Let's take a closer look at what virtual machines for Windows are and what they are needed for. Find out all about the best simulators OS and how to start using them.

A virtual machine (VM) is a computer application that allows a user to simulate an operating system. An OS image is installed on the machine for use internally existing system. Very convenient, isn't it? But there are also pitfalls. Read what you will encounter during installation and which virtual machine for Windows versions 7,8 and 10 are better to choose.

Why do we need virtual machines for PCs?

In most cases, VMs are used for testing software V . To work with multiple operating systems, you only need one computer, which significantly speeds up your work.

You can run multiple virtual machines on one computer at the same time. Their number depends on the available random access memory and space on the children's disk, since the virtual OS consumes exactly the same memory resource as a regular copy installed on the computer.

Using virtual machines, you can work with programs and functions that are not available in the main OS. Also, it is possible to create backup copies of VMs, with their subsequent movement and use on other computers.

Viruses, errors and other failures of the virtual OS do not affect the operation of the main system. After closing the machine, the operation of the additional OS stops and the RAM is freed.

During VM operation, the device may slow down, because increased consumption of storage resources leads to increased request processing time.

Reasons for installing a VM:

• You want to get acquainted with the work of other operating systems without fully installing them. If you need to replace your existing OS, first use a virtual simulator to test other software options. This will save you from possible bugs and incompatibility with hardware;
• You are a developer and want to create a comprehensive system for testing the applications you create.

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a virtual machine for Windows 7,8,10. The virtualization environment is distributed free of charge and can be installed to work with operating systems, and for the deployment of network infrastructure and website hosting.

VirtualBox main window:

The main feature of this virtual machine is cross-platform. It works great on all versions of Windows. You can also download installers for Mac OS and Debian from the developer’s website. In the virtualization environment itself, you can install any desktop OS.

WITH using VirtualBox you can familiarize yourself with the functionality of the OS or test the program in safe mode without harming the main system. Often users prefer to install old games on virtual machines that are incompatible with modern operating systems.

After finishing the simulator, all data and changes will be saved. At next switch on you will be returned to your desktop and can continue completing tasks.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of VirtualBox:

• Free distribution. 90% of similar software is paid, while VirtualBox can be obtained completely free of charge. The functions and capabilities of the program are not limited to the developer;
• Ability to create screenshots – screenshots virtual system. The resulting image will only display the secondary OS window. Creating screenshots using the main OS degrades the resolution and also captures your regular desktop;
• Creating an exact copy of an existing virtual machine;
• Ability to drag folders, shortcuts and other objects inside the simulator;
• Unified file system – from a virtual machine you can access directories that are stored on a PC, and vice versa;
• Simultaneous work with several machines.

Also, distinctive feature The new VirtualBox 4 is a convenient virtualization management system and an intuitive program workspace. Also in new build The ability to capture video from the screen of an additional OS is available.

VirtualBox supports working with USB drives connected to the computer.

Disadvantages of the program:

• Slowdown of the computer. Even if your PC has good technical specifications, sufficient RAM space and permanent memory, when using a virtual machine, you will experience slower execution of all functions. If during the creation of a VM you allocated too much memory to it, the computer will freeze or shut down severely;
• Insufficient video memory. If you need to achieve the best possible image quality, it will be difficult to do it using VirtualBox. The program allows you to configure the settings for using the video card only at a basic level.

How to install

To install the VirtualBox program, download the installer from the official website of the developer, Oracle. The installation process is standard and does not require additional settings:

• Run the EXE file;
• Select the Hard drive on which the root folder with the program will be located;
• Wait for the installation to complete. If necessary, the user can view statistics on hard disk usage during the installation process.

In the “Custom Setup” field it is possible to disable support for USB and network services. This allows you to reduce the final size of the application.

Video instructions on how to install two OS using VirtualBox

Once the program is installed, you can begin creating your first virtual machine. Click on the “Create” button on the left top corner window. The VM settings tab will open:

In the setup wizard window, select the type of virtual OS (Windows, Linux, Debian, MacOS) and its version. Set a name for the simulator to be created and click on the “Next” button.

Then, the program will give you the opportunity to independently specify the size of RAM that will be allocated for the additional OS. For novice users, we recommend setting the value indicated in the “Recommended main memory size” field.

The size of RAM for a VM should be determined depending on technical characteristics your PC. If your computer has 4 GB of RAM available, 512 MB-1 GB will be enough for the simulator to run normally.

Next, the program will ask you to select file system OS image (which corresponds to the previously specified family and version). After completing the setup, a window will appear with a brief listing of all parameters. Click on "Finish".

After the installation of virtual Windows is completed, an icon for launching the OS will appear in the main VirtualBox window. Click on it and wait for the desktop to load. If necessary, install drivers.

To automatically update drivers, open the “devices” tab on the virtual machine toolbar. Then click on desired type media and in a new window follow the instructions to obtain the new software.

