Glad to see you back, Lil. :) A Virtual Machine refers to a program that runs on a host computer just like any other program does, but it allows you to create a completely (or almost completely) separate virtual system within it. It works by allowing you to create a virtual computer within it by dedicating a certain amount of your free hard drive space and some of your installed RAM to its use. You get to choose just how much space and RAM can be used by this virtual system and your own system (the host) is reduced by that amount whenever you have the virtual system running. So, if you have 200GB of free hard drive space and 2GB of RAM installed in your system, you might dedicate 30GB of hard drive space and 512MB of RAM to a virtual system. Whenever you run that system, your own computer would be reduced by those amounts so that those resources can be used within the virtual machine's program. Obviously, this is not a good idea if you don't have much space or RAM installed, but it can do wonders for those with a system that is powerful enough to handle the reduction. Once you install a VM, you create a virtual system within it by specifying how much space and RAM you want it to 'borrow' from your main system when it's running. Then, you install an operating system within it (on the virtual hard drive space you dedicated when you set it up) and treat it just like any other operating system. If you install XP or Vista, it will need to be Activated just like any other XP or Vista installation. Once the OS is installed, you'll want to also install your favorite security apps and whatever else you might want to run within it. The same thing goes for Windows Updates, service packs, etc.. I currently use Ms's VirtualPC 2007 SP1 and have separate VM's set up for XP Pro, Vista Ultimate and a blank hard drive space I can use to test various operating system installation disks. Each of these VM's are stored on my hard drive (they take up less space than what I dedicated to them when they're not running), but they do not take away any RAM from my main system until I actually fire one of them up. The thing you heard about Microsoft and Sun is not related at all to what we're discussing here. Microsoft used to supply their own version of Java which would be automatically installed on every WinXP system and they referred to it as their "Virtual Machine", but it was only a Java substitute and not a virtual PC creation app. They were sued by Sun for patent infringement and part of the settlement was that MS could no longer offer their own version. The first time you install the real Java made by Sun, the MS version is removed from the operating systems. It's just as well since MS's version had all sorts of compatability problems they had a hard time trying to solve. lol There are several different Virtual Machine programs available. Some, like Microsoft's VirtualPC 2007 SP1 are completely free to download and use. Others like Sun's VMWare cost a bit, but provide more options that might be important to your needs (such as 64-bit OS support). If you tell us what you've been thinking about doing with one of these, we'll be in a much better position to recommend the one that will give you all you need. Ask questions until you're compppletely satisfied that you understand what they are, how to use them, what they can do for you or any other subtopic you wish to bring up. There are several of us who use them and not all of us use the same VM software, so you'll get a nice wide view of what's available to you. :) Peace, Gman http://www.bornagainamerican.org "The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask" ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lilian" <lilian.oswaldocruz@xxxxxxxxx> To: "PCTechTalk" <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 9:33 PM Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- VMs > Hi everyone, > > I´ve been AWOL from the group due to internet problems and lack of time. > Took me some time to get the router and 3G modem to live in peace and not > having much spare time to do this meant there were quite a few days I > didn´t > even switch the computers on! But now all is ok and the 3 computers are > linked and able to go online. I have a question, though... My main > computer > is a dual boot (Win XP 32bits and Win XP 64 bits). I´ve read about > Virtual > Machine that allows you to switch from one os to another without having to > reboot. But I have no idea what a VM is and how it works. I looked it > up > in Google and found these sites below that gave me some insight. I also > read that Microsoft has a virtual machine but because of legal problems > with > SunJava its not offering it for download anymore. > > http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/ > https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=esxi > > I don´t know if I am reading the correct articles, but any info you can > give > me on the subject will be appreciated :o)) > > Lil --------------------------------------------------------------- Please remember to trim your replies (including this sentence and everything below it) and adjust the subject line as necessary. 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