How to create a new virtual machine. The best virtual machines for Windows: install if you really want to look at other operating systems

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 everything else. 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 home PC with average performance Windows based 10 copes with the simultaneous operation of three to five lightweight operating systems (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 start installing 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 random access memory VM. By Windows default 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 go to Windows installation 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" The shared folder will be accessible from the virtual machine explorer as a network folder.

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 the running guest OS, Open Top Menu its "Action" window and click " Check Point" Or press the combination Ctrl+N.

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

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

VirtualBox- comfortable and functional program for creating virtual machines. With it you can install Linux on Windows or vice versa. If you want to try Linux, but are still afraid of doing something wrong, create virtual machine, in which to install Linux!

The 26 steps of this advice will tell you about creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox using Sabayon Linux as an example.

Step-by-step instruction:

For creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox you need to do the following:

1. Let's select the distribution that we want to install in the virtual machine. I gave an example with Sabayon Linux. You can install any distribution into a virtual machine.
2. Download the image of the system to be installed as a file with the .iso extension.
3. Let's launch VirtualBox and see the main program window on the screen, in which we need to click on the "Create" button:
4. The Virtual Machine Creation Wizard will launch. Click "Forward":
   
5. Specify the name of the virtual machine (in my case it is Sabayon Linux 5.4), the type of operating system and click "Forward":
   
6. Set the RAM size for the virtual machine. I recommend that you specify a value of at least 512 MB, since the requirements of all modern operating systems include this minimum value. (Attention! During the operation of the virtual machine, the physical RAM of your computer will be used. If the RAM installed in your computer is less than 1GB, the virtual machine will not work quickly). After specifying the value, click on the "Forward" button:
   
7. On at this stage you will create a virtual hard disk on which your virtual operating system will be installed. Leave the checkbox "Create" new hard disk" with the "Boot hard drive" checkbox enabled and click "Forward":
   
8. The Create New Wizard will launch. hard drive:
   
9. Select "Fixed Size Image":
   
10. By default, VirtualBox saves disk images in its working directory on drive C. Since drive C will be useful to us for other, more interesting concerns, we will save the image virtual hard disk to one of the others hard drives available on the computer. Click on the folder icon:
    Let's select the disk and directory where we will save our virtual hard disk:
    I saved it to drive H, but you can save it, for example, to drive D. Then we specify the size of the virtual hard disk to be created. I'm sure that 10 GB is enough:
    
11. We complete the creation of the virtual hard disk by clicking on the “Finish” button:
    
12. The Create Virtual Hard Disk window will appear. you'll have to wait a couple of minutes:
13. Complete the creation of the virtual machine by clicking on the "Finish" button:
    
14. Congratulations on successful creation virtual machine in VirtaulBox!
    
15. Now let's configure it for further installation of the operating system (in my case Sabayon Linux 5.4). Select the virtual machine we created and click on the “Properties” button: The virtual machine properties window will open:
    
16. Let's increase the video memory size:
    
17. By selecting "Media", we will see that, by default, the virtual DVD drive is empty:
    
18. Click on the folder:
    
19. In the Virtual Media Manager window that appears, click on the “Add” button:
    and select the image of the operating system that we downloaded and want to install in the virtual machine:
    
20. The image we select will be added to the Virtual Disk Manager. All that remains is to select it for use in our virtual machine:
    
21. As you can see, everything went well and the “disk” is available:
    
22. Let's check availability and marks on sound and network devices and click on "OK":
    
    
23. Pay attention to the established boot order of the virtual machine. It is this that will allow us to start from the virtual DVD we connected:
    
24. The virtual machine in VirtualBox is completely configured and you can start it:
    
25. A window will appear for a few moments in which you can select the boot order from various devices:
    
26. As we can see, the virtual machine has launched successfully and you can begin installing the operating system of your choice:
    

Virtual machines are virtual computers that are emulated using a special software. These virtual computers allow you to install operating systems and other software on them. This article will show you how to create a virtual machine using VirtualBox programs.

Among the software for creating virtual machines, there are few free solutions. One of best programs Oracle VirtualBox is of this kind. This program allows you to create virtual machines for all popular operating systems, even latest version Windows 8.

In order to create a virtual machine, download and install the Oracle VirtualBox software. The installation process is very simple and will not cause any problems.

Launch VirtualBox and click on the “Create” button. After this, the “Create a New Virtual Machine Wizard” will launch, with its help you can quickly create and configure a virtual machine.

