Vista - what is Virtual PC / Machine?

This is going to be a stupid question but what is Virtual PC / Machine?

I keep thinking it's dual booting.
I have reinstall discs but NOT a disc of just the OS.

Does that mean I need to buy a full edition of XP or Vista to add Virtual pc or dual boot?


thank you,
Carmine

"pacinitaly" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:4a5a7f8ad9dc5a03a693d5440525a301@xxxxxx-gateway.com...
A piece of software which creates and manages virtual machines.
It isn't.
They won't be of any use.
Yes, on the assumption that you want to install those operating systems on a
virtual machine. Apart from a very few exceptions, virtual machines are
considered the same as physical machines when it comes to software
licensing.
Once again, software virtualisation has nothing to do with dual booting...


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

Thank you very much Mark

pacinitaly wrote:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%2B"virtual+machine"+%2Btutorial
Probably won't work because the emulated hardware inside the VM won't
match your real hardware, except for the CPU which does not get
emulated.
Microsoft demands a separate license for each host on which Windows
runs. A virtual machine is a host (aka guest OS). You could real the
EULA.txt file for your license of Windows (it's under C:\Windows
somewhere).

Thanks VanguardLH

"VanguardLH" <V@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gqmhmg$oie$1@xxxxxx
No it isn't. A virtual machine is nothing more than two or more files, one
of which is the configuration (.vmc) file.

In terms of virtualisation, the host is the machine on which the
virtualisation software (e.g. Virtual PC, VMWare etc) is installed and
running.

Open up the Virtual PC helpfile and do a search for the "Evaluating
requirements" topic. That will explain the difference between a host and a
guest.


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

Mark Rae [MVP] wrote:
Did I say a virtual machine was a real computer? No. I said it is a
"host" and that's what it is. It is a hardware platform (emulated) with
an OS. Networking folks would probably call it a node (if reachable via
the network). Guest host and guest OS are used interchangeably. Why?
Because an OS requires a host on which to run. Even the guest OS think
in terms of host. You think the hostname for the guest OS is called
"more than two files, one of which is the configuration (.vmc) file"
name for the host? Inside the guest OS, it is a host. If networked, it
is a host from any other host.

"VanguardLH" <V@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gqn1bi$g0k$1@xxxxxx
No you didn't, nor did I say you did...
No it isn't! In terms of virtualisation, the host is the machine on which
the virtualisation software (e.g. Virtual PC, VMWare etc) is installed and
running i.e. the physical machine.

That is why I suggested you look at the helpfile topic entitled "Evaluating
requirements" where it explains which hosts are supported by Virtual PC and
which guests are supported by Virtual PC.


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

"VanguardLH" <V@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gqn1bi$g0k$1@xxxxxx

De-lurking for a second.
By you, maybe, but not by any of the regulars in here and certainly not in
any of the Virtual PC documentation.

Look at this: http://vpc.visualwin.com/ngfaq.aspx#17
And this: http://vpc.visualwin.com/ngfaq.aspx#8

OS/2 is a supported guest but it certainly isn't a supported host!

A guest is a guest and a host is a host. In the case of Virtual PC, "guest
host" is nonsense.

As has been pointed out, in the case of Virtual PC, the host is the physical
machine that Virtual PC is running on and the guests are the virtual
machines running on that host.

David Jackson wrote:
Guest WHAT? Guest celebrity? Guest visitor? Guest partygoer? Guest
announcer? Guest malware? Guest WHAT? That the terminology is
truncated still behooves the question of WHAT is the guest. Is it just
the OS? No, because an OS doesn't run on ether. It runs on hardware.
For a virtual machine, it runs on emulated hardware. The "host" and
"guest" terms were used to differentiate the real host from the guest
host as regards the management of the VM manager. Apparently "virtual
machine" was too difficult to use in casual conversation.

The guest is SOMETHING. Now what might that be? If you are networking
to the virtual machine, is it a real host or a guest [host]?
Unimportant. It's just a host. When you setup many guest [hosts] on a
blade server running VMWare or VirtualServer, do their users know they
are guests? Nope, it's just a host using a particular OS. Virtual
machines are useful because they are transparent to their users.

Context is important. If you are the admin for a VM Manager then host
and guest have their own limited scope when managing virtual machines.
For the outsiders (the users), all of them are hosts. They may not even
be able to access the real host and only the virtual machines running on
them. To the users, when using Terminal Services (RDP), Citrix, or
other remote access software or when accessing resources networked from
that virtual machine, the user just sees them as hosts. Unless they dig
into the host, they may not even realize it is a virtual machine.
Depends on your point of view. I don't look upon VirtualPC, VMWare,
VirtualBox, or other VM managers as an end unto themselves (so only
management of the VMs utilities uses the limited host and guest terms).
I actually look at HOW the virtual machines get *used* and who uses
them.

Do you use VPC just to be its admin and never use a VM? Do you only use
1 VM, or all VMs are solely for your own personal use? For other users
of those VMs, are you going to waste time distinguishing between the
real host and the guest [hosts] which are virtual machines? Should they
even know it is a VM? Do they care? From the other side for the user,
a host is a host whether it be on real hardware or emulated hardware.

If you are both the admin and user of the virtual machine, yeah, it's
easy to just use the terminology with which the admin is familiar. If
you have users other than yourself, you need to discuss the environment
in terms with which they are familiar. Host, real host, guest, guest
host, virtual machine, computer, yabba-dabba-doo, or whatever - they
don't care. It's a host to them. They know hosts (or computers) in
their parlance. They don't know virtual machines or guests.

"What is a Virtual PC / Machine?" To whom? To the admin or the user?