Experiment with software using virtual machines. This is how.

Virtual machines are powerful pieces of software that offer a plethora of use cases for everyone ranging from those of us who use computers for “office” work to software and hardware engineers who employ deep knowledge of software engineering and computer design. Chances are that if you are an IT professional, you are already familiar with virtual machines and probably use them in some form on a daily basis. This article will focus on the readers who either don’t know what a virtual machine is, how to use one, or both. Further, this article focuses on setting up a virtual machine on macOS. If you are on Windows or another operating system, the idea is the same, but the installation steps differ.

A video form of this write-up is available here if you prefer.

What are virtual machines?

Virtual machines allow you to essentially create another computer within your existing computer. Look at the picture at the top of this post. You can see the default macOS Catalina desktop with an application window open. That application is a running a virtual machine using Parallels software. Just like you can have Microsoft Excel or Apple Pages or any other application running in its own window, a virtual machine is an application that lets you run a whole operating system within a window…