I want to test some stuff without messing up my machine. Can you help me?
Fellow MakeUseOf blogger, Mark O’Neil, put us onto a method of running an installer in a “Safe Space” using the Run As command (This uses “The protect my computer and data from unauthorized programs” activity check box).
This is a great method for running programs that might be a little suspicious. That little check box prevents the newly launched app from intermingling with protected system files.
But if you just HAVE to install that iffy installer… If you got that itch and just can’t shake it….
Then you got a bad case of the downloads… and when your Admin sense kicks into over-drive it’s usually to late. So
before you Install that Pron Video Bootleg Game legacy application lets think about loading it up in a Virtual Machine.
(Edit: As another good use for this -as seen in the image below you can run a VM with Vista in it on your XP machine – this can be a HUGE admin tool in trouble shooting when you don’t run Vista or another OS.)
What’s a Virtual Machine or VM you ask? Good question!
A VM is another computer or operating system running within your current machine. Did I loose you?
Ok let me try that again. So lets say you are running Windows XP and you have a few Windows 2000 Pro Licenses lying around, from some older defunct machines. You can run that Windows 2000 machine within your XP machine. That’s right with a different virtual registry, hard drive and everything. Load up whatever junk you want and then you can easily revert back to your original image when you are done if you need to…
(When it Turns out BigBlondePorn32.exe wasn’t exactly what you thought it was.)
And best of all Microsoft VM is totally free. All they ask is that you use a legal license for your VM (as it is another machine and all). But if you are like me grabbing a COA from the computer graveyard isn’t a big deal. And look you made good use of something that was collecting dust!
January 4, 2008 - 4:13 pm
MS Virtual PC is okay, except if you want to do Linux. For some reason it just doesn’t jive. Did you know you can install the free VMWare server on Windows XP?
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June 9, 2008 - 8:52 am
VMs are a fine way, but personally I use Altiris SVS, when I try new software. (http://juice.altiris.com/). “>http://juice.altiris.com/). It virtualizes the application inside a running OS, so you don't have to set up a whole new VM to test a single application. Plus, the Personal Version is free
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June 9, 2008 - 8:55 am
How is the performance compared to a VM?
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June 10, 2008 - 6:02 am
Personally I think it's a little faster than a VM. But the greatest advantage in my opinion is, that i can try the new app in my every-day work environment, without messing with my system. One Example is, that I can install different versions of different browsers and activate them, when I need them. Here is a review at Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/software/installation/hack-...“> “>http://lifehacker.com/software/installation/hack-...
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June 10, 2008 - 6:02 am
Personally I think it's a little faster than a VM. But the greatest advantage in my opinion is, that i can try the new app in my every-day work environment, without messing with my system. One Example is, that I can install different versions of different browsers and activate them, when I need them. Here is a review at Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/software/installation/hack-...“> “>http://lifehacker.com/software/installation/hack-...
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June 10, 2008 - 6:12 am
Thanks Jagermo this looks pretty sweet. I am going to give it a shot later today.
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June 10, 2008 - 6:13 am
But since Altiris was bought by Microsoft, SVS is now only available to SA customers (rebranded as SoftGrid).
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June 10, 2008 - 6:14 am
Make sure you have plenty of RAM when using VMs. Running Vista in a VM with 512 Megs of RAM is even more painful than running it on physical hardware with that little RAM.
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June 10, 2008 - 8:55 am
Do people still get machines with less than 2gb of ram? Its like running windows 98 on 32mb of ram. It can be done buy it is as painful as… Well its painful!!
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February 4, 2009 - 4:46 pm
I usually use Sandboxie for my testing-downloaded-application needs, it’ll launch apps at ’sandbox’ without messing up with my system. When I done testing, I just need to delete the content of the sandbox.
Give it a try!
http://www.sandboxie.com/
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Aakash Shah Reply:
February 5th, 2009 at 1:24 am
SandboxIE doesn’t support Vista 64: http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?WindowsVista64
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February 4, 2009 - 9:17 pm
Why not use Sandboxie? It is meant exactly for this specific purpose and offers much greater control and security. It runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.
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February 5, 2009 - 1:25 am
VirtualBox is another great option as a VM. I prefer VirtualBox over VirtualPC because I find it to be more responsive. VirtualBox is also free like VirtualPC:
http://www.virtualbox.org
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February 5, 2009 - 11:10 am
+1 for VirtualBox
a solicitor may have a different opinion than you, Karl, about the legality of grabbing a OEM license key from the COA sticker of a ‘dead’ computer from the graveyard. :)
however, all is not lost! Microsoft offers 4 different “Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images” to download for free to be used with MS VPC:
XP SP3 IE6, XP SP2 IE7, XP SP3 IE8 and Vista IE7
while intended for web developers to view their works in different versions of Internet Explorer, these are in fact fully fledged installations of the respective desktop operating system. they are usually activated for 6 months. the current images expire in April 09, then there will be new releases.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en
all free, all legal. enjoy!
p.s.: VBox, since version 2, also supports MS VPC images.
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
February 6th, 2009 at 5:13 am
That is awesome Molly! Thanks for the heads up. You are just chock full of knowledge :)
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