VirtualBox software (1 Viewer)

[wivvy's dad]

Has anyone here used this Oracle software?

I'm looking to install WinXP into a virtual computer, and yesterdays Sunday Times tech help section recommended it. Looking online, it would appear to do what I want it to do. But I'd be interested in anyone's first hand experience.

Thanks.
WD

 

[Gromett]

I run Linux but on the odd occasions when I need windows I boot up a virtual machine on virtualbox or KVM.

Virtualbox is a little slower than KVM but has a few more feature such as pass through for the DVD drive..

What is it you want to use it for? What OS are you on and what do you want to run? Ask your questions :thumb:

 

[wivvy's dad]

Thanks Karl

I'm running Win7, but the video editing software I use (Quantel) only works on XP.

I built a new PC at the start of the year and am only getting around to installing everything I need.

Thanks for your help.

BTW, VirtualBox is free...................

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[Gromett]

Why don't you use compatibility mode instead of virtualisation?

I can look it up later but there is ways of running a program as an XP app under 7...

 

[Gromett]

Just booted up my windows 7 under virtualbox and got this for you.

Right click on a program, click properties, then click on compatibility.

See attached.

 

[wivvy's dad]

I've sent you a pm, thanks

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[1_man_and_his_dob(lo)]

I use VirtualBox on a Core2Duo MacBook Pro.....Vista is slow but usable, Windows NT is nice and fast. Works quite well on a Windows 7 netbook too running NT.

I think the 2D/3D graphics acceleration is still work-in-progress and I haven't had much luck getting it to use multiple processor cores yet. Could be me.

 

[Gromett]

I use VirtualBox on a Core2Duo MacBook Pro.....Vista is slow but usable, Windows NT is nice and fast. Works quite well on a Windows 7 netbook too running NT.

I think the 2D/3D graphics acceleration is still work-in-progress and I haven't had much luck getting it to use multiple processor cores yet. Could be me.

I am running it on 2 systems. An old core duo laptop. I just use it when I need to load up IE, outlook or outlook express to support my clients. It just about handles this.

On my main system which is a quad core i5 I have 3 installs of windows 7. One runs under KVM and I use this for testing websites and software under a windows server like environment. I prefer KVM for speed and ease of use however it does have limitations on hardware pass through.

I then have two other virtual machines running under VirtualBox. One is assigned a single core and 2GB of memory. This also has the pass through for the DVD attached. This install is used to rip protected DVD's. The other one is assigned 8GB and 4 cores. This is used for transcoding DVD's if they have weird headers that are not to spec. The linux box sometimes trips up if a DVD has been deliberately corrupted to prevent transcoding. Very rare but it happens. I have two install of win7 on virtual box as I like to leave the DVD rip running while working on other stuff. If I do this under the one with 4 cores I get the occasional laggyness in the host OS.
So I have a small resource one for ripping and only load the large resource one up for the heavier duty stuff.

Virtual box is great in that you can pass through the DVD SATA interface and the windows virtual machine accesses it as if it was native. It runs at close to 100% speed. Transcoding video takes about a 10-15% hit on speed. It is not really practical to run any graphically intense stuff on it however. Video editing is a no no however I can do this under linux much better anyway.
Virtual box can also do USB passthrough which is handy if you want to plug a bit of custom hardware in and don't have drivers for the host OS.

File sharing in Virtual box is great. It just works :thumb:

I have been using virtualbox since long before Sun, then Oracle bought them out (Innotek). It is an excellent bit of software if you need to run the odd bit of software from another OS. However I couldn't bear to use it all the time as there are penalties involved.

 

[1_man_and_his_dob(lo)]

It is an excellent bit of software if you need to run the odd bit of software from another OS. However I couldn't bear to use it all the time as there are penalties involved.

Agree. I use it to run old database report writing/BI software and MS Visual Studio 6 development environments. Even on XP/Windows 7 hosts I usually run that software from VirtualBox (or Virtual PC) because of compatibility issues or the hassle of re-installing legacy software (it's just easier to move a virtual machine).

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