Why do you use a Virtual Machine?

TheMystic · Dec 11, 2021

Although the concept of Virtual Machine has existed for a long time, it is only used by a tiny fraction of individuals for personal use. The reasons are usually one of the following:

1. Lack of awareness
2. Low system specs
3. No requirement

I have never used it myself until very recently. In my case, it is reason 1 for the most part, and then reason 2 for the remaining part. But now when I started using it, it came as a big surprise with regards to how well it runs on an old machine. I have a 2013 laptop, which at the time of purchase had the best of specs, but with all the advancements in technology and demands of newer operating systems, made me think that it won't be able to provide a great experience. I was wrong!

I have installed macOS Monterey on VMware and Windows 10 on VirtualBox on my host OS which is Windows 11. Both guest OSes run surprisingly smoothly.

1. As an individual end user, what do YOU use the VM for?

2. Is it true that activities inside a VM like VirtualBox cannot be tracked by Microsoft?

.

TheMystic · Dec 11, 2021

As of now, here is why I use it:

1. macOS on my Windows machine allows me to access all my files on my external disks which are formatted in APFS+ or HFS+.

2. VM allows me to test softwares that I am not too keen on installing on my host OS, either due to its limited requirement, or because I don't trust it. But for this, one can instead use built-in Sandbox feature (not available in Home editions) or use the Sandboxie app. In fact, this would be a better option than a VM because it is much lighter on resources.

glasskuter · Dec 12, 2021

The first VM I ever used was XP in a 7 host. That was back in the day I played a few very old games which I eventually lost interest in. Then 8 came along and I couldn't bring myself to give up my beloved 7 so I kept it as a VM. That same VM has been moved to probably 5 or 6 machines since. Nowadays I use it primarily for building themes since 7 gives so much more fine tuning in that regard than 10 or 11. The VM I use most is Linux Mint. It's invaluable for recovering files from old hard drives since I don't run into permissions problems like I do when using Windows 10/11. A VM made more sense than running a Linux live cd every time I needed it. Then I built a VM for 10. I have all the VMs on an old hard drive which I plug into a docking station when I need them. The rest of the time the drive gathers dust....lots and lots of dust

cereberus · Dec 12, 2021

1. There are many reasons to use a VM e.g. installation of other operating systems, installation of Insider versions, trying out new apps etc. Some people have legacy apps that will only run on older versions of Windows. You are much less likely to infect the host OS if the vm gets attacked. I consider the vhdx part of VMs to be largely disposable (not the actual vm as that is the part that gets activated).

2. re. MS tracking (proper. term is telemetry), then no difference to a physical machine.

TheMystic · Dec 12, 2021

glasskuter said:
The first VM I ever used was XP in a 7 host. That was back in the day I played a few very old games which I eventually lost interest in. Then 8 came along and I couldn't bring myself to give up my beloved 7 so I kept it as a VM. That same VM has been moved to probably 5 or 6 machines since. Nowadays I use it primarily for building themes since 7 gives so much more fine tuning in that regard than 10 or 11. The VM I use most is Linux Mint. It's invaluable for recovering files from old hard drives since I don't run into permissions problems like I do when using Windows 10/11. A VM made more sense than running a Linux live cd every time I needed it. Then I built a VM for 10. I have all the VMs on an old hard drive which I plug into a docking station when I need them. The rest of the time the drive gathers dust....lots and lots of dust

Do you have a base VM (where you have no personal info) that you don’t mind sharing? I’m interested in that Linux Mint or any Linux Distro.

EDIT:

Never mind. I just installed Linux Mint in VirtualBox and it is the simplest installation I have ever seen. I had problems installing macOS and while I managed to install on VirtualBox, it was unusable due to an unresponsive/ laggy mouse. I then tried it with VMware and managed to install it successfully, but not without errors initially. Didn't want to go through similar hassle with Linux, but this was just too easy!

