Hi guys, i found a opensource software viz "Virtual box" which is used to
run windows xp in linux.
VirtualBox is a general-purpose full
virtualizer<http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Virtualization>for x86
hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now
the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open
Source Software.
Some of the features of VirtualBox are:
- *Modularity.* VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with
well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design.
This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for
example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI
and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely.
VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it
is Open Source Software, you don't *have* to hack the source to write a
new interface for VirtualBox.
- *Virtual machine descriptions in XML.* The configuration settings of
virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local
machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to
other computers.
- *Guest Additions for Windows, Linux and Solaris.* VirtualBox has
special software that can be installed inside Windows, Linux and Solaris
virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more
seamless. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse
pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the
guest window). There are also guest additions for OS/2 with somewhat reduced
functionality.
- *Shared folders.* Like many other virtualization solutions, for easy
data exchange between hosts and guests, VirtualBox allows for declaring
certain host directories as "shared folders", which can then be accessed
from within virtual machines.
A number of extra features are available with the full VirtualBox release
only (see the "Editions <http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Editions>" page for
details):
- *Virtual USB Controllers.* VirtualBox implements a virtual USB
controller and allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your virtual
machines without having to install device specific drivers on the host.
- *Remote Desktop Protocol.* Unlike any other virtualization software,
VirtualBox fully supports the standard Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). A
virtual machine can act as an RDP server, allowing you to "run" the virtual
machine remotely on some thin client that merely displays the RDP data.
- *USB over RDP.* With this unique feature, a virtual machine that acts
as an RDP server can still access arbitrary USB devices that are connected
on the RDP client. This way, a powerful server machine can virtualize a lot
of thin clients that merely need to display RDP data and have USB devices
plugged in.
Anyone can download it from
http://www.virtualbox.org/