Let's go through all the stages of creating a virtual machine in order and try to install the Windows 8 operating system.

In the first window of the wizard, we are asked to enter the name of the virtual machine and select the type of operating system that we plan to install. Enter “Windows 8 Consumer Preview” and select “Windows 8” in the version field. If you plan to install a 64-bit version of the OS, you need to select the version marked “64-bit”.

In the next window we are asked to enter the volume that will be allocated for your virtual machine. For Windows Vista/7/8 it is better to set the value from 1 GB, for Windows XP from 512 MB.

Here we are asked to select the type of virtual hard disk. We leave the standard value VDI (Virtual Box Disk Image) and move on. In the next virtual disk settings window you need to specify Dynamic or Fixed virtual disk we want to use.

A dynamic virtual disk will consume space on your real disk only when it is needed. A fixed disk immediately reserves the required space on the real disk. We choose a fixed disk because it works faster.

Let's move on to the next window. Here we need to specify the size of the virtual disk and the folder in which we will save it. For operating rooms Windows systems For Vista/7 and Windows 8, it is better to specify a value of 25 GB; for Windows XP, 10 GB will be enough. That's it, this ends the process of creating a disk for our virtual machine. You may need to wait a while for VirtualBox to generate the virtual disk. When the disk is created, we will return to the Virtual Machine Creation Wizard, where we will need to finish setting up the virtual machine.

After this, the virtual machine is ready for use. In the VirtualBox program window, select the created virtual machine and click on the “Start” button. After this, the virtual machine will start and the “First Launch Wizard” will open. Here you can specify the media from which the operating system will be installed. This could be an actual disk drive in your computer, or

Virtual machine(VM, from English. virtual machine) -

• software and/or hardware system that emulates Hardware some platform (target - target, or guest platform) and executing programs for the target platform on the host platform (host - host platform, host platform)
• or virtualizing a certain platform and creating environments on it that isolate programs and even operating systems from each other (see: sandbox).

Interesting moment! When I clicked on this link and tried to download the file VirtualBox-4.1.12-77245-Win.exe by browser Internet Explorer(IE), this browser told me that there is no such file. I had to install Google browser Chrome and continue making this article with it.

We go to the site by specified address, move the mouse pointer over installation file for our platform (), click right button mice. In the window that opens, move the mouse pointer to the “Save link as...” menu item and click left button mice.

In the window that appears, select where to save. Let's choose for clarity“Desktop” by moving the mouse pointer to it and clicking once with the left mouse button.

We run our file to install the program. To do this, move the mouse pointer to our shortcut and press the right mouse button. In the menu that appears, move the mouse pointer to the “Open” menu item and press the left mouse button.

In the window that opens, hover the mouse pointer over the run button and click on it once with the left mouse button.

The program installation window will open. Let's do this, since buttons in windows are always clicked with only one click, I will say this: “Click on the button.” And I won’t bother you and it’s easier for me.

Here we simply click on the “Next >” button (translated into Russian as “Next”).

In the next window, we also don’t touch anything and click on the “Next >” button

In the next window we are asked to create shortcuts to launch the program (when it is already installed) on the desktop and in . You can leave both, i.e. leave both checkboxes. (I usually check "Create a shortcut in the panel quick launch"I'm cleaning it up).

Click on the “Next >” button.

In the next window, we agree with what is written and click the “Yes” button

Allow the installation of the program to start. Click on the “Yes” button

A similar window opened again. To avoid answering the same question dozens of times, check the box “Always trust Oracle Corporation software” and click the “Install” button.

The program continues installation without stupid questions. After installation is complete, the following window will appear:

We see that the shortcut on the desktop is already installed (by the way, the installation file can be moved somewhere). We leave the checkbox to immediately launch the program, well, and click on the “Finish” button.

A virtual machine manager window will open.

All. Now you can create any quantity virtual computers for any operating systems available in this program, install these operating systems and experiment with them.

How to install windows on a virtual machine

Since I have the Windows 7 distribution at hand, let me use it as an example to show how it’s done "Creation virtual computer for the Windows 7 operating system" .

Click on the “Create” button.

A window opens where we must write what we will call the virtual computer and select the operating system for which we should create it.

In the name field we write the name of the virtual computer. It is better to immediately write a name that is close in meaning. Since if you have more than a dozen virtual computers, then you may not immediately figure out which one you need to run to research, for example, some program.

Choose Microsoft platform Windows, since we're going to .

Well, we choose specifically under which Windows we will create a virtual computer - Windows 7.

