Running Vista on virtual machine

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sonxEr77

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Hi folks

What are the implications here... I don't wanna get rid of my XP, as yet. I'm getting Vista by this weekend but wanna run't on VM using VMware. I'm not really experience in this regard (VM). Would it see all my hardware & current software programs running on XP & files without problems? Is it a good/workable idea?
 
It's doable - mac users do it under parallels - but have you considered dual booting?

Also remember that some licenses preclude you from running the OS in a virtual environment - if that sort of thing deters you. ;)
 
I think you have to realise whats happening when you create a virtual machine. Basically when create a virtual machine you select what type of operating system (Vista in your case) you want to use and then you have to install the operating system as if you were installing it on a brand new pc. It doesn't realise that its a virtual system.

Another thing to consider is you don't get any of the nice Aero effects in a VM (not even the beta of version 6 yet). Dual booting would be the better way to go.
 
For best performance I'd go for a dual boot. That said, it's probably worth installing it on VM. It doesn't take long, and you can delete it easily enough.

Cheers, Nick
 
Been using Virtual PC 7 and Vmware to for my vista images, hard knock on the hardware side. I have three vista images a straight vanilla image of vista ultimate a 2nd image round the 10gb and 3rd almost 20gb, all my images are created with WDS server so I just PXE boot them in VIRTUAL pc 2007 AND Vmware workstation. CPU usage almost always between 80 -100%, ram in VP 2007 and Vmware set at 512mb, you can do a install with a system of 512mb which would only allow for half that in the virtual enviroment.

Again if your hardware is up to the task, the simulations are so similar. I've got a couple of old socket 754 AMD mobo's which i use for testing purposes ram ranging from a gig to 512mb per machine and Virtual pc and Vmware gets through it as expected, once the Os is loaded it all settles down and working in the virtual enviroment is not far off the real thing.
 
ghalied said:
Been using Virtual PC 7 and Vmware to for my vista images, hard knock on the hardware side. I have three vista images a straight vanilla image of vista ultimate a 2nd image round the 10gb and 3rd almost 20gb, all my images are created with WDS server so I just PXE boot them in VIRTUAL pc 2007 AND Vmware workstation. CPU usage almost always between 80 -100%, ram in VP 2007 and Vmware set at 512mb, you can do a install with a system of 512mb which would only allow for half that in the virtual enviroment.

Again if your hardware is up to the task, the simulations are so similar. I've got a couple of old socket 754 AMD mobo's which i use for testing purposes ram ranging from a gig to 512mb per machine and Virtual pc and Vmware gets through it as expected, once the Os is loaded it all settles down and working in the virtual enviroment is not far off the real thing.
Click to expand...

A little too technical for me.. I have the PC (check my sig) running Xp & just wanna run Vista in parallel using everything i have on XP.
 
parallel OS's = vmware
other = dual boot

almost the same at the end of the day, you get to see what the implications are before going all out.
 
ghalied said:
parallel OS's = vmware
other = dual boot

almost the same at the end of the day, you get to see what the implications are before going all out.
Click to expand...
Not quite. With VMWare the OS does not use your graphics, sound or network cards. It creates virtual ones.
Everything may work fine on VMWare but not necessarily on your system.
 
sonxEr77 said:
Hi Zeb, is there a disadvantage of virtual hardware (graphics/sound/tv tuner)?
Click to expand...
None at all, but they are almost always compatible. I have sound on a virtual Vista machine, but my Soundblaster card is not compatible with Vista which means I have to switch to onboard audio when I install to HDD.
 
zeb said:
None at all, but they are almost always compatible. I have sound on a virtual Vista machine, but my Soundblaster card is not compatible with Vista which means I have to switch to onboard audio when I install to HDD.
Click to expand...

This means one should be able to run a full OS (Vista) on a VM without problems... Of cause i realize using dual boot is an option which may be painless, but if i can run 2 OSs in parallel, then why not:(

Thanx zeb
 
Virtual PC 2007 / Vista VM / XP Host

I have this setup, notebook has 3Gb RAM :) which makes it almost bearable!

Yes, aero doesn't work (the performance analyser thing gives some silly error - perhaps the MS dudes should be able to develop a message - 'Error - don't do this from a VM, you stupid dude').

My one big problem (so far) with this arrangement: I am unable to access my 3G modem from the VM as XP does not list this as a network connection (it's a modem connection).

The Vista VM has no problem accessing other wired or wireless networks (providing they are setup, working & shared from the host).

Oh, I allocated 1,5Gb RAM to the Vista VM, makes a big difference compared with the 512Mb default!
 
Boron5 said:
I have this setup, notebook has 3Gb RAM :) which makes it almost bearable!

Yes, aero doesn't work (the performance analyser thing gives some silly error - perhaps the MS dudes should be able to develop a message - 'Error - don't do this from a VM, you stupid dude').

My one big problem (so far) with this arrangement: I am unable to access my 3G modem from the VM as XP does not list this as a network connection (it's a modem connection).

The Vista VM has no problem accessing other wired or wireless networks (providing they are setup, working & shared from the host).

Oh, I allocated 1,5Gb RAM to the Vista VM, makes a big difference compared with the 512Mb default!
Click to expand...

I'm rather on dual boot with vista but running ubuntu on VMware 5.. fun, don't need 1.5GB RAM though
 
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