Ready. Now you can start working with the virtual operating system. To exit the program, first turn off the OS and then close VirtualBox.

VMware

VMWare Workstation is the best virtual machine for Windows 10. The developer positions the program as a convenient platform for creating . Compared to other popular analogues, VMWare supports more features for customizing a virtual machine and allows you to synchronize the simulator with software development tools.

This virtualization environment is popular among programmers, web designers and other specialists who often have to test their projects for cross-platform functionality.

Advantages and disadvantages

Among the advantages of VMWare are:

• Convenient toolbar;
• Synchronization with Microsoft development tools, in particular the .NET platform and the Visual Studio software environment;
• Safety system. Built-in VMWare tools provide high level protect your files in an additional OS. The simulator can detect attempts malicious activity eliminate them;
• Operation of encryption services for created virtual machines.

Disadvantages of the application:

• Paid distribution. The user can download a free trial version of the utility, but to get the full version of the application with all available functions, you will need to pay an annual or monthly subscription;
• Not suitable for beginners. If you have not used operating system simulators before, we recommend starting with more simple options. For example, VirtualBox and the standard Hyper V for Windows. VMWare is suitable for advanced users who prefer to configure the system manually.

How to install

You can download the virtual machine for Windows from the official website of the developer VMWare.com.

During the installation process, it is recommended to turn off Windows Defender or another working antivirus. This is only necessary for the correct installation of all files and encryption algorithms that the program uses for virtual machines. No harm will be done to your main OS, since the product was downloaded from an official source.

Overview of functionality and first setup of the program

To create your first virtual machine in VMWare, you will need to download the OS distribution kit that you want to use in the emulator to your computer. Then open the window installed application and click on the “Create a new virtual machine” field

Note! The user can create a group of virtual machines, instead of several simulators. This allows you to reduce the resource of consumed RAM and speed up the operation of the computer and the OS simulator.

In the VM Setup Wizard window, specify the path to the operating system image (this can be a file in the computer’s memory or boot disk). It is also possible to configure a virtual machine without installing the OS (it can be installed later).

• In the window that appears, specify the OS name, user name and account access password;
• Specify on which disk of your computer the virtual machine will be stored;
• Select the amount of RAM you need to run the VM;
• Configure the equipment (automatically or manually).

After completing the setup of the virtual machine, wait for the OS image to install and start working:

Microsoft Virtual PC

Microsoft Virtual PC is another popular virtual machine emulator. The program is well compatible with all versions of OS Windows. If you use a Microsoft product as your main OS, we recommend choosing Microsoft Virtual PC for emulation.

Advantages and disadvantages

Emulator advantages:

• Excellent compatibility with all versions of Windows OS. In most cases, the user does not need to install any additional drivers for the virtual OS. All of them are synchronized with the main system;
• File system sharing. Access files stored on your PC hard drive through a VM window;
• Support for 64-bit Windows OS in “Guest Host” and “Guest Environment” operating modes;
• Support for hardware virtualization.

Flaws:

• There are paid features. The program is distributed free of charge, but to support setting up a group of virtual OSes you will have to buy a subscription;
• There is no support for Linux-like systems.

Overview of functionality and first setup of the program

To install a virtual OS, first download its image into the computer's memory, and then open Microsoft application Virtual PC. Click on the “Create virtual machine” button and configure the following parameters in the new window:

• Set the name of the new OS;
• Make a place for her hard drive and the size of RAM;
• Select which devices the VM will support ( network, flash drives and so on).

Bottom line

We told you about the best virtual machines for Windows, but not all of them. If you think that these are not the best, write in the comments! Help new readers decide which emulator to start with.

To have several operating systems with separate workspace and applications at hand, you don’t need to buy a second (third, fourth, etc.) computer. Because it all fits into your single PC. How? Thanks to virtual machines (VMs) - special programs that create (emulate) imaginary (virtual) computers inside the main operating system.

A virtual PC is almost like a real one. It has its own processor, memory, HDD, network adapter And all the rest. Of course, these are not physical devices, but they are made in such a way that operating systems consider them to be just that - real.

Several virtual computers can work simultaneously on one physical computer. Exactly how much depends on the hardware resources: the faster the processor, the larger the RAM, the more spacious the storage, the more. A typical average-performance home PC running Windows 10 can handle three to five lightweight operating systems simultaneously (for example, Windows XP, Android and Lubuntu + the main system). Or two or three relatively heavyweight ones (for example, the main Windows 10 + virtual Windows 7 and Mac OS X). As you already understand, virtual computer emulator applications allow you to install and run a variety of operating systems on them.

Virtual machines general purpose(as opposed to specialized ones, such as, for example, VM Java), use:

• To run applications that the main system does not support.
• To protect the system from potential harm from untested programs.
• As an additional barrier against viruses when visiting dubious web resources.
• To create an isolated environment for studying the activities of malware.
• As a testing ground for debugging your own developments.
• To master network construction technologies.
• For double authorization on some gaming portals and much more.

