Virtual machine allow you to run an OS in an app window on your desktop that behaves sort of a full, separate computer. you’ll use them fiddle with different operating systems, run software your main OS can’t, and check out out apps during a safe, sandboxed environment.
There are several good free virtual machine (VM) apps out there, which makes fixing a virtual machine something anybody can do. You’ll got to install a VM app, and have access to put in ation media for the OS you would like to install.
What’s a Virtual Machine?
A virtual machine app creates a virtualized environment—called, only enough , a virtual machine—that behaves sort of a separate computing system , complete with virtual hardware devices. The VM runs as a process during a window on your current OS . you’ll boot an OS installer disc (or live CD) inside the virtual machine, and therefore the OS are going to be “tricked” into thinking it’s running on a true computer. it’ll install and run even as it might on a true , physical machine. Whenever you would like to use the OS , you’ll open the virtual machine program and use it during a window on your current desktop.
In the VM world, the OS actually running on your computer is named the host and any operating systems running inside VMs are called guests. It helps keep things from getting too confusing.
In a particular VM, the guest OS is stored on a virtual hard drive—a big, multi-gigabyte file stored on your real disk drive . The VM app presents this file the guest OS as a true disk drive . this suggests you won’t need to fiddle with partitioning or doing anything complicated together with your real disk drive .
Virtualization
Virtualization does add some overhead, so don’t expect them to be as fast as if you had installed the OS on real hardware. Demanding games or other apps that need serious graphics and CPU power don’t really do so well, so virtual machines aren’t the perfect thanks to play Windows PC games on Linux or Mac OS X—at least, not unless those games are much older or aren’t graphically demanding.
The limit to what percentage VMs you’ll have are really just limited by the quantity of disk drive space. Here’s a peek at a number of the VMs we use when testing things out while writing articles. As you’ll see, we’ve got full VMs with several versions of Windows and Ubuntu installed.
You can also run multiple VMs at an equivalent time, but you’ll end up somewhat limited by your system resources. Each VM eats up some CPU time, RAM, and other resources.
Why You’d Want to Create a Virtual Machine
Aside from being good geeky fun to fiddle with, VMs offer variety of great uses. they permit you to experiment with another OS without having to put in it on your physical hardware. for instance , they’re an excellent thanks to fiddle with Linux—or a replacement Linux distribution—and see if it feels right for you. When you’re done twiddling with an OS, you’ll just delete the VM.
VMs also provide how to run another OS’ software. for instance , as a Linux or Mac user, you’ll install Windows during a VM to run Windows apps you would possibly not otherwise have access to. If you would like to run a later version of Windows—like Windows 10—but have older apps that only run on XP, you’ll install Windows XP into a VM.
Another advantage VMs provide is that they’re “sandboxed” from the remainder of your system. Software inside a VM can’t escape the VM to tamper with the remainder of your system. This makes VMs a secure place to check apps—or websites—you don’t trust and see what they are doing .
For example, when the “Hi, we’re from Windows” scammers came calling, we ran their software during a VM to ascertain what they might actually do—the VM prevented the scammers from accessing our computer’s real OS and files.
Sandboxing also allows you to run insecure OSes more safely. If you continue to need Windows XP for older apps, you’ll run it during a VM where a minimum of the harm of running an old, unsupported OS is mitigated.
Virtual Machine Apps
There are several different virtual machine programs you can choose from:
- VirtualBox: (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X): VirtualBox is very popular because it’s open-source and completely free. There’s no paid version of VirtualBox, so you don’t have to deal with the usual “upgrade to get more features” upsells and nags. VirtualBox works very well, particularly on Windows and Linux where there’s less competition, making it a good place to start with VMs.
- VMware Player: (Windows, Linux): VMware has their own line of virtual machine programs. You can use VMware Player on Windows or Linux as a free, basic virtual machine tool. More advanced features—many of which are found in VirtualBox for free—require upgrading to the paid VMware Workstation program. We recommend starting out with VirtualBox, but if it doesn’t work properly you may want to try VMware Player.
- VMware Fusion: (Mac OS X): Mac users must buy VMware Fusion to use a VMware product, since the free VMware Player isn’t available on a Mac. However, VMware Fusion is more polished.
- Parallels Desktop: (Mac OS X): Macs also have Parallels Desktop available. Both Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion for Mac are more polished than the virtual machine programs on other platforms, since they’re marketed to average Mac users who might want to run Windows software.
VirtualBox
While VirtualBox works alright on Windows and Linux, Mac users might want to shop for a more polished, integrated Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion program. Windows and Linux tools like VirtualBox and VMware Player tend to be targeted to a geekier audience.
There are more VM options, of course. Linux includes KVM, an integrated virtualization solution. Professional and Enterprise version of Windows 8 and 10—but not Windows 7—include Microsoft’s Hyper-V, another integrated virtual machine solution. These solutions can work well, but they don’t have the foremost user-friendly interfaces.
Setting Up a Virtual Machine
Once you’ve selected a VM app and gotten it installed, fixing a VM is really pretty easy. We’re getting to run through the essential process in VirtualBox, but most apps handle creating a VM an equivalent way.
Step 1
Open up your VM app and click on the button to make a replacement virtual machine.
Step 2
You’ll be guided through the method by a wizard that first asks which OS you’ll be installing. If you type the name of the OS within the “Name” box, the app will presumably automatically select the sort and version for the OS. If it doesn’t—or it guesses wrong—select those items yourself from the dropdown menus. When you’re done, click “Next.”
Step 3
Based on the OS you propose to put in , the wizard will preselect some default settings for you, but you’ll change them over the screens that follow. You’ll be asked what proportion memory to allocate to the VM. If you would like something aside from the default, select it here. Otherwise, just click “Next.” And don’t worry, you’ll be ready to change this value later if you would like to.
Step 4
The wizard will also create the virtual hard disk file to be used by the VM. Unless you already have a virtual hard disk file you want to use, just select the option to create a new one.
Step 5
You’ll even be asked whether to make a dynamically allocated or fixed size disk. With a dynamically allocated disk, you’ll set a maximum disk size, but the file will only grow thereto size because it must . With a hard and fast size disk, you’ll also set a size, but the file created are going to be that enormous from its creation.
We recommend creating fixed size disks because, while they eat up a touch more disc space , they also perform better—making your VM feel a touch more responsive. Plus, you’ll skills much disc space you’ve used and won’t get surprised when your VM files start growing.
Step 6
You’ll then be able to set the size of the virtual disk. You’re free to go with the default setting or change the size to suit your needs. Once you click “Create,” the virtual hard disk is created.
Step 7
After that, you’re dumped back into the main VM app window, where your new VM should show up. Make sure the installation media you need is available to the machine—usually this involves pointing to an ISO file or real disc through the VM’s settings. You can run your new VM by selecting it and hitting “Start.”
Related: How to Repair and Fix Ubuntu Freezing in VirtualBox
