hard disk space you allocate will depend on the Windows version you plan to install into the VM and what software you want to run in it. For WindowsXP Pro plus the Office 2007 beta we've been testing lately, 8gb seems to be the practical minimum. You can always move your VM files off to temporary storage if you're short on host disk space, but it's difficult or impossible to increase the size of a VM's hard disk once you've created it. Allow yourself some room to grow.

Install Windows into your VM

Insert your Windows CD then use the console program to start your new VM. Depending on the host and VM settings, you may have to choose a "Connect" option to get the VM to recognize the CD, but one it does, let the VM reboot the Windows CD and install Windows.

Partway into the install, the Windows installer will offer to reformat your entire hard disk. Don't Panic.
Look carefully at the size of the disk it's offering to format. It will be identical to the amount of hard disk space you've allocated to the VM (if not, quit!). Windows only thinks it's going to work on a real hard drive; in fact, it'll be formatting a file that contains the VM's hard disk information. It will NOT format your real physical hard drive. Let it do what it wants.

One Windows is installed, do all the little things you'd normally do to remove the stupidity from a new copy of Windows and get it ready for use:

• Change Windows Explorer settings to suit your preferences, get the network working, install any needed printer drivers and so on.
• Install any needed Windows updates.
• Install any "must-have" software .... the little utilities and such that you'd want to have on every Windows computer you use.
• Install any special "additions" or update software specific to the VM program you're using. Install the VPC Additions from the console menu if using VPC; if using VMWare, install VMWare Tools.

Tweak it

Dan's Archive has this excellent guide to creating Fast XP on a VPC. It's available in several formats and is so good we think you should read them all, even though the content is the same. Yeah. Joking. But do read it.

Now back it up

Once it's done, shut down your virtual copy of Windows and quit the VM console program. Locate the files that represent your new VM and make a copy of them in another folder. From now on, you'll use the backup copy and leave your original untouched. That way, no matter what happens, you can always revert to a clean, ready-to-go copy of your VM without having to go through all the time and trouble of creating a VM and installing/setting up Windows.

Restart the VM console and use its File, Open command to open the backup copy you just created and start the VM. Now you can install any other software you want to test, or do whatever you set up your VM for.

In perfect safety. Whatever happens inside the VM stays inside the VM and doesn't affect your host computer or its copy of Windows. If something breaks, you can quit the VM and the console and just delete the files that make up your VM.

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