Windows on Linux with VM - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 07:39:42 am
content: Hi,I used to run Windows and Linux with dual boot.Some of the software I use is Windows only so finally I used Windows for some years and discarded Linux.Now, with the new Windows 10 Spyware, I want to evaluate the possibility of run Linux as my principal OS and Windows on a VM for those applications I can't run on Linux.I know about nothing of VM.So... is it a must to make a clean install of Windows or is it a chance of use an image of my current installation of Windows 7 64 Ultimate?Any other advice about the change is welcome.

author: Zucca
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 07:51:13 am
content: I am dealing with the same problem... anyway in my experience a forum can only give you a direction at the end of the day you need to install a VM and try it out.That´s the only way I know to understand if this is the right move or not.In my case I am tempted by FreeBSD 10.2 and the VM bhyvehttps://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bhyve&sektion=4

author: Mr.B
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 07:55:29 am
content: I have never tried this, but...At work we use Veeam Backup and Replication in a VMware virtual environment. A great product.Veeam have just released a free version of Veeam Backup.You should be able to image your Windows machine and then boot the image under Linux in a virtual box.Other more experienced Linux users will have better advice on visualization under Linux.

author: Karel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 07:57:18 am
content: For beginners, Virtualbox is the easiest way to virtualize windows on Linux.

author: Kintekobo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 08:10:26 am
content: I have used VMWare on both Mac and PCs and it has played well with just about any O/S I have hosted on it. One of its features is the ability to VM an image of a normal computer. Just network the machine you want to image to the VM machine and it transfers it to a VM pretty quickly. Done it to a couple of PCs and all of the installed software worked just fine afterwards.Hope this helps.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 08:34:14 am
content: I'm using Windows from Virtualbox under Linux and it works fine. I'd advise against creating an image from an existing Windows machine. During installation parts of Windows are compiled/linked (whatever you want to call it) to tailor Windows to your hardware. The hardware of a VM (or another PC) is different so you could run into trouble or you have to re-install drivers etc. I strongly recommend to start with a fresh Windows install. That also creates the possibility to keep that fresh install and use a clone from it to install the rest of the software. I have about 8 different virtual machines for various purposes. Sometimes I fire up two Windows VMs to be able to use a piece of software twice which normally can only be started once.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 09:13:20 am
content: I've bought a PC to use as NAS/Linux-box, and I'll try to just KVM switch between them instead and see how that goes. It will idle at a lot lower power than my windows PC with it's power hungry GPU.It's such a shame we're being forced into this, in some ways Microsoft 10 moved far in the right direction ... sideloading was unlocked so everyone could install programs outside of the main appshop, project centennial allows C/win32 apps to be ported to the sandbox. The lack of these were some of the greatest problems I had with the Windows appstore model and Windows 8. Then they follow it up by completely screwing the pooch on privacy and mandatory updatingI'd really prefer for Microsoft to provide a decent alternative to Google (the ultimate spyware) and Apple (their success breeds monoculture in hardware AND software, not good for technological progress).

author: Zucca
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 09:18:51 am
content: Quote from: Marco on August 28, 2015, 09:13:20 amgood point, what´s your µP and how much RAM you have?

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 10:27:48 am
content: A HP Z210 with Xenon e3-1270 (3.4 GHz Sandy Bridge) with 8 GB RAM (might upgrade to 16). Haven't tested it yet, but reviews said it idled at <30W.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 10:32:46 am
content: You can pretty easily use dd to clone a Windows partition into a file to use with a VM. Windows will in general cope with the change of hardware although you might have activation issues. The only not negotiable with a windows install is the hal, and you can change that out with some changes to the boot command line. You can also switch elements of the VM on and off (like ACPI/APIC and Processor flags) to make the VM use the same hal the native machine used. It's not a walk in the park, but if you know your way around Windows its certainly do-able.All my windows VM's have been installed from scratch inside the VM. It's just cleaner that way, but I have run up raw partitions in a VM (like when I urgently needed access to some stuff on the laptop I'd just fried by putting 240v into the USB port). I put the HD into a USB enclosure and fired up the windows install inside a VM.I now use qemu/kvm for all my VM's, but I used Virtualbox for years, qemu/kqemu before that and Win4Lin back in the Windows 95 & 2000 days. I've played with VMware, but unless you need 3D there is plenty of software that is lighter and less commercial that will do the job.

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 10:56:08 am
content: The actual Windows 7 installation is in the PC where Linux will be installed and the VM run.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 11:00:16 am
content: Quote from: EdoNork on August 28, 2015, 10:56:08 amYeah, either use it in the partition it lives in, or if you ever intend to boot back into it clone it into a VM file. Once it has adjusted to running in the VM it's not going to want to run on the bare metal again without some serious jiggery pokery.