Vmware

i just installed vmware workstation on my 32x Vista laptop, i have a few questions about the software...

1-Can i install software as i would on a normal pc i.e open the program setup and install?

2-If the virtual machine gets infected with a virus, will it infect the pc?

3-Will i be able to access the hard drive partitions from the virtual machine?

 

1) yes, it's a virtual pc
2) nope, it will only live in the virtual pc world. but if they share network somehow, it may spread over the network
3) not directly, no. it could over the network, as noted in 2)

the virtual pc runs as a program with a file as it's harddrive. it can never directly access your ordinary pc directly (except if there's a bug in vmware or what ever similar software you use, and the virus uses that to spread out of the program. chances are more than tiny. they are around 0).

 

If you are referring to installing applications on the guest OS running on the virtual machine, then yes.

usually No.

Yes, you can access the virtual machine and it's hard drives as another computer on your local network; reverse also works the same way (Guest OS to host OS)

EDIT : davepermen got in before me

 

Thanks for the replies, one more thing, is virtual box the same as VMware, if not which one's the better option?

 

virtual box is virtually the same..

i really HAD to say this

nope, they are similar products. another similar one is virtual pc from microsoft.

i'd suggest virtualbox. it's simple, free, easy to get going. vmware is only partially free. the one most similar to virtualbox, vmware workstation, is not free.

for more than basic networking, vmware may be way to go.

i think virtual pc is free, too? as a third alternative.

 

haha couldn't help it huh :? Ok then i think i'll go for virtual box, i'll try it out tonight, if it's as good as Vmware i'll uninstall vmware...Thanks for the replies

 

it's less of a burden for the system. vmware installs all sorts of drivers and stuff, virtual box is more or less just an application. that's why i prefer it.


but i've used vmware years ago successfully at work. they're all great for doing their job (migrating an old dos-win98 app to winxp was not possible, but we really wanted to switch the os finally completely at work).

 

Vmware installs drivers n stuff to make it faster and provide more features, it uses Paravirtualization techniques (bypasses the virtual machine and accesses the hardware directly for making some operations faster), therefore sometimes running a guest OS on vmware is almost as fast as running it natively.
Vmware workstation is not free, but the player is free. Once you install an OS, you can use that image with the player as long as you like.

 

I just installed virtual box, it's not installing vista because it said the display mode is set to "24bit" and the OS requires "32Bit" i tried playing with the video memory but it didn't help, any ideas?

 

I installed Vista on VMware, if i use microsoft office on the VM will i be able to access the file on my pc?