Why do you use a Virtual Machine?

I use VMs because:
1. It is a system that does not require a reboot to boot, and
2. You can install anything even the OSes that does not support by your CPU.

Disadvantages:
1. VMs are virtualized, so there was performance hits.

SNAPSHOTS

Goodness, gracious. Once you get used to using Snapshot technology on VMware there is no turning back. You can do programming, scripting, testing, teaching, analyzing on a virtual machine that supports snapshots you don't have to worry it will break anything. Something doesn't work or completely messes up the registry or anything and restart, select the snapshot and it's like it never happened and the entire process of reboot, change snapshot, load OS again is less than 10 seconds.

You can test install software on a virtual machine to see how it looks, runs, operates without fear it might be infected or cause harm to your main system. If all goes well and you like it, then install it on your main system. If it goes bonkers and messes things up, no harm and now you know not to install it on your main system.

Test some new file, folder copy routine you're not sure of, and see how it runs. When you have it working how you want then use it on your physical computer.

Programs that worked well on XP but perhaps don't run quite as well on Windows 10. No problem, run it on XP in a virtual machine.



You can copy the folders to another computer and bring them up just like they were new computers on a completely different physical computer.

You can encrypt the virtual machine as well and install a TPM and Secure Boot for Windows 11 without any hacks

AdvancedSetup said:

Goodness, gracious. Once you get used to using Snapshot technology on VMware there is no turning back.

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In Hyper-V, for 'Snapshot' read 'Checkpoint' in all of the above.

I use Windows Sandbox VM's everyday, they are really useful for testing links and other stuff posted on the forums without risking the main install.

z3r010 said:

I use Windows Sandbox VM's everyday, they are really useful for testing links and other stuff posted on the forums without risking the main install.

Enable or Disable Windows Sandbox in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the Windows Sandbox feature for all users in Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. Windows Sandbox provides a lightweight desktop environment to safely run applications in isolation. Software installed inside the Windows Sandbox...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

One actually really useful change in Dev is that the Sandbox has persistence i.e. you can reboot the pc e.g. to finish installing something.

Don't know how this change got past the emoji/round corner mafia LOL.

Bree said:

In Hyper-V, for 'Snapshot' read 'Checkpoint' in all of the above.

Click to expand...

Indeed, I just prefer VMware Workstation. It's been much more compatible with hardware and software for me over the years. Myself and another network admin worked on backing up the live ESXi files on Linux before the creators even got backups working in the very early 2000s, we got it working and actually emailed them back and forth a bit on how we got it working. Those were fun times.

But Hyper-V is pretty awesome too and like VMware gets better each year.

AdvancedSetup said:

Indeed, I just prefer VMware Workstation. It's been much more compatible with hardware and software for me over the years. Myself and another network admin worked on backing up the live ESXi files on Linux before the creators even got backups working in the very early 2000s, we got it working and actually emailed them back and forth a bit on how we got it working. Those were fun times.

But Hyper-V is pretty awesome too and like VMware gets better each year.

Click to expand...

If you use Linux KVM/QEMU is pretty awesome too these days !!! I run several Windows VM's using that on a NAS server running Arch Linux with KDE as the GUI. Latest kernel 5.16.8

Cheers
jibo

AdvancedSetup said:

Indeed, I just prefer VMware Workstation. It's been much more compatible with hardware and software for me over the years. Myself and another network admin worked on backing up the live ESXi files on Linux before the creators even got backups working in the very early 2000s, we got it working and actually emailed them back and forth a bit on how we got it working. Those were fun times.

But Hyper-V is pretty awesome too and like VMware gets better each year.

Click to expand...

It all depends on what you are running.

Hyper-V's roots come from Windows server systems, and it was designed to run Windows OS's. When ported to Windows consumer versions, it had limitations (only run in basic mode). Eventually enhanced mode was introduced, meaning you could share drives, get sound cut and paste etc. provided the Windows OS supported RDP servers (all Windows except Home).

I have done a number of tests and running a Windows OS in Hyper-V enhanced mode always outperforms VMWare Station (Type 1 vs Type 2 Hypervisor).

However, Hyper-V is not geared as a general purpose VM tool, and will only run most non Windows OS's in basic mode, and thus no sound or simple storage sharing etc. You can now run some Linux OS's in enhanced mode if they have xrdp server installed, and even get sound (that is tricky and not that satisfactory - time lags between audio and visual for example).

My basic conclusion is use Hyper-V for Windows OSs as guest (except Home), and others for non Windows OSs.

Of course, if performance of Windows guests is not critical, use whatever tool you like.

I use Hyper-V for occasional testing of Windows and apps, using simulated older hardware. for testing for my own use I prefer to use a Windows to Go Install on an external TB3 NVME drive, as this gives me information on how it will work on My hardware without having to install on the actual system - It also gives a more realistic test than a Hyper-V, (or any other simulated environment )

barman58 said:

I use Hyper-V for occasional testing of Windows and apps, using simulated older hardware. for testing for my own use I prefer to use a Windows to Go Install on an external TB3 NVME drive, as this gives me information on how it will work on My hardware without having to install on the actual system - It also gives a more realistic test than a Hyper-V, (or any other simulated environment )

Click to expand...

I generally avoided WTG solutions as too slow but now I have an NVME external drive, I might give it a shot.

How do you create the WTG drive - I know you can uses the Rufus but not sure if it wipes existing data? You might have an easier approach.

Of course, Installing to a dual boot vhdx virtual drive does pretty much the same thing, although you need to make a simple boot entry (easily removed using MSCONFIG).

There was a manual way that used Rufus before they added the specific option (I only used it once or twice, before switching to the new Rufus option - with this I just let it do it's thing I have a number of suitable NVME Drives so default to clear the drive during creation, or reset the drive to unallocated with no partitions

Note Edited to correct my failing memory