Virtual machine (windows 10) Need some help.

[Bishop235]

Hey everyone so i need some help. Im looking to make a virtual machine, im running windows 10, but im curious is it possible that i can pretty much just copy my exact windows to a virtual machine or will i need to install an OS to the VM first? Also can anyone help me with what software i can use?

[colonel_mortis]

Moved to Operating Systems and Software

[xQubeZx]

Im not sure, for software you could use Oracles Virtualbox, but in there I think you have to install an OS by a .iso not sure if you just can copy and paste an old. Might be an option for that though.

[Bishop235]

Thanks for the response!

[Jarsky]

Cloning your entire OS would be painful, and would cause issues - you'd probably have to also rerun the oobe to make it play nice on the network. You're best just to install fresh to the VM. As for software, If your host OS is Windows 8 or later, then you can install Hyper-V for free (You just go into Programs & Features and add the windows feature Hyper-V).

You can of course install a 3rd party hypervisor like Virtualbox, or vmWare Workstation.

[AlfieB]

Oracle's virtualbox is a great software for visualization and is free to use I would recommend using this to create your virtual machine you can download virtualbox from Oracles site. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

 

If you are just wanting to create a windows virtual machine to test certain functionality then it may be best to download the windows 10 evaluation iso from the Microsoft website. This allows you to use Windows 10 for 90 days and after this time you can purchase a licence key if required.

 

You can download the windows 10 90 day evaluation at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-10-enterprise

 

Please note a Microsoft Account will be required to download the Windows 10 evaluation iso

 

Hope this helps

[WindowsVistaUser12]

For Windows 10 I use VMware player. For my 8 year old PC it works well.

[omniomi]

If your host OS is Windows 8 or later, then you can install Hyper-V for free (You just go into Programs & Features and add the windows feature Hyper-V).

 

This is only true for the Pro and Enterprise versions... ie, Windows 8/8.1 Pro, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, etc.