How to Set Up a Virtual Machine for Free and get it done yourself. This post will teach you how to set up a virtual machine for free.\u00a0There are plenty of reasons to run a virtual machine. The first, and most compelling, is that you want to play: Maybe there are some other operating system you want to dabble with (cough Linux cough), but you don\u2019t want to deal with installing another hard drive, partitioning your existing drive, or setting up your system a different way.
Virtual machines are great because they allow you to install an operating system within your existing operating system. Everything you do within this new OS\u2014cue\u00a0Inception\u00a0soundtrack\u2014is sandboxed from your primary OS. Anything you install, or mess up, can be deleted with a few clicks of a mouse. (And if you\u2019re smart, you saved a version of your secondary OS right after you installed it, so you can quickly go back to a clean, fresh version of Linux, Windows, or whatever.)
Even better, you can set up a virtual machine on your system for free. Here\u2019s how to get started:<\/p>\n
You can pay for a virtual machine app like\u00a0VMWare Workstation Pro,\u00a0VMWare Fusion, or\u00a0Parallels Desktop, but I recommend using the free\u00a0VirtualBox\u00a0app if you\u2019re new to the wide world of virtual machines. (If you\u2019re using Windows 10 Pro, you also get a free,\u00a0built-in virtualization tool, too.)
For simplicity\u2019s sake, all of my examples in this article will come from a Windows version of VirtualBox, but the app is cross-platform. (For Mac users, VirtualBox is a great alternative if you don\u2019t want to\u00a0Boot Camp\u00a0into Windows, for example.)
A virtual machine isn\u2019t very helpful without an operating system to install on it. And for that, you might have to get a little creative. For Windows, you can grab the\u00a0Windows media installation tool\u00a0and use it to download an image (.ISO) of the operating system, which you\u2019ll then load into VirtualBox.<\/p>\n
You can also download one of the\u00a0free virtual machine images Microsoft offers, which expire after 90 days.
If you\u2019re looking to run a virtual version of macOS\u00a0on\u00a0macOS, you\u2019ll have\u00a0a few hoops to jump through. It\u2019s not as straightforward of a process as running a virtual version any other operating system, but it\u2019s possible. If you want to run macOS on Windows\u2014especially if you\u2019re using VirtualBox\u2014you\u2019re in for a world of hurt. It\u2019s complicated, a pain in the butt to configure, and I found that it ran incredibly slowly on my souped-up system when I did it.
You\u2019ll probably want to try the free\u00a0VMWare Player\u00a0if you go this route, and consult guides over at\u00a0\/r\/hackintosh\u00a0or helpful YouTube tutorials (like this one) to get macOS to work on your Windows system. Creating a Hackintosh is a guide in itself, and something I\u2019ll definitely revisit in a future article\u2014if I can get it to not be terrible.<\/p>\n
To get started with your virtual machine\u2014be it Windows, Linux, or macOS (if you\u2019re really going for it)\u2014load VirtualBox and click on the big \u201cNew\u201d button in the corner. You can\u2019t miss it.
(If you downloaded Microsoft\u2019s free virtual machine images instead of a Windows .ISO file, you\u2019ll instead click on File > Import Appliance and find the .OVA file you unzipped. Import that, and you\u2019ll be able to fire it up immediately\u2014no other configuration required, though you might want to tweak some settings, as we discuss later, to get the best performance.)<\/p>\n
Give your new operating system a name, select what it is\u2014Windows, Linux, macOS, et cetera\u2014and select the correct version of whatever you\u2019re installing. If you only see 32-bit options, you might have to do a little troubleshooting\u00a0to unlock 64-bit versions. It might be worth investigating, however, as a 64-bit version of your virtualized OS can use more than 4GB of memory (if you plan to dedicate that much to your OS-in-an-OS). If you\u2019re using a 32-bit processor, because your computer is ancient, then you should just stick with a 32-bit version of your virtual operating system.<\/p>\n
When VirtualBox asks you how much of your system\u2019s memory you\u2019d like to devote to your virtual OS, I\u2019d stick with its recommendations\u2014specifically, stay in the \u201cgreen zone.\u201d You\u2019ll probably want at least 2\u20134GB at minimum for Windows to run smoothly. If you can get to 8GB, even better. (And, yes, everything is measured in MB in VirtualBox, so 2GB translates to 2048MB, 4GB to 4096MB, et cetera.)