After all our manipulations, the window should look like this:

My advice to you on this matter. At first, leave the settings suggested by the installation wizard. You can change it to your liking at any time after installation.

And so, we are offered to allocate 512 MB of memory for the RAM (RAM) of the virtual computer. We agree, click “Next”.

In the next window we leave everything as is. Be sure to leave a checkmark next to “ Boot disk" We will create a new disk, since we do not have virtual disks at all yet. Well, click on the “Next” button.

We will see a window for creating a virtual disk file type. Don’t bother here at all, but immediately click on the “Next” button.

The next window asks you to select a dynamic or fixed virtual disk. Leave it as dynamic.

The deeper meaning of this choice is as follows.

If, for example, you chose a virtual disk size of 25 GB. If the disk is selected as dynamic, then when installing the operating system the program will “take away” from your real disk exactly as much as it needs for the operating system, for example 2GB. The remaining 22 GB will remain on your real computer and you can use these 22 GB on your real computer. As programs are installed, your virtual disk will gradually eat up gigabytes from the real one until it reaches 25 GB.

If you select a fixed virtual disk, the program will immediately “eat up” 25 GB from your real physical disk.

But the advantage of a fixed virtual disk is that the virtual computer with this disk runs much faster.

So, click on the “Next” button.

The next window prompts you to select the actual size of the virtual hard disk. Agree with what he suggests. Just click on the “Next” button.

In the next window it writes to us about the virtual hard disk parameters we have selected. We agree and click “Create”.

In the next window it tells us in full what the configuration of our virtual computer is. Click on the “Create” button.

All. The first virtual computer for the Windows 7 operating system has been created.

Now all that remains is to “turn on” the virtual computer and begin training with installing the operating system.

Attention! There is one tricky point. Virtual computer window "captures" mouse when you work with this mouse in this window. To make a virtual computer window "let go of the mouse", you must press "Right Ctrl".

I want to show you what this program looks like on my computer under the operating system. Ubuntu system(Linux). Under these virtual computers, I actually do all these lessons that you see.

That's all. Good luck and creative success to everyone. 🙂

Installing software on a computer, especially little-known software, is always associated with a certain risk. The program may contain errors that affect the stability of the system, built-in advertising or tracking modules, and other unwanted elements. In addition, any software leaves traces on the system that may not have the best effect on its operation. As for experiments with Windows, everything is even more risky here, because sometimes even a seemingly insignificant change in registry data or modification system files can lead to the most unpleasant consequences.

Ask how to avoid them? Very simple, use virtualization systems, for example, virtual VirtualBox machine – special program, which allows you to install, run and test different operating systems in an isolated environment. You can do anything with such virtual computers - install programs on them, configure them, modify system files, work with disks and partitions, in a word, perform any experiments. If the virtual OS is damaged, you can restore it from a snapshot or delete it altogether - to the host OS, that is, the main one working system, it won't have any effect.

Installing VirtualBox for Windows

Perhaps all this may seem complicated to some, but in fact there is nothing in working with Virtualbox that a novice user cannot handle. So how to use VirtualBox? As usual, it all starts with installation. We go to the developer’s website www.oracle.com/virtualization/virtualbox/index.html and download the latest version of the program.

Installing VirtualBox on Windows 7/10 is almost no different from installing most other programs; you just need to follow the instructions of the wizard and do not change anything in its parameters. Upon completion of the procedure, you will receive a ready-made virtualization platform.

Creating and basic configuration of a virtual machine

Like installing VirtualBox, creating and setting up a virtual computer is not particularly difficult, the program automatically selects best configuration depending on the operating system being installed. User control, however, will not hurt.

Let's create a virtual machine for Windows 10 32-bit as an example. Launch VirtualBox and click the “Create” button on the toolbar. In the window that opens, give the machine a name (can be arbitrary); in the drop-down lists, select the operating system and its version.

At the next stage, you will be asked to specify the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. There are no strict rules regarding the allocated RAM; for 32-bit Windows it is advisable to reserve at least 1 GB of memory, for 64-bit Windows - at least 1.8-2 GB.

At the third stage, a virtual hard disk is created, here we leave everything by default. Click “Create”, select the disk type VDI or VHD.

As for the storage format, it is better to select “Dynamic”, this way you will save time and space on the physical disk, although losing a little in performance.

We set the size of the virtual disk as desired, but not less than specified in the operating system requirements. Click “Create”.