And of course, virtual machines are widely used to distribute server work resources.

Today we will not touch on the industrial use of VMs, but will only consider what can be useful to home users of Windows OS.

Oracle Virtualbox

Let's look at the process of creating a new virtual machine and starting to install Windows 10 on it.

• Click on top panel"Create" button.

• In the first window of the VM creation wizard, we will indicate the name of the OS (it will be displayed in the list of guest systems), its type (Windows, Linux, etc.) and version. In our example, this is Windows 10 32 bit (you can install 64 bit, but it will require more resources). To move to the next step, click Next.

• Next, we will indicate the size of the VM RAM. By default, Windows 10 x86 is allocated 1 GB, but you can increase this amount by moving the slider to the right. If your PC does not have a lot of RAM, do not give the VM more than 2-3 GB, otherwise the main system will slow down due to lack of memory.

• Next we create virtual hard disk. If you are installing the system for the first time, select the “Create new” option.

• Leave the virtual disk type as default.

• Data storage format is an area on physical storage your computer, which is allocated to the VM. It can have a constant or dynamically expanding volume within the limits that you define further. To save space, we will choose a dynamic format.

• Next we indicate the name of the volume (virtual disk C) and its size. The default is 32 GB.

• After clicking the “Create” button in the last window, a new virtual machine will appear in the list. Its parameters are shown in the frame on the right.
• To proceed to installing Windows, click the “Run” button in the top panel.

• In the window that opens after this, the “Select boot disk” window will appear. Click on the folder icon and specify the path to the system distribution. This can be an image in .iso format or physical media (DVD, flash drive). After selecting your distribution, click Continue.

• The further course of installing the OS into a virtual machine is no different from installing it on a physical computer.

Some VM and guest system settings

Clicking on the virtual machine window will capture the mouse cursor (i.e. it will only move within the virtual screen). To return the cursor to the main OS, press the Ctrl+Alt combination.

To access the full range of features of the guest OS, you need to install special add-ons. Go to the "Devices" menu, click "Mount Guest Additions Disk Image" and follow the further instructions.

To connect a folder to the guest system for exchanging files with the main one, click the “Shared Folders” item in the “Devices” menu. Click on the “folder+” icon in the window that opens and use the “path to folder” field to specify it in Explorer (it shows the directories of the main system).

If you want the setting to work constantly, check “Auto-connection” and “Create permanent folder». a shared folder will be available from the virtual machine explorer as a network one.

To change the poll order boot devices(for example, to boot a virtual machine from DVD), shut down the guest OS, open its settings (in the main Virtualbox window) and go to the first tab of the “System” section. In the "Load Order" list, select the desired media and press the arrow buttons to move it to the top.

VMware Workstation Pro

Some Hyper-V virtual machine options

To take a snapshot of a running guest OS, open the top menu of its Action window and click Check Point" Or press the combination Ctrl+N.

Access to the settings of an individual virtual machine is opened from its context menu in the list of the main manager window and hidden behind the “Settings” button.

Other features of the program are also very simple and can be mastered without much difficulty.

A virtual machine is a software environment that emulates the hardware of a computer with all its components. Essentially, a virtual machine is a separate virtual computer, on which it will be possible to install operating systems, programs, drivers, etc., which can then be launched in isolation from the main operating system installed on this computer.

In this article we will look at what a virtual machine is and what it is needed for. Using a virtual machine goes something like this: you install a special virtualization program (virtual machine) on your computer, into which you can then install one or more operating systems supported by this program.

For example, your computer has the Windows 7 operating system installed, and you want to try another operating system: Windows 8.1, or Windows 10. You are not yet ready to immediately switch to a newer operating system, so by installing Windows 10 on a virtual machine, you can Familiarize yourself with its work and capabilities in detail and gain the necessary skills.

In parallel, you can install other operating systems in the virtual machine: various Linux distributions, Mac OS X, etc. At the same time, you can use Windows 10 on your computer, for example, and Windows 7, Ubuntu, and Mac OS X on a virtual machine.

The most popular programs for creating virtual machines (VMs) for ordinary users(there is a large corporate segment of virtualization systems): Oracle VirtualBox (free), VMware (free for personal use VMware Player, paid VMware Workstation), Parallels (for computers with Mac OS X), Windows Virtual PC (in Windows 7, starting from the edition Pro, supported free installation virtual environment Windows XP Mode), Hyper-V (works in x64 bit Windows versions, starting with Windows 8) and others.

Virtual machines different manufacturers differ in their capabilities and features. It will be possible to download virtual machines from the websites of software manufacturers.

