What Is A Virtual Machine And What Is It For?
A virtual machine is created with a special software that emulate a real computer with all its resources and components.
In computing, visualisation refers to creating a virtual version of anything, be it a storage device, network resources or an operating system. This type of practise is not only useful for professionals and technology lovers, since it offers solutions for all types of users, allowing you to try different things on a single computer.
One of the most common ways in which virtualisation is used is o run two operating systems side by side, thanks to the use of so-called “virtual machines”.
What Is A Virtual Machine?
A virtual machine is a software that emulate a computer just as if it were a real one. All this happens in a window within your current operating system like any other program you use. The idea of this type of software is that you can run operating systems as if they were an application, while you believe you are using the hardware of a common physical computer. Every time you want to use this operating system, you can open the virtualisation software and “turn on” your machine.
How Does It Work?
When you create a virtual machine (VMware Support in Dallas) to install another operating system, you will have to assign all the resources you need: how much hard disk space, how much RAM, how much graphic memory, deciding where the virtual hard disk will be, etc. All this will be taken from the resources you have on your computer. This means that if, for example, you have 16GB of RAM and you want a virtual machine with 6GB of RAM, you can do it. But, the original operating system will only have 10GB of RAM available when the virtual machine is powered on. The same goes for the hard drive. If you designate 30GB of disk space, that space will be closed and will be used only by the virtual machine.
After doing this process, the virtual machine will be ready to receive an operating system.
What Is A Virtual Machine For?
1. You can install operating systems to test or experiment with them. It is a good solution if you want to try an unstable or new version of Windows before updating your computer.
2. You can run old applications, those that never updated and only work in Windows XP or something even older. If your current operating system is much more modern and there are incompatibilities, then you can create a virtual machine for this type of program.
3. You can test with software updates on the virtual machine before installing it on your current operating system. Usually, the updates are to improve a program, but in some cases they can only make the user experience worse. You can never be very cautious.
4. Install a Linux distribution that you’ve always wanted to try. With the virtual machine everything will be safer because you can easily remove the operating system in case you do not like it and you will not have hardware incompatibility problems.
5. If you are a Linux user but you need a program or game that only works in Windows, you can do it through a virtual machine. In this way you avoid having to install both systems on the computer.
We hope these tips answered your questions, if you have some other tips do mention them in the comments below.