The virtual machine has been created and now you can quickly go through its settings. First of all, however, go to the settings of the VirtualBox program itself and on the “General” tab change the path to the virtual machine storage directory. It is best to allocate a folder for them on drive D, where there is the most space.

Now go to the settings of the created VM and check the following parameters:

• In the “General” section on the “Advanced” tab, change the path to the VM snapshot files if necessary (it is advisable to place them in the folder with the main VM container file). Here you can enable a shared clipboard for the host and virtual machines.
• If you want to install the system in EFI/GPT mode, in the “System” section, be sure to check the “Enable EFI (special OS only)” checkbox.
• To be able to run 3D applications on a virtual machine, in the “Display” section, check the “Enable 3D acceleration” checkbox.

Setting up the Internet and shared folders

If you plan to provide access to the VM to other users of the local physical network, in the settings VirtualBox networks You should select the connection type “Network Bridge”. To ensure interaction between different virtual machines, the “ Virtual adapter host”, to connect guest operating systems to a single internal network – the “Internal network” mode. There is also a connection type " Universal driver", but it is used much less frequently.

Of particular interest are shared folders in VirtualBox, thanks to which the user can exchange between the host and virtual machines any files. You can connect such a directory in the “Shared Folders” section. To do this, click on the plus sign opposite the “Machine Folders” item, select a folder on your hard drive through the overview and connect it, not forgetting to check the “Auto-connect” checkbox.

Starting a VM and installing the operating system

Now you know how to configure VirtualBox and the created VM. Next, let's see how to install the operating system on it. The procedure for installing an OS on Virtualbox is practically no different from installing it on a physical computer, except that instead bootable flash drive or DVD is used here installation image ISO. Launch the created virtual machine and specify the path to bootable ISO image with the system.

The standard installation procedure will begin and you will be prompted to accept license agreement, partition the disk, and after copying the system files, create account user.

The guest operating system is installed, but some functions, in particular, shared folders and the clipboard, will not work until you install a special plugin - guest OS additions. In addition, without these add-ons you will not be able to adjust the screen resolution, connect flash drives to the virtual machine, etc. Fortunately, you don’t need to download anything; guest OS add-ons are included with VirtualBox. All you need to do is select the option in the virtual operating system menu Devices – Mount the Guest Additions disk image.

Go to the “This PC” section in the virtual OS, open the disk drive VirtualBox Guest Additions and, if the system does not offer to do this itself, run executable file VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe.

Install addons as regular program, accepting the security agreement, and reboot the virtual computer.

The guest system is ready for use, all that remains is to check the network operation. We will not dwell in detail on how to set up the Internet in VirtualBox. If you selected NAT, the VM will connect to the Internet automatically. With other types of connections, you will most likely have to tinker a little. Remember the main thing, if the IP address for your main computer is issued automatically by the router, the same settings must be set in the parameters network adapter virtual system. If settings are assigned manually, then they must also be assigned manually in the guest system network adapter settings.

Main problems when working with VirtualBox

VirtualBox – stable and high quality software, and if users have to face problems during its operation, the causes of the latter are most often the errors of the users themselves. Thus, those who try to launch virtual machines on VirtualBox with Hyper-V active will encounter the error “Failed to open a session for the virtual machine” (code E_FAIL 0x80004005). The reason is the incompatibility of these virtualization platforms. If you are planning to use VirtualBox, please disable Hyper-V and vice versa.

However, the disabled virtualization function in the BIOS can lead to the same error. This will be indicated by the unavailability of hardware virtualization options in the virtual machine settings (VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging in the section System - Acceleration). By the way, these options must be enabled even with active virtualization in the BIOS, otherwise the VM will also not start.

A VM crashing into BSOD at startup is a common problem caused by a lack of allocated guest space. operating system resources physical computer. When creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox, you need to ensure that the allocated resources meet the requirements of the operating system.

The Blue Screen of Death can also be caused by Hyper-V enabled on the host system and a controller type mismatch. If the virtual disk was previously connected to SATA, and then you connected it to IDE, the guest OS will fail with a critical error and crash into BSOD. The issue is being resolved by creating a new compatible controller and connecting a container file with the guest system to it.

Accidental deletion of snapshot files by the user may result in the inability to start the VM. You need to delete snapshots correctly - through the “Snapshots” section, otherwise you will have to completely reinstall the guest system. If VirtualBox itself does not start or when you start it you get the error “Cannot access the kernel driver!”, most likely you will have to uninstall the program and then reinstall it.