How to Create and Run a Virtual Machine for Free

Virtualization software can install an operating system on a virtual machine using the resources of the host PC. In this genre, several solutions are renowned for their ease of use, as VMware Workstation, Parallels Desktop or Virtual PC. The first two are paid and the last is designed to use other versions of Windows. VirtualBox has the distinction of being free for personal use. It proposes an interface as simple to master than its competitors, with the possibility of creating a virtual machine with a few clicks or saving multiple states of the system (very useful for testing purposes). Many systems are supported: wizards for Windows, Linux, OS / 2, FreeBSD, or Solaris optimize the performance of the virtual machine for each system.

You can download virtualbox from here:

http://www.virtualbox.org/

1 - Installing VirtualBox

Once you've visited the website and after downloading the software run the executable.

Click "Next", during the first screen of installation.

Click "Continue".

Now click "Finish" to complete the installation.

2 - The VirtualBox Interface

To start VirtualBox you must go through the "Start" menu in your system. Once you start VirtualBox, you arrive at the main menu.

3 - Create a virtual machine

We will now see how to create a new virtual machine. To do so the first thing to do is go into the menu "VM" then click "New".

Click "Next" and you'll have to fill in information about your virtual machine.

At first enter a name for your virtual machine, in order to recognize you if you install multiple machines thereafter. For example I have named it "Windows XP" but I very well could name it anything I wanted.

Then choose the type of operating system you install on your virtual machine. For example I will select "Windows XP".

Finally, click on "Next".

Now we must decide how much space to use for our virtual machine. The default is 64 MB which may be sufficient depending on what you want. If you feel you need more, you can increase simply by scrolling the bar or changing the value manually. Finally, click on "Next".

We arrive at the stage of the creation of our virtual hard disk. To do this click on "New" as above to get the Wizard.

Then click "Next".

Here we must understand the difference between the two options proposed:

- Dynmically expanding image: The image on your virtual hard drive occupies a very small space on your disk. It will develop dynamically, to the size that you indicate.

- Fixed-size image: Here the image size for your virtual hard drive will be set automatically and occupy such 5GB on your physical hard disk if the next step you specify 5GB.

We therefore prefer the first option if you do not have a disk of a very high capacity in your computer.

To move to the next step, click "Next".

You will now be asked to choose a hard drive size. Again it depends on your needs with your virtual machine. For example so I took 10.0 GB.

Click "Next".

Here is a brief summary of your virtual hard drive. To create it you only need to click "Finish".

The wizard will now detect our virtual hard disk, you only need to click "Next".

You will now create your new virtual machine that we have configured. You have here a summary of the settings you have made. If you should click on "Finish", your machine will be created. Note that you can always change the settings later in the "Settings" of VirtualBox.

4 - Start the machine

Now to start your virtual machine, it's simple because you just click on the "Start" button.

This is the first thing to do before starting your virtual machine is to insert the CD of your operating system into your drive to start the installation.

And that is it! Your virtual machine will boot up and will act just like Windows XP (Or whichever OS you have chosen).