TheMystic · Dec 12, 2021

cereberus said:
1. There are many reasons to use a VM e.g. installation of other operating systems, installation of Insider versions, trying out new apps etc. Some people have legacy apps that will only run on older versions of Windows. You are much less likely to infect the host OS if the vm gets attacked. I consider the vhdx part of VMs to be largely disposable (not the actual vm as that is the part that gets activated).

2. re. MS tracking (proper. term is telemetry), then no difference to a physical machine.

1. What do you use it for?

2. I read somewhere where a user claimed he runs his OS inside VirtualBox to avoid Microsoft Telemetry. Is he under mistaken impression?

cereberus · Dec 12, 2021

TheMystic said:
1. What do you use it for?

2. I read somewhere where a user claimed he runs his OS inside VirtualBox to avoid Microsoft Telemetry. Is he under mistaken impression?

1. all of the things I mentioned - I have lots of vms.

2. You could only prevent telemetry by disconnecting from internet or using "anti-telemetry" meaures. A vm is absolutely no different to a physical pc in terms of telemetry.
My guess is that user has no idea what they are talking about.

Bree · Dec 12, 2021

TheMystic said:
1. As an individual end user, what do use the VM for?

Many reasons, here are just a few.

It allows me to have multiple machines on my network each with a different version of Windows, from XP though W7, W8.1, W10 & W11. This helps me provide support for mixed networking questions on these forums.

I can test a major Feature Update ahead of release. Twice now, first for W10 v1903 and again for v2004, I have made a VM clone of my main machine then tested upgrading it to check all my installed software would continue to work. I used an Insider Release Preview ISO from UUPDump, so had a month or so of thorough testing before the launch. By the launch day I could be confident that it was safe for the physical machine to take the upgrade as soon as it was offered.

I can test installing 'untrusted' software in a safe environment, then undo every change it made by returning the VM to an earlier checkpoint.

I can boot a Macrium Reflect system image as a VM using Macrium's viBoot. This allows me to quickly boot up and provide support for any OS I have as a system image, and I have images for every version of Windows 10 from the original 1507 release up to 21H2.

For best performance of the VMs the Host machine should have an SSD, and as much RAM as possible. Then it is possible to run many VMs simultaneously.

TheMystic · Dec 12, 2021

Bree said:
Many reasons, here are just a few.

It allows me to have multiple machines on my network each with a different version of Windows, from XP though W7, W8.1, W10 & W11. This helps me provide support for mixed networking questions on these forums.

I can test a major Feature Update ahead of release. Twice now, first for W10 v1903 and again for v2004, I have made a VM clone of my main machine then tested upgrading it to check all my installed software would continue to work. I used an Insider Release Preview ISO from UUPDump, so had a month or so of thorough testing before the launch. By the launch day I could be confident that it was safe for the physical machine to take the upgrade as soon as it was offered.

I can test installing 'untrusted' software in a safe environment, then undo every change it made by returning the VM to an earlier checkpoint.

I can boot a Macrium Reflect system image as a VM using Macrium's viBoot. This allows me to quickly boot up and provide support for any OS I have as a system image, and I have images for every version of Windows 10 from the original 1507 release up to 21H2.

For best performance of the VMs the Host machine should have an SSD, and as much RAM as possible. Then it is possible to run many VMs simultaneously.

I guess this is part of your professional requirement or atleast helpful with what you do professionally.

No macOS?

davewin11 · Dec 12, 2021

I use VMs to run Windows 11 (current version) plus Beta and Dev. Also MacOS (currently Catalina).

Bree · Dec 12, 2021

TheMystic said:
I guess this is part of your professional requirement or atleast helpful with what you do professionally.

I'm retired now, so my support these days is purely for questions these forums. :wink:

TheMystic said:
No macOS?

No, my career in IT support was as a MS specialist for server and desktop support. Since retiring I have dabbled in Linux for my own ammusement/education, but there's just not enough hours in the day to try everything. :wink:

barman58 · Dec 12, 2021

I have used VM's in the past to trial new OSs or run other systems for support of others with issues. However lately I have switched to Windows to Go running on external NVMe drives, I have ISO copies, [or access to], of all the operating systems I support, [Windows 2K to today ], and have access to more specialist variations should I need them.

