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I want to test my software on different Windows Operating Systems. I plan to do it using Virtual Machine software, either VMWare or Microsoft Virtual PC.
I would like to be able to test Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 98 in both 32 and 64 bit flavors, and possibly at differing service pack levels.
Where can I get the Images or full OS's, either free or by purchase, to run on either of these VM systems?
Update, June 2015: Microsoft is retiring the TechNet Subscription service and replacing it with the TechNet Evaluation Center. So romandas' answer is no longer valid. I'm moving the accepted answer over to Michael Burr, whose link still provides a good number of OS images, and for free as well.
Edit: Apparently, my original answer of using Technet is incorrect if you plan on testing custom code with the Technet-provided products. I'm not going to comment on whether it's illegal or not, since I Am Not A Lawyer, Nor Do I Play One On TV, but it is clearly a violation of MS's license agreement to do it. So, if you want to test custom code on MS products, apparently you will need to grab one of the MSDN subscriptions. My apologies for any confusion this may have caused.
Less expensive than MSDN (over $1000 I believe) is MS Technet Plus ($349 for download-only; $249 to renew). Since you are only asking for operating systems, not developer tools. Technet includes everything MS has except Visual Studio and related. I use this for building systems within my VMWare testbed. 10 licenses per OS.
There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions of all their OS and servers, plus legacy stuff going back to MS-DOS.
Information here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx
You can get VPC images of installed OS's from Microsoft at no cost for a select number of OS/IE configurations:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef
(http://www.modern.ie/)
There are a couple caveats - the images expire in a few months, then they put up new ones for download - so these really are for testing. Also their licensing might have restrictions in addition to the expiration date (I honestly don't know - I haven't used one of these in a long time).
Currently the available images are:
WinXP SP3 with IE6
WinXP SP2 with IE7
WinXP SP3 with IE8 Beta
Vista with IE7
WinXP to Windows 8.1, IE6 to IE11
For other OS's, your best bet is something like the MSDN or Technet subscription mentioned elsewhere.
The easiest way is with a MSDN subscription of some sort. You get ISO's of all the OS's for testing purposes for one yearly fee. Depending on your situation the cost varies.
MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx
Bizspark: http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/
Action Pack: http://partner.microsoft.com/40016455
Empower for ISV: http://partner.microsoft.com/40011351
Oddly, the partner site is completely broken for Google Chrome right now.
Edit:
If you qualify for Action Pack, Empower, or Bizspark then you're talking ~$300/year for 5 MSDN subscriptions, a bunch of office licenses, real SQL Server licenses, etc.
If you have the installers for these OSs on DVDs, you can route your Virtual PC to user the host PC's disk drive and just boot the virtual machine off the disk. Then you continue with the OS install as if you were doing it on an actual machine.
Make sure you allocate enough resources to each virtual PC ahead of time.
That is how I did it for Microsoft Virtual PC
Take a look at the VMWare Appliance Market:
Windows 7
Windows 2008 Server
Windows 2003 R2 Server
You can get the ISOs from MSDN and install them as VMs. Once you have a fresh install, take a snapshot so you can easily start off with a clean slate, or at various different points (e.g. OS without .NET and OS with .NET).
An MSDN subscription is what you need. All the old OSs in different versions (including international). Not as VM images though, you'll need to install them yourself. The licence terms would prohibit a 3rd distrubuting OS image files obviously.
Another virtualization tool you should consider is VirtualBox by Sun. It runs on any platform, and can run most any OS, even with seamless windows. It's free, easy to install and uses minimal resources. Here's a list of known supported OSes
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I am wondering if it is possible to run a program (specifically rainmeter) on Windows 95/98 but is meant to run on at least XP. The reason being is that I have an old computer with limited ram, and I want to minimize the system impact by running the earliest version of windows possible, so I can run rainmeter on it without major lag, and hook it up to a spare monitor to display random data (such as date, time, ect.) I would just hook it up to my main computer, but my video card is already maxed out in terms of ports. The computer in question is an AMD Athlon XP w/ 1gb ram and some sort of integrated graphics, and a 160gb hdd (which I am probably going to swap out with an old 30gb I have).