Using virtual machines

Virtual machines (VMs) are mainly used for the following purposes:

• installing another operating system to study or work with
• testing unfamiliar programs without risk to the main operating system
• using programs that cannot run on your computer
• setting up a local network
• Safely launch suspicious applications
• simultaneous installation of several operating systems on a computer

For example, on my computer at different times, they were installed in virtual environment the following operating systems: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Mac OS X, Linux Mint, Android.

Working in an operating system installed in a virtual machine is no different from working in a regular system installed on a computer. This is a regular OS running in a virtual environment. You can do whatever you want without fear of killing Windows or another system. If as a result of your actions the OS becomes inoperable, then you can simply remove this operating system and install another one instead.

Many virtual machines have the ability to create a snapshot of the system, so you can easily restore a “dead” OS.

Most likely, powerful, resource-intensive games will not run on a virtual machine, because such games will most likely slow down greatly. The performance of the operating system installed on a virtual machine depends on the power of the specific computer.

In this image you can see that Windows 10 is installed on my computer, and in the virtual machine window (I deliberately made the virtualization program window smaller) the Windows 8.1 operating system is running. Thus, at that moment, two different operating systems were running simultaneously on my computer, independently of each other.

The operating system installed in the virtual machine will run in isolation from the main operating system installed on your computer. You can do whatever you want with Windows (or another operating system) installed in a virtual machine. The main system installed on your computer will not be affected by running in the virtual machine, or by other changes made to the operating system installed on the virtual machine.

You can test unfamiliar programs on a virtual machine before installing them on a real system. Windows OS, or another operating system (if it is not free), will need to be activated.

Some programs do not run on a particular operating system, so you can install such a program on a supported operating system in a virtual machine. In this case, you can continue to use the required application on your computer.

A virtual machine can be used for security purposes. For example, you may not immediately install a program on your computer that makes you suspicious, but will first install such a program on a virtual machine. If your suspicions are confirmed, the main operating system installed on your computer will not be affected in any way.

You can safely visit suspicious sites, risking only the guest system installed in the VM.

In this image, the operating system is running on the virtual machine. Mac system OS X, in which window is open Safari browser. In VMware Workstation, the guest system can be expanded to fill the entire screen of your computer monitor.

When using a virtual machine, along with the advantages, there are also some disadvantages. The main problem: not enough powerful computers work in a guest system installed on a virtual machine may slow down (freeze, slow down). This is due to the fact that at this time the resources of your computer are simultaneously consumed by two operating systems: the main operating system installed on your computer and the guest operating system installed in the virtual machine.

In order not to overload your computer, I recommend, while working in the guest operating system, to close unnecessary items in the main system. this moment, applications. After this, the load on your computer’s resources will decrease somewhat, and working in the guest OS installed on the virtual machine will become more comfortable. On powerful computers, such problems usually do not arise.

If you want to try another Windows operating system on your computer, but due to the low power of the computer, working in a virtual machine will be difficult, then you can install another system on a virtual hard disk (VHD). You can read more about this. With this option, you will launch operating systems on your computer one by one.

When working with a virtual machine, you can easily remove any operating system from there without any consequences for your computer, and also remove the virtual machine program from your computer.

Conclusions of the article

By using special program: virtual machine (Virtual Machine), you can install another operating system on your computer to familiarize yourself with its operation, to test applications, solve compatibility problems, for security purposes, etc. You can try several different virtual machines and stop on the most convenient option for you.

Which one do you think is the best? best virtual machine?

I will not invent a story and retell others. I’d rather suggest you read an article from Linux Format magazine. In which experts made comparative review five popular virtual machines in the hope of finding the one... the best virtual machine. By the way, I highly recommend it to those who renounced and were able to escape from the captivity of Windows.

• What is a virtual machine
• Why do you need a virtual machine?
• How we tested Virtual Machines
• Performance
• Functionality
• Compatibility and snapshots
• Desktop integration
• Graphics acceleration
• Verdict

What is a virtual machine

If in simple language, without boring, then a virtual machine is an operating system within an operating system.

Why do I need a virtual machine

In our case, a virtual machine is primarily a platform for testing programs. Among which, as you understand, there may be . The virtual machine is also used by hackers to test their own and other people’s Trojans and other miracle files. No matter what group you belong to, you will still be interested in learning more about virtual machines and how they work.

How we tested virtual machines

First, we took a dual-core computer (due to budget restrictions) with fresh Arc Linux. In addition to proprietary VMware (version 7.1.0 of Layer and a 30-day trial of Workstation 11), we used the official Arch packages, which follow developer releases very closely. Each machine had 2 GB of system RAM and 128 MB of video memory (256 MB if needed).

We tested each candidate on different guest OSes: Mint 17.1 and Kubuntu 15.04 beta, as well as different versions of a non-Linux OS called Windows. To evaluate performance, we compiled the core Mint core, ran the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, and played different games from our Steam library. To test real options, we ran them on an 8-core machine with 16 GB of RAM and 4 GB Nvidia GTX, but then we were forced to return it.

