Virtualisation - your alternative OS
Well most of the people are reluctant in installing another OS on their hard drive as it consumes a lot of space . needs a new partition and has got problems like filesystem incompatibility (ntfs write partially supported in linux and no support of ext3 on windows)
Now here comes virtualisation - the option for you to run multiple OSs in one host operating system. Now to understand virtualisation consider this picture .
I am not good at making pictures but anyways
Now Your host os is the one that currently runs on your computer. You install a virtualisation software like vmware , virtual pc in the software layer of you operating system. in the software layer the the virtualisation software creates guest operating system which furthur have software layer..
Now since there is no direct interaction between guest os in host os so you can install anything like a mac osx , a linux , or other windows install your current operating system
Uses of making a Virtual Machine
No hassles of disk partitioning , boot manager configuring etc.
Multiple OSs can be run at a same time . making your computer a mini LAN . Very suitable for making a pentest lab
There is no interaction between host and the guest os so you can test your virii ,trojan ,other malware without damaging the host
Now how to create a Virtual machine :-
Tools needed :-
vmware player - www.vmware.com/download/player/
vmx wizard - http://rhysgoodwin.orcon.net.nz/vmxwizard
IF you can buy/download vmware workstation i'd recommend that
Now creating virtual machines :- Use vmx wizard - to create VMX files
Choose the operating system type (windows ,linux,other)
Allocate the disk space
Specify the installation drive or cd image
Choose networking options
Save your virtual machine made
Running virtual machine :- use vmware player
Open .vmx file in vmware player
Now you are running a linux inside windows :- Click inside the machine to get inside virtual machine and work in there
Press Ctrl+Alt to get out of it
Well thats how you can run different OS within one OS
There are other feature in Vmware like :-
Snapshot :- just like system restore (but better and complete)
Suspend :- saves current configuration and stops vm (like hibernate ,but again lot better)
Poweroff :- no need to shut down . just cross the vmware player (faster shutdown)
Installing Vmware tools makes your Virtual machine really good :- better graphics support. File transfer between guest and host OS is simplifies (drag and drop) , and mouse change between guest and host OS is dramatically improved