Two things: First, an Athlon XP with 1 GB RAM is a really, really powerful machine for the time. Windows 95 was intended for 4 MB Machines, while Windows 98 required 16 MB. Windows XP required 64 MB and came out at a time when machines with 128 MB RAM were standard and 1 GB was the real "Why do you need so much outside of a Server?!" amount - there is really no reason not to run Windows XP on it and save you all the headache.
Secondly, running an app meant for Windows XP on Windows 98 may be as trivial as "Just copy it over" or impossible. There are some runtime things that aren't part of Windows 98 but can be installed on it, for example Internet Explorer 5, the Visual C++ Runtime or the .net Framework 2.0. However, there are some system APIs that simply do not exist in Windows 98 and there is no way to add them (this also includes .net Frameworks newer than 2.0 or the Visual C++ Runtime since at least 2010).
it is also of note that Windows XP is based on Windows 2000/NT while Windows 95/98 is based on a completely different kernel with different APIs, introducing further incompatibilities.
It would be an exercise to find out exactly what prevents the app from running on Windows 98 and checking if there are redistributable components available for it, but as said, with a machine as powerful as yours, there is no reason not to install at least Windows XP.
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My PC at work has Windows 7 Professional Edition which I know I cannot use the regular RDP to connect using 2 monitors.
Is there any alternative I can use to connect to a Windows 7 Professional Edition via RDP?
Just to clear this up
Windows 7 pro can use true multiple monitors when it is the client (connecting to server 2008/windows 7 ult or enterprise)
When it is the HOST (ie the one you are connecting to) it will only allow single monitor connections to it, the span option works to stretch the session over 2 screens but it ISNT true multimonitor mode
Sorry sam but you cant connect to windows 7 pro in tru multimon mode, the screenshot you have shown is the remote desktop client, hence why the options are there
The situation is that when Win7 Pro is the host (meaning it is the remote machine), it does NOT provide multiple monitor support.
No matter what settings you use on the client, you will get only a single monitor, if the host is Win7 Pro. Period.
The sad fact is that the Win7 FAQ - for a long time - said ALL versions of Win7 supported multiple monitors through RDP, without qualification.
After many users complained of this failing with Win7 Pro as the host, Microsoft fixed it - by changing the FAQ. Frankly, Microsoft owes this feature to all Win7 users, but Win8 is now the new (and obviously, at the time of this writing, failed) focus of attention.
There ARE programs out there that patch Windows Home to have full RDP hosting (actually, the 2008 server version, which allows multiple remote desktops). Apparently it is a single DLL and, possibly, some registry changes. I have no idea if they'd work for Pro, but my guess is that they would.
That said, if you have an IT department managing your host PC, you probably can't do this, and will have spend $130 to use the Anytime upgrade to the Ultimate version.
This despite the fact that the overwhelming desktop being remotely connected to at businesses is Pro. Yeah, I think MS just found a possible cash cow, and of course won't ever admit it, or live up the promise they made via their FAQ for quite a long time.
Win7 does have duel monitor support
WinXP does not
As long as the PC you are using, and the PC you are connected to is Win7, there should not be a problem. Also the PC you are Using the RDP connection from must have duel screens. If not you well have to use a VNC like Teamviewer.
See below
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I've started developing with Delphi on the Mac and thought I would share my observations and see if anyone else had any advice or tips for Mac development with Delphi.
A while back I had some comment discussion about Delphi development on a Mac. It was in the comments of an answer to another question. With the passing of some months, I thought it might be worth writing up a quick summary for anyone thinking about switching VM host.
Overall OS X + VMware makes a very nice development platform for making Delphi apps.
Platform
MacBook Pro 17" 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo. OS X Leopard
VMware Fusion 2.0.5
Vista + Delphi 2007
Observations
moving an existing PC development environment is straight forward. VMware
can build a VM from a physical PC, or as I did, build it from a TrueImage backup. Existing host VMS's can just be copied across.