Virtualization technology has fundamentally changed the computing landscape. We'd be embarrassed to say that this is a new invention (early mainframes used it as a means of provisioning), but decade-old CPU innovations mean that you'll only get near-native performance with x86 code. And now we manage to cram dozens of machines (easily copied and restored) into one case, and the work of data centers has become much more efficient. You can also imitate another architecture, say, ARM, which is convenient for embedded system developers.

This is also a benefit for ordinary users: getting to know a new OS no longer has to be such a time-consuming exercise in constant fear of ruining your system. Even if you just want to test out a new program, it's much safer to do it in a virtual machine instead of risking your current setup. Support for in-kernel virtualization (via KVM) and the Qemu emulator means that Linux users There is no longer any need to resort to proprietary tools.

In the old days, VirtualBox from Sun (once owned by Innotek, now Oracle) was the only real option. But times have changed, so let's look at other virtualization applications.

Both VMware and VirtualBox use kernel-dependent modules that are loaded to work their magic. VMware will need to compile them, which will require installing the kernel header packages and all the compiler stuff. You will then receive an init script to load the specified modules, although this will be of no use to Systemd users. If this is your case, you might want to create your own init file instead of running this script as root all the time (or seeing the same error messages). At the time of writing, the 3.19 series kernels required patching up the VMware source code, but hopefully this will be fixed by the time the magazine is published. VirtualBox packages are available in most distributions, and if you have a standard kernel, you don't have to worry about anything.

Virt-Manager requires the libvirtd service to be running on your system before it can be launched, which a helpful message will notify you of, and if you're using a full-featured desktop environment, it will do this for you; All you have to do is enter the root password.

Both VirtualBox and VMware Workstation are quite simple, as long as you don't get distracted by each option. But in VMware Player there are not so many options, and you will get your machine up and running very quickly. But if you're determined to make the most of all these options, you'll have to install the Guest Additions.

The Linux Guest Additions for VirtualBox are much easier to install (the CD will run automatically) than the VMware add-ons, which require you to copy programs from an imaginary CD, change the permissions, and then run the script. Is it really 1999? But, having done all this, you will be rewarded with improved graphics and a number of additional functions, which we will discuss further.

The easiest to use of our selection is Boxes, even if this is due to providing only the bare minimum of Qemu / libvirt functions. VMware Player and VirtualBox come in second, followed by their paid rival (nominally more difficult, due to more options). Virt-Manager isn't particularly difficult to use, but it has just enough of Qemu's maze of settings to overwhelm a newbie. In addition, its mechanism for managing storage is quite confusing, especially if you are going to store your virtual disk in a non-standard location: then you first need to add the required directory as a “storage pool”. However, all the necessary exotic modules will be provided by your own distribution, and in this case, why not take a risk.

Performance

Will they create a slow or agile VM for you?

Thanks to hardware enhancements and paravirtualization technologies, it is now possible to perform some tasks at speeds close to those of real hardware.

However, as it is, there is usually some performance hit. Almost every configuration on which we tested the guest desktop exhibited some kind of slowdown. But you get used to it, and you can turn off all the beauties or turn on the appropriate troubleshooting mode if it bothers you.

We're not taking 3D performance into account here - that wouldn't be entirely fair, and it has its own category across the page. However, for everyday tasks using Terminal, you're unlikely to notice much difference between our candidates. Experiments with kernel compilation have shown that VirtualBox is significantly behind the competition. Comparison test JavaScript SunSpider confirmed this finding: both tasks completed 20% slower than the others. Disk input/output (I/O) (especially if you have an SSD) and network traffic were fast for all of our candidates. Ultimately, VMware gained the upper hand by supporting newer Intel processors.

Functionality

What does each candidate have to offer?

All of our candidates target different use cases and therefore each have their own, individual benefits. Of course, the presence of some standard features certainly implied: these include, for example, the ability to create snapshots, support for Intel VT-x and AMD-V processor extensions, and flexible configuration of virtual hardware. All this is offered by everyone, but some applications are capable of more heroic feats.

A disclaimer here is that Gnome Boxes and Virt-Manager are just interfaces to Qemu (via the libvirt abstraction layer). And Qemu is essentially a processor emulator that is capable of virtualization via KVM, but is still a world of its own.

So, let's look at our candidates individually.

Gnome Boxes ★★

When invoked from the command line, Qemu supports a ton of options, most of which are missing from Gnome Boxes: its goal (implemented) is simplicity and clarity appearance and work. Through him user-friendly interface The wizard can set up a virtual machine in literally three clicks - just point it to the appropriate ISO. Boxes abstracts the difference between a virtual machine and a remote machine, and you can connect to both via VNC, SPICE (which allows audio to work over a network), or OVirt.

Gnome Boxes

Boxes doesn't offer much in the way of managing your virtual machine over the network, but it does at least, provides all the NAT wizardry you need to make sure your virtual machine communicates with the world. The remaining candidates successfully configure NAT, network bridges or host-only networks, and all this can be very convenient in certain circumstances.

