[RESOLVED] Beta testing

[DigiRev]

I hope this is the right place to post this, if not then feel free to move it.

I'm also not sure if this is possible but maybe someone knows. I want to build a beta testing machine, nothing that great but a computer that has each version of Windows on it.

I already own 98SE, 2K, and XP. My friend has ME. We want to install these all on one computer so we can test our software on all (or at least, most) platforms.

How would I go about this? A different partition for each OS? Is there other software I can use that will make this easier?

I'm kinda lost...:o

[Lord Orwell]

You have 2 choices: 1. Split your hard drive into 3 partitions and install win98se, then 2k then xp in that order each in their own partition (don't choose upgrade)I don't see how you would get win ME to work with this unless you have boot management software.
OR
Install windows xp and download and install microsoft virtual pc 7 and install 98 and me and 2k in virtual machines. I know one guy who is running 34 os on a mac laptop this way.

[some1uk03]

Guys.. no need to partition your HD and go through the loooooong way!

Microsoft now has VIRTUAL PC 2007 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=04D26402-3199-48A3-AFA2-2DC0B40A73B6&displaylang=en). Basically it allows you to instal an OS within Windows.
So for example i installed Vista and was using it in a new window while running XP to test my applications.

Use the wizard to setup your new OS. Then select a save point. Basically this is one file which will act as the hard drive to install the OS!

So youll need a few spare gigs. :)

[Lord Orwell]

Did you actually read my post? ;)

[DigiRev]

Thanks Lord Ordwell and someone1uk. Gonna look into that now.

[DigiRev]

Sorry it took so long for a reply, just got around to downloading and installing it.

I went through the wizard and selected "Windows 98". Then it opened another window with a screen that looked like a "boot screen".

Said it couldn't find a boot sector or something.

Do I need to install Windows 98? I have the CD.

I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to use this? :confused:

[DigiRev]

Nevermind, I figured it out after sorting through Microsoft's poor documentation. :D

Thanks.

[Lord Orwell]

yes that's an understatement. If you think THAT documentation is poor, try figuring out how to network your two OS together. While i managed to do this, it took me hours to decode the steps from about 6 different places in the help file.

[randem]

Yes, Virtual PC 2007 is the way to go. And yes the documentation is quite poor. I got them to share a folder with the host after a while. I got them to network after trial and error. Good thing I understand networks for if you don't... well good luck.

[DigiRev]

Yes, Virtual PC 2007 is the way to go. And yes the documentation is quite poor. I got them to share a folder with the host after a while. I got them to network after trial and error. Good thing I understand networks for if you don't... well good luck.

I have 98SE installed right now. I'm thinking about purchasing a copy of Vista x86. Do you have any experience running Vista under Virtual PC and is this possible? I'd like to know before shelling out the cash.

As it is now, it's nice just being able to test stuff on Windows 98, and IE 5 (IE 5 sucks so bad).

I may also try and get a copy of Windows ME. I already have 2K.

[randem]

Well, I haven't actually tested it by Virtual PC 2007 has a Vista selection so I would imagine that MAYBE M$ has tested it.

I have installed in Virtual PC

Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP

[Lord Orwell]

You can download a trial version of Vista, and to answer your question, the trial version ONLY runs in virtual pc 2007. It is a virtual hard drive image you have to mount.

Note that you won't get the benefit of the aero interface that way.

[randem]

It would have been nice to post a link to the download...

[randem]

This is the only link I found so far and it has no Vista Machines

http://en.ofgsoftware.com/web/virtualizacion/virtualpc2007/virtualpc2007_equiposvirtuales.html

[Lord Orwell]

why are you looking there? That's not microsoft.
You need to improve your google skills. I didn't even have the link stored, and found it again easily.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c2c27337-d4d1-4b9b-926d-86493c7da1aa&displaylang=en

[randem]

Exactly why you should have posted the link in the first place. I don't spend a lot of time Googling, I spend more time developing...

[Lord Orwell]

i am not here to coddle. I am here to instruct. ;)

[randem]

Well, Before I download all those gigs (Download Size: 3.9 MB - 1632.2 MB*), Does it in fact work on Virtual PC 2007 MS tends to believe that it only works on Virtual Server

In order to use this evaluation package you will need to have Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed on a physical machine. If you do not have Virtual Server installed you can get this product free of charge from www.microsoft.com/virtualserver. Details of how to install Virtual Server 2005 R2 are included in the download and documentation that accompanies the product.

[randem]

Here is another link for those who may want to try other VHD's

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/try/vhd/default.mspx

[Lord Orwell]

i don't know :(

I don't have the high-speed necessary to download it to try it.
but this is also a quote from that site:

System Requirements

* Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista; Windows XP

A virtualization product that supports the VHD format is required to use this virtual machine. Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server are provided for free and can be used with these VHD based virtual machines. Please refer to the Virtual Server 2005 R2 System requirements page here.

In addition to the System Requirements for the virtualization product, you will need additional disk and memory resources for running the virtual machine. This VHD is pre-configured to use approximately 10GB of hard disk space and approximately 1024MB of memory.

[randem]

This is great M$ documentation also:

You will also find a readme document as a part of the download. Please refer to this for additional details on how to extract and use the VHD as a part of the download.

Yeah, which part? Part 17 of 18? It is quite possible that you need VS to extract the VHD for VP 2007, but with this type of documentation one will never know until you spend your time and disk space...

[Lord Orwell]

i believe it said something about renaming the file after download and it works with virtual pc. It isn't actually an image file, they just named it .img for some homo reason. You download the file, rename it with the correct extension, and run virtual pc after assigning it as the hard drive.

[randem]

Yeah, Which file? I guess it would need to be extracted first.

[randem]

I found the file. It's in Vista.part02.rar (Yes, an RAR file). I am extracting it now and the read me file does say it works on Virtual PC 2007 and Virtual Server 2005.

[randem]

Not going as planned. May have to do the whole archive from the exe (Part 1) It seems to be spanned across several files. More info later...

BTW: I have only download 8 of 18...

[Lord Orwell]

very strange. Maybe they changed the way it was setup. It was just one giant file before.

[randem]

It seems to be the one vhd that spans all 18 parts. 17 parts and each part is 99mb and the last one is 4 mb.

[Lord Orwell]

and the link to the 4 mb part is broken ;)

[randem]

I downloaded the 4mb file. I still have to download 11-17 now...

By the time I am finished downloading the 30 day eval will be over...

[Lord Orwell]

you can reset the 30 day eval 3 times with a command prompt command, so you actually have 120 days.

[randem]

What command prompt would that be?

[Lord Orwell]

i don't feel like looking it up. Have fun googling.