there is obviously a performance hit using a VM, but it's not really that noticeable. I'd say speed is at least as fast as my previous HP 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo
get plenty of RAM. 4GB or 8 if you can afford it. 4GB is quite usable
Delphi building a fair-sized app goes fine in a 1.5GB VM
allocate only 1 core to the VM - it's faster
use a virtual hard drive for the guest OS. It's much faster than running the guest from a BootCamp partition
the MBP has two video subsystems, NVidia 9400M and 9600M GT. Using the faster 9600M gives a much smoother experience when VMware is running
VMware Fusion doesn't have the WDDM driver needed to enable Aero. If your app has Aero features you want to test, you'll need to make a separate BootCamp Windows installation to try out the Aero features
the ctrl key vs command key of Windows and OS X will probably be quite annoying with the default settings. VMware let's you control key mappings, so you can set it so the Win vs Mac differences are minimised. You'll probably also want to tweak the keyboard and mouse settings in System Preferences
the Mac function keys (Expose etc) conflict step on the Delphi. The Mac function keys can be disabled in the VMware preferences.
if you are using a MBP, there are no PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys. Apple got a bit too minimalist here. You get these keys using Fn or Cmd modifiers. There are irritating inconsistencies between some apps
two-finger scrolling on the MBP trackpad is a thing of beauty
if you don't have multiple monitors, putting Windows full-screen in a Space works pretty well
if you use Time Machine for backups, it will backup the entire VM (unless you have it broken into smaller files). You can make this more manageable by creating a snapshot. Time Machine will then only backup the much smaller change file. That file will gradually grow - delete the snapshot and make a new one (doing a backup first, of course :-)
Mac is a nice user experience, but it's not magic - they have their wtf moments too
What are you Delphi Development with Mac tips and advice? Thanks!
You can also try wxForms for Delphi from TwinForms.com
For making native Mac apps you might want to check out Lazarus. Its a bit like the older Delphis (which personally i prefer than to the newer Visual Studio looking interface) but its quite good and used in production environments.
What do you recommend for quickly creating images for testing a software product (that needs hardware access - full USB port access)? Does virtualization cover this? I need to be able to quickly re-image the system to test from scratch again, and need good options for Windows and Mac OS.
Virtualization may work for you as long as it is only USB access.
VirtualBox is available with USB support either for "private use or evaluation" or commercially and works on Win, Mac and Linux. USB support on Linux and Mac is somewhat sporadical though and does not work with all devices. VBox supports snapshots.
VMWare has one free product called VMWare Server for Win and Linux but I'm not sure how far USB support is included in their server products. For Mac there is VMWare Fusion but that's not available for free. Fusion should work with most USB devices. Workstation products for Windows are more expensive. I think there is a trial version for all of them. All do snapshots.
I don't know how far Parallels (Mac) supports USB devices or snapshots.
You don't need snapshot functionality if you can afford some short downtime between re-imaging. You can shut down the VM and then just copy the disk image (which is nothing else but one or multiple regular files) and start the VM again. Snapshots can be reverted to a lot faster (without rebooting).
If virtual machines will work for you, you can choose between Virtual PC, VMWare and VirtualBox.
Virtual PC supports Win host and Win/linux guests. Although there are some caveats with regards to the X resolution support.
VMWare supports Win, OS X and Linux host. It supports Win and Linux guests.
VirtualBox supports same hosts and guests as VMWare.
None of the three supports OS X as guest officially. The reason is that OS X is licensed only for Apple machines. However, there are some hacks that allow installing OS X under VMWare. It might be also possible to install it under VirtualBox or Virtual PC, although I have not seen specific instructions.
If virtualization is not good enough for you, you can use precreated installation images or a disk imaging program.
For precreated installation images for Windows, you can use the sysprep tool (search for sysprep or system preparation tool). I don't know if there are equivalent tools for OS X from Apple.
For disk imaging programs, I know quite a lot people swear by Symantec Ghost. I personally have not used it, so can't give you much info about it. There's also a list of disk imaging programs on Wikipedia, so you evaluate these as well.
Hope that helps.
If virtualization is right for you depends on how much access direct access you actually need.
But if virtualization works then vmware offers products for Windows and Mac that support a Snapshot feature.
Or there's also VirtualBox which works on Linux, Windows and Mac, also supports snapshots and is free.
I use VMWare Player for this sort of stuff. I've not tested it with the sort of access you discuss (since I mostly do apps rather than driver-level stuff) but the advantages are many, specifically being able to copy the VM when it's shut down for later restore to a specific point (sort of a poor man's snapshot) and being able to have lots of configurations without blowing the hardware budget.