Virt-Manager ★★★★

Virt-Manager (aka Virtual Machine Manager) offers significantly more Qemu features (but again, not all). It seems to have gone overboard with its list of supported x86 operating systems, particularly those from the Linux family.

Virt-Manager

Leaving this aside, Virt-Manager makes it relatively easy to configure a machine of any complexity - you can add any equipment, including several network interfaces. In addition to KVM VMs, Virt-Man-ager can enable Qemu/libvirt support for Xen guests and LXC containers. Optionally, it can also poll guest resources and thus provide very nice graphs (like the ones in the Performance section on page 25, which takes about 30 seconds after Windows startup 10). Additionally, Virt-Manager takes advantage of Qemu's recently added USB 3.0 support.

Compatibility and snapshots

Is it possible to move virtual machines between real ones?

Sometimes you need to move a VM between hypervisors. All of our programs can import machines stored in the Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) format, which is simply a tarball of a VMDK (VMware) disk image, and virtual hardware data. VirtualBox allows export to this format, but also has its own - Virtual Disk Image (VDI), and also copes with all the others.

The qemu-img command can be used to convert formats. Of particular note is his favorite QCOW2 format, which allows you to store multiple snapshots of the system internally, using the excellent Copy On Write (COW) technique.

Boxes, Virt-Manager, VirtualBox and VMware Workstation support system snapshots, saving different states of their VM. VMware Player only allows you to have one snapshot per machine in addition to its current state. So deep regression testing is excluded.

VirtualBox and VMware Workstation can also "clone" a VM, and this is an effective method of creating system snapshots: data is written to the corresponding clone only if its state is different from the state of the parent. VMware allows you to mount a VMDK guest image on the host, which can also be convenient, although the same trick can be done by converting to an image raw disk and using standard Linux tools and arithmetic to calculate the partition offset.

VirtualBox ★★★★

Originally a desktop virtualization client, VirtualBox is still probably the go-to tool for many. This program has a clear structure, which simplifies setting up a virtual machine, and many useful options. In addition to limiting the number of CPU cores that the guest OS has access to, VirtualBox allows you to specify a limit on the guest's CPU usage as a percentage. VirtualBox also supports video recording, so you can record a Windows tutorial for your computer in an evening. YouTube channel.

VirtualBox

It can import any virtual disks, but only offers USB 2.0 host controller support, and then only if you install Oracle's proprietary extension pack. Options for distributed clipboard access and drag-and-drop (in one or both directions, as you wish) are quite convenient. VirtualBox has convenient indicators for network and disk I/O and CPU usage.

By the way, in the article “” we talked in detail about how to install and properly configure the VirtualBox virtual machine.

VMware Player ★★★

VMware's free offering has come a long way since its introduction in 2008. The most remarkable thing is that this is no longer a player: it is more than capable of creating a high-quality virtual machine for you.

VMware Player

In addition to supporting a number of network configurations (NAT, bridged, host-only, etc.), it offers very nice network traffic shaping options, which is quite useful if you are testing the latest version of, say, a DDoS client or seeing how much malware you can hang Windows XP on your virtual machine until it crashes. VMware also supports USB devices 3.0, and installing guest tools will allow you to use brilliant graphics, a shared clipboard, and shared directories. Player is somewhat inferior when it comes to snapshots (it only allows you to take one), but we criticized it in the previous section.

VMware Workstation ★★★★★

There is a non-free version of VMware Player (VMware Player Pro), but we decided that for this Comparison it would be more appropriate to take the higher-end Workstation instead. The app has a lot of extra features for developers, including the ability to group virtual machines into a sort of virtual phalanx so you can have them all come online at the same time with a single click.

VMware Workstation also offers support for new commands on modern Intel processors, and also allows you to configure machines with virtual CPUs, up to 16 and 64 GB of RAM. However, Workstation is very much aimed at integrating with the rest of the (rather heavy) VMware suite, and therefore will look more at home in an enterprise environment.

Desktop integration

Will they clash with your color scheme?

Some users love the perfect harmony of the interfaces of virtual machines and their corresponding hypervisors with the host desktop, while others are just confused.

VirtualBox uses Qt4, which is especially infuriating on the Qt-based Arch Linux desktop, which uses Qt5 everywhere, but it's just something of a niche flaw. Boxes fits perfectly with Gnome 3, as you'd expect; Virt-Manager and VMware use GTK3 and also work perfectly with it.

All of our candidates allow us to switch the virtual machine to full-screen mode, and fortunately they all allowed us to switch back using the appropriate key combination.

Standout modes include Unity in VMware (no, this is not a way to make everything Ubuntu-like) and Seamless in Virtual-Box - both display application windows directly from the guest on the host desktop. This is very good for a Linux VM (eliminating the potential confusion between guest and host windows), however trying to run
the preview didn't go well; Windows 7 with Aero enabled was also not the most pleasant experience.

