How to setup a virtual machine?

This brief Instructable will guide you through the steps needed to install and run a "guest OS" on a virtual machine inside your PC.

Step 1 Getting your virtualization client.

There are several notable applications out there which allow you to setup a virtual machine inside your PC. Microsoft has its own client that can run Windows guest operating systems, but it isn't very good. The 2 renowned applications for this purpose are:

1) VMWare Player/Workstation
2) VirtualBox

With reference to VMWare Player, it is a free product, but leaves out on several crucial features which are a must-have. VMWare Workstation provides these features, but it costs $50 so this puts many people off.

On the other hand, VirtualBox (see home-page) is open-source (i.e. free), is highly customizable, has a very easy user interface and works flawlessly. So I would heavily recommend going with this.

You can download it from here:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/2.2.4/VirtualBox-2.2.4-47978-Win.exe

After downloading, install it as you would install any other basic application, there is nothing out of the ordinary here.

Comments

[Arbitror]

The maximum possible screen resolution is not only 800x600 for Linux. Try openSUSE.

[Ali_Athar]

Probably depends on your monitor size as well. Mine is a 19" CRT, anyway, installing Guest Additions is a painless task that's very beneficial.