You can always the amount of memory you\u2019re dedicating to your virtual machine after the fact. If you\u2019re not happy with your initial choice, tweak it and see how that affects your virtual machine\u2019s performance.
Next, VirtualBox will ask you to set up a \u201chard disk\u201d\u2014really, a file serving as a hard drive\u2014for your virtual machine to use. Once you click \u201cCreate,\u201d you\u2019ll be presented with three different file types you can select for your hard disk file:<\/p>\n
You should be fine to stick with the default option: the VirtualBox Disk Image, or VDI. On the next screen, however, you\u2019ll want to think about the choice you make. You can select to create a dynamically allocated disk, which only eats up space on your actual hard drive when you use it (but doesn\u2019t shrink when you delete files on your virtual operating system), or you can just set a fixed size for the hard drive your virtual OS will use.
A fixed disk is faster than a dynamically allocated disk, but you\u2019ll have to dedicate all the space up front instead of letting your virtual OS use more and more as you fill it up with stuff. I\u2019d go fixed disk myself, because it simplifies everything and gives you the best performance, but if you\u2019re pressed for space, you might just have to stick with a dynamically allocated disk.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll set the disk\u2019s size on the next screen:<\/p>\n
Once VirtualBox creates your disk, you\u2019ll see your brand-new virtual machine, all ready to go! But not quite. There are still a few more settings you\u2019ll need to take a look at, so select your virtual machine and click the big Settings gear icon.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot you can tweak to squeeze as much performance out of your virtual machine as possible, including adjusting how much memory it gets, how much of your processor you\u2019re dedicating to your virtual operating system, and how much video memory it should have. You can adjust these settings now via the System and Display menus. When you\u2019re done, you\u2019ll want to visit the Storage menu so you can actually install your operating system.
Within Storage, you\u2019ll see a little icon of a CD (or DVD) with the word \u201cEmpty\u201d next to it. Select it, then click on the image of a CD (or DVD) in the right-most \u201cAttributes\u201d section, to the right of \u201cOptical Drive.\u201d Select the \u201cChoose Virtual Optical Disk File\u201d option, find the image of the operating system you\u2019re looking to install, and select it.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re done editing your virtual machine\u2019s settings\u2014and you should really check out USB, to ensure your host system\u2019s connected devices can also be used by your virtual machine, as well as General > Advanced for shared clipboard and drag\u2019n\u2019drop functionality between your host and virtual OS\u2014click on OK. Then click on the big green \u201cStart\u201d arrow and launch your virtual operating system. With luck, it\u2019ll boot into its setup process, and you\u2019ll be ready to install it as if you were setting up a brand-new desktop or laptop.<\/p>\n
Once you have your virtual machine up and running, you\u2019ll want to make ample use of VirtualBox\u2019s Snapshot feature (under its \u201cMachine\u201d menu). A snapshot allows you to save and restore the state of the virtual machine at any point. So, once you have your fresh version of the operating system installed, take a snapshot. If you muck up your virtual machine or want to revert it back to its pure, untouched state (without having to reinstall your operating system), you can just restore your snapshot. Or, if you\u2019re about to do something that might mess up your virtual machine for any reason, take a snapshot first\u2014same principle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How to Set Up a Virtual Machine for Free and get it done How to Set Up a Virtual Machine for Free and get it done yourself. This post will teach you how to set up a virtual machine for free.\u00a0There are plenty of reasons to run a virtual machine. The first, and most compelling, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to"],"yoast_head":"\n