All of our candidates support running the guest in full screen mode, and can be configured to change resolution when the window size is changed. Suitable hotkeys are provided to exit this scenario. The drag-and-drop feature on VMware machines is very convenient, which is why VMware wins in this category.

Graphics acceleration

Is it possible to avoid software rendering problems?

Any of our candidates would serve you well if you just wanted to install a virtual machine with no intention of doing anything graphics-intensive.

But if you need 3D acceleration, you need to use VMware or VirtualBox. Once you get through installing the Guest Additions (including the double-negative VirtualBox question that tries to steer you away from its experimental WDDM support needed for e.g. Windows interface 7 Aero), you'll be able to enjoy 3D acceleration in VirtualBox and two VMware clients.

Boom-boom, Maxwell's silver hammer landed on the, uh, beehive. He died shortly after this screenshot was taken in Don't Starve.

VirtualBox allows you to allocate up to 256 MB of system RAM to the virtual video card, and VMware - up to 2 GB. Note that these gigabytes are not taken from your actual graphics card, so you often won't see much improvement above 256 MB. VirtualBox also provides 2D acceleration for Windows guests, which should help speed up video rendering, screen enlargement, and color correction, although a lot of this depends on the host configuration—on a fast machine this setting won't have much of an impact. A Windows VM probably won't run Battlefield 4 or Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (we're lucky they're ported to Linux) when everything is cranked up to 11, but more older or less demanding games will work just fine: we spent a good hour playing the popular indie game Don't Starve, completely forgetting about our Comparison.

Everything worked better on VMware than on VirtualBox, but perhaps this was due to a more advantageous configuration - on Arch Linux we were using the latest proprietary Nvidia driver, which could lead to an advantage of one over the other.

Verdict

Virtualization is a long-standing and complex topic for comparisons. If you want to run 3D games, you won't even look at Gnome Boxes or Virt-Manager, and unless you get better results with VirtualBox than we do, you'll choose VMware as your hypervisor. But again, this technology is by no means as mature as DirectX 11 running in the native format. You may have even better luck with games in Wine [Ed.: - Or not.] with some experimental performance patches. We're actually not crazy about VMware licenses, especially ones that force you to pay after 30 days trial period, but for some, Workstation's enterprise-grade features will be a boon. Particularly if you use vCenter Converter from VMware, you virtualize a machine with one click - ideal if you want to test something new on your current system.

We haven't covered the ton of command line tools that come with all of our candidates, but they are there, along with more than copious documentation. You can use them in your scripts when you go all out on virtualization, pushing out a whole army of virtual machines from safe environment command line. Perhaps hackers will prefer to work with Qemu directly, but those looking for a simple free and open source solution will be happy with Gnome Boxes.

The bubbles look good if you don't see the effort that went into rendering them.

But there is only one winner (a tie is a rare exception), and this time it is Virt-Manager - well, we couldn’t let VMware win. Virt-Manager allows you to harness most of the power of Qemu without resorting to lengthy command-line spells. Virtual machines can be paused, reconfigured, moved and cloned - all without much hassle. The only thing it lacks is support for graphics acceleration, but who knows, maybe it will appear. VMware Player and Gnome Boxes are tied for second place as they both score highly for their simplicity, and we love the Boxes icon, which features a tesseract (or a hypercube, or a cube within a cube - whatever you prefer).

Virt-Manager ★★★★
All managers should do such a good job.

VirtualBox ★★
Once the only solution, now on the sidelines.

VMware Player ★★★
Fast and convenient, but the license let me down.

VMware Workstation ★★
Fast and full-featured, but not free.

Boxes ★★★
The simplest way install and configure the VM.

Virtual machines [Several computers in one] Gultyaev Alexey Konstantinovich

Why do we need virtual machines?

Today, virtual machines are experiencing a rebirth. One of the “fathers” of the modern generation of virtual machines, Professor Rosenblum, explains their revival for two main reasons:

The emergence of a large number of different operating systems (OS), which impose specific requirements on the parameters of the computer hardware components used;

High administration costs and complexity of servicing computers on which several different operating systems are installed (including in terms of ensuring the required reliability and security of operation).

A modern virtual machine allows you to hide some parameters of the computer’s physical devices from the operating system installed on it and thereby ensure the mutual independence of the OS and the installed hardware.

This approach provides users (and/or administrators) computing systems) a number of advantages. These include in particular:

The ability to install multiple operating systems on one computer without the need for corresponding configuration of physical hard drives;

Working with several operating systems simultaneously with the ability to dynamically switch between them without rebooting the system (Fig. 1.1);

Reducing the time required to change the composition of installed operating systems;

Isolation of real hardware from the unwanted influence of software running in a virtual machine environment;

Simulation capability computer network on a single standalone computer.

