Virtual Box

Last week I wrote about older computers and software. It was pointed out, by Sid Guddes, that there is an alternative to keeping an old computer and its software. I’m including Sid’s very excellent email to me below. I’ll have some additional comments below that.
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“Saw your article on old software that won't run on Windows 10.  Although it's perfectly fine to have two computers, that takes more desk space and is a pain if data needs to be shared between the two computers.  Also, eventually the old Windows 98 computer will have stuff go wrong and it may be difficult or impossible to get replacement parts.

An alternative is VirtualBox.  VirtualBox is open source that allows you to create one or more virtual machines (VM) on your PC.  So if you have a Windows 10 PC, you can create say Windows XP, Windows 98, and Linux virtual machines and effortlessly switch between them.

There are a couple of drawbacks to VirtualBox:

- each VM needs RAM, so your PC needs lots of RAM
- there is some overhead to running a VM, but if your PC is fast enough, you likely won't notice the overhead
- VirtualBox does not include any Windows licenses, so once you create say a Windows 98 VM, you'll need the Windows 98 install disks

In spite of this, VirtualBox (or its ilk) can be a good alternative to be able to run old Windows software.  Other vendors (VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, Xen) also have virtual machine products.

There are other advantages to using a VM.  Say you want to install software but are suspicious it may be malicious.  You can create a VM with just a small self-contained C: drive and install the software there.  If it misbehaves, you can just delete the VM and the rest of your system is secure.  Or if you're going to browse a web site that might be malicious, same thing.”

Sid is, of course, absolutely correct. My only take on this would be that not everyone wants to create a VM world on their computer. Many folks just want to use their computer and getting any more into that is more bother than they want. For that, the simplest solution is to have multiple computers. I know a guy with at least 4. His software is no longer available, and he doesn’t have copies to load into a VM. This is quite precarious for the reasons that Sid mentioned.

I use VirtuaBox on my MacBook to run Windows 10. It was pretty easy to install, and works flawlessly. It is a very cool product. I knew a computer guy in Northfield Illinois that ran several instances of VirtualBox operating systems on a single server. Multiple Windows versions, Linux, and Mac OS. There are a lot of possibilities out there.

Interested in running Windodws 10 on your Mac?  click here.