It certainly provides USB virtualization and I would say it's the best bet for providing the full device access. I would suggest testing it since, if it provides the hardware support you need, it's a very good solution for the other reasons given. The only other (non-VM) suggestion I can think of which would match it would be hard disk image backups which can be restored at will.
I've used Virtual PC heavily for this kind of thing in Windows, without ever hitting any issues. It's free, which is always a bonus ;o)
Edit: Just re-read the question - not sure that it has USB support. Should tick all the other boxes though
CloneZilla is a great, free way to reimage machines.
Once I worked for some company where we needed to test our software for various combinations of versions of OS, SPs and some other libraries which our application was dependent on. For each separate identified combination we had a separate partition image created with the help of Norton Ghost (DOS version). All images were put to a server. Whenever a tester got the next version of the system core to test, they would just methodically restore from all applicable images, install the application, test it and report it.
This approach though a straightforward one would allow full access to the hardware and will provide you with 100% native installation.
Nowadays, I still use this approach for my private PC. I'm sure you can try the latest achievements like Hyper-V. We use it nowadays where I work. When we tried to install Team Foundation Server (the process is far from being easy) we also had to drop the process at some point and just restore a virtual machine from an image because we realized we made a few mistakes during installation. Conceptually the same approach that saves a great deal of time. I'm not really sure though how compatible a virtual PC is in the sense of hardware access.
You can try both approaches.
P.S. Today there are two Ghost products, Symantec Ghost (good old one) for corporate use and Norton Ghost for home use (bloatware in my opinion). If you decide to try this option, I would recommend the Symantec Ghost (part of Ghost Solution Suite).
If you can't just use a virtual machine and take snapshots of the fresh install then do a fresh install onto real hardware and use a disk imaging tool (Ghost comes to mind).
If cost is a factor then there's a few Linux live CDs that will do what you want. This comes to mind. Put a second disk in the machine and image from the second disk unless you have fast networks and network storage; it's way to slow to go to and from the network regularly. If you're using a Linux live CD then you can actually set the second disk to EXT3 so Windows won't detect it and assign a drive letter too.
If you have a dedicated workstation for testing then I would highly recommend Symantec Ghost. Simply get the workstation to the clean state, reboot to ghost and 'take a snapshot' of the HD or partition. You can then replace the HD or partition from the image say from CD or multicasted over a network connection from another PC.
I have used it for years now, even to the point of automating the build of 60 test workstations (at the same time).
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I am doing .net programming in addition to c and c++ development and want more flexibility on my home machine. I want to be able to have both Linux (probably Ubuntu) and Windows Vista on my home computer. Is there a way I can install both and on boot be prompted for which one to start? Is there a way to set Windows to default?
I have seen this before in CS labs in undergrad.
Also, I assume there would be no problem if I were to use Windows 32-bit along with Ubuntu 64-bit. Any advise?
The latest versions of Ubuntu include an installer called Wubi, which installs Ubuntu as a windows application (ie: it can be uninstalled from Add/Remove programs) and sets up the dual boot for you! It's great for those who want to give Linux a try without a system overhaul!
You can dual boot, but I would recommend using a Virtual Machine for what you want to do.
Look at VMWare and Virtual PC.
For more information on Virtual PC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Virtual_PC
For more information on VMWare: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Workstation
You should note that dual booting Windows and Linux can be a little risky and is a bit permanent. Running in a Virtual Machine means that you can run the Linux install in a window and not worry about it affecting your development machine at all. The software will not know the difference, so your testing is not affected.
Consider that the Virtual Machine is like a sandbox, where you can try new and different things out, without fear of consequences.
Virtual machines do run with a bit of overhead, and therefore you should not expect to be playing games or anything through them. I would say it is very much like logging into a machine through Remote Desktop (good LAN connection) as far as performance goes.
EDIT: There is also VirtualBox that you could check out. Thanks for the helpers in my comments for that one.
I, too, recommend using a virtual machine for this purpose.
I've had problems with Virtual PC on some Linux distros (Fedora Core comes to mind), but no problems with VMWare or Virtual Box.
Think very hard before installing another operating system even as dual boot. It is rarely simple, even with installers like Ubuntu's that don't require you to mess around on a command line. There is a good risk you'll spend days trying to get your usual OS back to normal especially if you're using Vista.