Using Rufus to create the WTG OS External drive takes a minute or less - the great advantage of my current setup is that the OS is running on my real hardware, which results in a smoother test environment. Of course If I had need to I would return to the VM system as I could set up the VM to be a totally different system to my own

TheMystic · Dec 12, 2021

davewin11 said:
I use VMs to run Windows 11 (current version) plus Beta and Dev. Also MacOS (currently Catalina).

macOS on VMware or VirtualBox?

I couldn't get it to work properly in VirtualBox, but it is working very fine on VMware. I'm running macOS Monterey. With Catalina, they removed iTunes as well as support for 32 bit apps. So why are you on it? Why not Mojave or Monterey?

davewin11 · Dec 12, 2021

TheMystic said:
macOS on VMware or VirtualBox?

I couldn't get it to work properly in VirtualBox, but it is working very fine on VMware. I'm running macOS Monterey. With Catalina, they removed iTunes as well as support for 32 bit apps. So why are you on it? Why not Mojave or Monterey?

VMware, which I have been using since version 5.5

Big Sur and later are OTT bloatware so I stopped there. I do have earlier installers but I wanted to make room for Win 11s

diggy33 · Dec 12, 2021

I dont run any VM's on my Windows machine, but I run several on my main macOS device. Mostly for testing application and system updates before rolling out to my machines, but also beta testing new releases, as well as running multiple different Linux VM's. I've got 2TB of storage and 64GB of RAM on that Mac, so running multiple VM's at a time is no problem (little bit of fan noise never hurt nobody!)

The-Hive · Dec 12, 2021

I used to use a VM so as to run a second OS for testing and trials, it was by Oracle now it is no longer compatible with Sandbox I don't use it. My needs and understanding of computers has also changed

TheMystic · Dec 12, 2021

diggy33 said:
I dont run any VM's on my Windows machine, but I run several on my main macOS device. Mostly for testing application and system updates before rolling out to my machines, but also beta testing new releases, as well as running multiple different Linux VM's. I've got 2TB of storage and 64GB of RAM on that Mac, so running multiple VM's at a time is no problem (little bit of fan noise never hurt nobody!)

MAIN macOS - is that supposed to mean that you consider the mac hardware significantly superior to the one in your Windows machine? People normally limit their main machine for just their work and do all testing on a second machine.

I won’t be surprised if this is the M1+ Mac. :)

TheMystic · Dec 12, 2021

The-Hive said:
I used to use a VM so as to run a second OS for testing and trials, it was by Oracle now it is no longer compatible with Sandbox I don't use it. My needs and understanding of computers has also changed

Apart from those who do this for professional or testing purposes, I don’t think the average user even needs it. This is more of a thing for enthusiasts IMO.

larc919 · Dec 12, 2021

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've set up any virtual Windows system. Even then, it's been just for play to see if I could do it. Never particularly excited by it or really needed it for anything. I've generally been able to accomplish what I want with the real thing.

pparks1 · Dec 12, 2021

i use virtual machines for all of my playing and testing. For example, the new CentOS 9 stream release came out a few days ago. i downloaded the ISO, and put it into a virtual machine to just see it and kick the tires.

I use lots of virtual machines for labs and testing. I am a systems engineer for a living and sometimes it's nice to setup a small lab at home to play with something. For example, 1 Windows sever as a domain controller, 1 windows server as a file storage box, 2 boxes as nodes for a SQL cluster, and typically 1 client machine to make connections from and manage the whole thing In a short amount of time, i can have an isolated lab running a handful of machines and play with something to learn how it works.

I use VM's for writing up documentation. if I am trying to figure out how to do something and provide instructions for others, I can use the VM to get a clean start and show them exactly what the experience is like from the start to the finish...rather than just saying...well, I have all of these things already installed on my machine already.....