"Futures made of virtual insanity" - Jamiroquai
The screenshot is me installing Windows in a window on Windows. Maybe this isn't the insanity Jamiroquai warned us of, but one thing is clear - there is some insanity here.
This is all possible using virtual machines - computers that exist only in software and are run by another physical computer. If this is making your head spin, just think of Windows as a program just like Word that is run on Windows.
So why is this a good thing? Virtual machines are disposable. If something goes wrong in a virtual machine, you can just delete it and start over with out days spent recreating your system. A few examples:
Say you want to check out the Photoshop CS3 beta, but you have CS2 installed and you can't afford to have the CS3 Beta break your CS2 install - you need it for work. Create a virtual machine to install CS3 in. You main system is not aware of the CS3 Beta, and nothing is corrupted.
A second example; say you have upgraded to IE7 (and you should have). A friend emails you to tell you that your awesome blog theme is "broken" when he looks at it in IE6. You have no desire to downgrade to IE6, but you do want all people - even those still running craptacular IE6 - to read your blog. Install a virtual machine running IE6 to test out your blog theme.
Last, you want to install Vista, but are worried some critical application doesn't yet run in Vista. Install Vista, then on Vista, install a virtual machine to run Windows XP.
How do you install a virtual machine? There are a few options out there, but if you are running Windows I recommend downloading the free Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. After downloaded and installed, it's time to setup your first Virtual PC.
When you first run VPC, the new machine wizard will launch. You can also start this by clicking the "New..." button. Select "Create a virtual machine" and name it some like "WinXP IE6" to remind yourself this machine is for testing websites with IE6 on WinXP. From the Operating System select "Windows XP".
You'll notice there are a number of systems supported and an "Other" choice. VPC doesn't actually contain these system, you are just picking a machine "profile" to run under. Microsoft has configured the profiles with VPC to match system requirements of each system listed. You can use the Other profile to install non-Microsoft systems like linux, but this may involve some meaningful time on Google.
Next, you'll have the option of setting the RAM. You can take the default, or add more RAM for a faster virtual machine. Keep in mind, the more RAM the virtual machine uses, the less your physical machine has. After RAM, you'll need to select "A new virtual hard disk" to create a new file that will be the hard disk inside of the virtual machine. The default of 70GB is fine.
Wait - what if I don't have a 70GB hard drive!?! Don't worry, the file only takes up the actual space it uses - a typical Windows XP with SP2 will be about 3GB.
Once you hit finish, you'll see your new virtual machine - select it and click "Start". A bios screen will flash and soon you'll be at a line that says "DHCP" with a spinning wait icon. The new machine is looking for a network install image to boot from and load Windows XP. Don't have one of those? Ya, neither did I. Insert your Windows XP CD in your physical drive, and after a second click the CD menu and select "Use Physical Drive X:". If you have an ISO image of Windows XP you can select "Capture ISO Image..." and select the image - it will be loaded as a CD in the virtual machine. Now select the Action menu, and choose "Crtl+Alt+Delete" to reboot the virtual machine. At this point, Windows Setup begins...
As you go through the install, you might notice you mouse is "trapped" inside the virtual machine. Hit the Right Alt key on your keyboard to "break it loose".
After you have Windows installed, select the Action menu again, and click "Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions". A screen pops up to let you know this will add an CD image to the virtual machine and in a moment the install will auto run inside the virtual machine. This will enable additional features, such as a smarter mouse that doesn't have to be "set free" and the ability to share files between the virtual machine and the physical one.
Now you have a virtual machine installed. You can save yourself the trouble of the setup a second time by making a copy of the VHD file in your "My Documents/My Virtual Machines" directory and the use this file in the new machine wizard where it asks if you have an existing hard drive image.