VMWare and Virtual PC are both good options. Do a test install on one of these and use the OS for a while before making the decision to install.
One other great thing about using a virtual machine is that you only have to worry about getting your network settings sorted on your main OS, because VMWare (etc) will borrow those.
Also, try using the operating system on Live CD or DVD to start with if at all possible. You may also find that you can run an OS from a USB stick. This is obviously good for portability - but note that you can also carry your virtual machines on a removable USB drive.
All you have to do is go to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and follow the directions. I downloaded Ubuntu, burned it to CD, and rebooted with the CD in the drive. I did not have to get a second hard drive or worry about it messing with my Vista Home Premium installation.
With Ubuntu (as with most distros with a Live CD install) all you need to do is pop in a disc, boot, and click through the menus. The dual boot is set up perfectly by default, you don't even have to think about it. I've done this with Ubuntu, Debian, PC Linux OS, Freespire, and Xandros on my Vista Home Premium machine and they all worked that way.
If you are paranoid, then you should back up your PC. As cheap as hard drives (USB or internal) are these days, there really is no excuse to not have a full back up of your system. It's too easy. I use Acronis True Image, but I've heard good things about Norton Ghost as well.
Regadless, you don't need Wubi or VMWare, or any virtual anything, a straight install with a dual boot set up is the default on a typical Live CD Linux install and it works even with Vista.
I've done it different ways over the years, and I'd say using a virtual machine is the one that I like best. I've tried both VMWare and VirtualBox, both free, and I like VirtualBox a little better because you can use it with the .iso straight. You don't need somebody to have created a virtual machine image for you.
Another option is to actually run Linux as an application on Windows so you get Linux running at almost full speed but also the ability to run Windows applications along side it. Check it out at http://www.colinux.org/.
I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but an option that looks promising for me is a tool in Ubuntu to create a bootable USB drive with Ubuntu on it. It has the benefit of a live cd (no effect on your system), better performance than a live CD and the ability to persist your data from session to session. I've used Wubi before, but I can't remember why I uninstalled it.
Have a look at "cygwin".
This istalls a "linux like" windowing application within your windows
environment. It has good support for gcc and most of the standard
gnu/linux development tools.
You dont have to mess with dual boot. Its especially good for testing
windows to/from unix communictions as you can get everything up and
running in one box.
What you're looking for is called 'Dual booting'. it allows one to choose which operating system to boot at the start. It's well supported in Linux, especially Ubuntu. Just install Ubuntu and it will set up dual booting by default.
You could go either way, a dual-boot or use a VM. I think it depends on whether you'll want to use any Windows apps while developing in the Linux environment. If so, I'd go with a VM, otherwise, here's a tutorial for setting up a dual-boot computer. It has a part on installing both OSes, and a part on if you already have Windows installed.
Wubi is a great (Ubuntu specific) solution.. The only problem I've found was installing Wubi on a FAT formatted Windows partition - I had serious problems then. Also, it might run slightly slower, as there is another layer when doing disk acccess, but I can't say I've noticed.
I dual boot Vista Ultimate 32-bit and Ubuntu 8.10 beta 64-bit with no problems. The key thing, in my opinion, is to have a completely separate hard drive to install Ubuntu on. That removes a lot of the risk since you don't have to fuss around partitioning your primary HDD and makes removing Ubuntu very straightforward as well if you decide you don't want it.
Just be careful and pay attention on which drive you select when you do the install. It's easy for me to tell them apart since my Linux drive is a different size than my main Vista and data storage drives.
If you'd rather go the VM route, VMware Player works well, and I've heard good things about VirtualBox.
try a live cd install of ubuntu :D
creating a bootable flash disk is easy - unetbootin from sourceforge.net
I have dual booted Ubuntu and Xp many times with absolutely no problems. I doubt you could do the virtual thing with one OS 32 bit and the other 64. This would not be a problem with a dual boot.
I have had problems using wubi and my boot into windows7 is now unstable at best, so given the choice would favour a VM solution in hindsight. However on other machines I have run Ubuntu Live on USB (installed using pendrivelinux.com) by picking the try ubuntu option at boot and that has worked well and was quite quick to get going.