Rice. 1.1. Multiple virtual machines on one desktop

Thanks to these advantages, the range of tasks that the user can solve without rebooting the system and without fear of causing any damage to it or completely disabling it is significantly expanded. Here are just some examples of such tasks:

Mastering a new OS;

Launching applications designed to work in a specific OS environment;

Testing one application running different operating systems;

Installation and removal of evaluation or demo versions of programs;

Testing potentially dangerous applications that are suspected of being infected with a virus;

Managing user access rights to data and programs within a virtual machine.

The reader himself will probably easily add two or three situations to the above list when having a virtual machine on the computer would be very useful.

Which users would like to learn how to work with virtual machines? Perhaps everyone who has more than one OS installed on their computer. And also for those who want to master a new operating system, but do not dare to immediately abandon the previous one. Virtual machines are very useful for teachers of various computer courses and disciplines, as well as developers of multi-platform software products. They are of particular interest to web designers: after all, the pages they create should look equally attractive to users working on a variety of systems and platforms. With the ability to quickly switch from one environment to another using a virtual machine system, the “right” web designer is unlikely to miss the chance to test the results of his work in different web browsers.

All of the listed advantages of virtual machines are common to many of them. In addition to these general properties, specific software As a rule, it has individual characteristics designed to increase its attractiveness in comparison with competing products.

On the websites of virtual machine developers you can find numerous examples of the use of virtual machine technology by various well-known companies. Thus, VMware virtual machines are used by Symantec to test network antivirus packages; Programmers of the popular Google search engine use VMware virtual machines to evaluate the performance of Google with different web browsers and on different platforms.

From the book Applied Free Programs and Systems at School author Otstavnov Maxim

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2.8 Why do we need “light” media? While the X window system itself has been the de facto industry standard for many years, the layers of the graphical environment lying “above” it are not standardized. It is difficult to give any classification of graphical environments, but the most

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P20. To Chapter 18 “VMware Virtual Machines” 1. V. Ivanchenko, A. Panishev, “Penguin against the Empire.” (http://www.submarine.ru/print.cfm?ID=410). 2. V. Kostromin, “Linux together with Windows.” Open systems, N 3, 2001, pp. 24-31 (http://www.osp.ru/os/2001/03/024.htm). 3. Choong Ng, “VMware Express 2.0 and Win4Lin 2.0: A Comparison Review.”

From the book Word 2007. Popular tutorial author Krainsky I

9.1. What are macros and why are they needed Quite often, the user has to repeat certain commands in a certain sequence (for example, format text in italics, size 10, Arial font). To do this little formatting,

From the book Virtual Machines [Multiple computers in one] author Gultyaev Alexey Konstantinovich

Virtual machines with guest OS API emulation Typically, applications run in an isolated address space and interact with the hardware using the API (Application Programming Interface) provided by the operating system.

From the book The Phenomenon of Science. Cybernetic approach to evolution author Turchin Valentin Fedorovich

Virtual machines with full guest OS emulation Projects that support full emulation technology work on the principle of interpreting instructions from the guest OS command system. Since this completely emulates the behavior of both the processor and all external

From the book How to make money on the Internet: A practical guide author Dorokhova Marta Alexandrovna

Virtual machines with quasi-emulation of the guest OS The technology of quasi-emulation of the guest OS is based on the fact that not all instructions of the guest OS need to be emulated by means of the host operating system. Many of the instructions required for proper operation

From the book A visual tutorial for working on a netbook author Senkevich G. E.

Chapter 2 Virtual machines Virtual PC 2004 For users who prefer to work exclusively with operating systems of the Windows family, the Virtual PC 2004 product can perhaps be considered the most suitable choice- after all, the latest version of the program belongs to

From the book Wiki-Government [How technology can make government better, democracy stronger, and citizens more influential] by Novek Beth

Chapter 3 Virtual Machines VMware Workstation Until Microsoft turned its attention to the virtual machine market, VMware was the undisputed leader in this market. However, it is still too early to say that Virtual PC 2004 has “pushed” products away from VMware for the second

From the book Promotion of portals and online stores author Grokhovsky Leonid O.

Chapter 4 Virtual Machines Parallels Workstation Parallels (its full name is Parallels Software International Inc.) can be considered a newcomer to the market of applications for creating virtual machines. Suffice it to say that at the end of 2005, only the second version of the Parallels package was released in beta

From the author's book

From the author's book

From the author's book

Why are labels needed? A special type of files are shortcuts. A shortcut only points to some file or folder that is itself located elsewhere. The fact that the file is a shortcut is indicated by a small arrow on its icon. It is convenient to place shortcuts on the Desktop. Double click on

From the author's book

From the author's book

Why do we need optimizers? The scheme described in the previous chapters covers almost all processes of creating and filling the portal, starting with the compilation of the semantic core and ending with the placement of finished texts. At the same time, until now we have had practically no work for