By Lee Sykes
April 2008
In this tutorial we demonstrate how to setup and use Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007. Virtual PC is available for free download and it allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time within one physical computer.
Virtual PC virtualizes the hardware of a physical computer; this means that a Virtual PC uses a standard hardware configuration which is not reliant on the hardware of the host computer. Therefore you can transfer a Virtual PC to another host computer without any software driver issues.
As an example, when working in DotNetNuke if you wish to run SQL Server 2000 along with Visual Studio 2003, you can set those applications up on one Virtual PC and then have the latest versions of SQL Server and Visual Studio on another Virtual PC. This avoids compatibility problems with applications and you can choose the most appropriate applications for the DotNetNuke version that you are currently working on.
Virtual PC is also useful for backwards compatibility testing of web browsers. If you wish to test a skin against IE5, setup a Virtual PC running Windows 98, IE6 can be tested with a fresh installation of Windows XP and so on.
There are many possibilities for improving your working environment by using Virtual PC and in this tutorial we provide a quick start guide to Virtual PC.
The Videos contain:
Video 1 - Introduction and installation of Virtual PC
- Introduction
- Benefits of using Virtual PC
- Virtual PC and DotNetNuke
- How to set up and use Virtual PC 2007
- How to download Virtual PC and minimum requirements
- How to create a Virtual Machine
- How to configure the Virtual PC
Time Length: 10min 3secs
Video 2 - Installation of Windows Vista to Virtual PC
- How to install Windows Vista Ultimate on to Virtual PC
- How to access the host computer
- How to install the Virtual Machine Additions
- How to transfer files to the Virtual PC
- How to pause and save the state of the Virtual PC
- Help within Virtual PC
Time Length: 6min 40secs
Total Time Length: 16min 43secs
Useful Links
Virtual PC is available to download for free from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx