Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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Virtual machine programs enable multiple operating systems to be loaded on a single PC.

One of the most obvious uses would be to combine Linux and Windows, suggested in an article by Stephen B. Morris.

The two most popular are Microsoft Virtual PC and VMware Player. Microsoft’s product both creates and runs virtual machines, while VMware Player plays preconfigured virtual machines only.

Here is a quick preview of how to use the Microsoft product. I wanted to see how it might work to run Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 in a window of a Vista machine.

If you want to get a sense of why this might be useful, check out my update — Vista — Are You Kidding Me?

After you install VPC, use the Console to click New and begin a new VPC. Each VPC is a complete installation of an operating system, applications and settings.

Figure 1

Name your new VPC — you can change its location but by default it goes into My Virtual PCs.

Figure 2

You can use the defaults or manually change the memory settings for the Virtual PC you've created. You need to have enough RAM to be able to assign a reasonable amount to the new OS running in your window.

Figure 3

You can also use the wizard to create a new virtual hard disk where the new OS and programs will be installed.

Figure 4

Now, inside the new VPC window you can begin a new Windows installation, and literally install Windows XP into the virtual PC inside Vista. (You can put the installation CD into the drive with the VPC window active and begin a new Action).

You are not limited to Windows XP, of course — for example if you are an old Word Perfect 5.0 fan (they're still out there) you could install an older OS and run the DOS based program on your PC and load the necessary printer drivers to print your Word Perfect documents.

Figure 5

After installing Windows XP you can go ahead and install Office 2003, and use it inside Vista.

This can give you the ability to allow users who have resisted any upgrade to the newer versions to continue to work comfortably in an older environment.

It's also a great way to enable training in difference scenarios with different operating systems and applications.

Figure 6

When you close the window you can Save the VPC "State" or close it down (recovering the entire slab of memory devoted to it.

If you don't save the state, you will need to start up the entire window and restart the programs as though you had actually shut down an entire computer, so saving the state is easier if you have the resources to devote to it.

Figure 7

One tricky aspect is that if you don't install the VPC "Additions", your mouse can get stuck in the VPC window. You can click the right <alt> key which frees up the mouse — and then you can use the File menu to begin installing the Additions. Make sure your web connection is active. Installing Additions will make it easier to navigate between VPC and the host Operating System and move your mouse around both.

With Virtual PC installed you literally have two complete installations (or more) sharing your resources and peripherals — your VPC installations will also recognize your network connections, optical drives, mouse and keyboard and other peripherals. You may need to install drivers for your printers and if you need other programs, you need to (re)install them into the virtual configurations in order to work with files in its My Documents or Desktop areas.

Once you've mastered the concept of having a completely new installation in a window you will see other possibilities. You can also move the images of the installations between VPC installations, using a DVD disk or over a network. Typically these images will be very large, because again they will include an OS and some applications in addition to a new set of work product and user files.

This is also a good way to prevent users from customizing their work environment and standardizing what apps they use and how they use them.

With an enterprise using MS Office this makes a lot of potential sense, since besides the OS and the apps, you could also distribute on image a set of templates, boilerplate documents and user settings that lets everyone using a virtual machine work in exactly the same environment.

It is also a great way to simulate and test an environment before adopting it on a wider scale, and working out its kinks.

Creating your own VMware virtual machines requires an upgrade to VMware Workstation 6 for Windows ($189 direct). VMware Workstation offers many more features than Virtual PC does, including system-state snapshots and the ability to create an image of another computer on your network. Either is a good choice to begin exploring virtualization.

You can also download a 30-day trial version of VMware Workstation (http://www.vmware.com).

InformIT Articles and Sample Chapters

5 Easy Steps to Using Virtualization Technology

The Need for Virtualization and Xen

Books and eBooks

Network Virtualization (PDF)

The Virtual Enterprise

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