Installation Questions

[Pete B]

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post with this, but if not
please direct me to the proper forums. I have several questions. First, I
am running WinXP Pro, and I have VB 6, VC+, Frontpage 2K, Office 2K, and VS
2005 Express installed on this PC (my home PC), as well as a great many
other apps like Adobe Acrobat etc. No problems with any of that.

Here is what I want to do:

First: I want to install the Win2007 Virtual Machine, but I want to run the
same OS on it as I am currently running, WinXP Pro. Do I need to purchase a
separate software package of WinXP Pro to do this, or is there a way to
employ my current OS onto the VM? I am not trying to duck any licensing
here, it is just that, as I explain below, I want to install some software
on a VM in order to test it out for my own use rather than try to install
the new software on my PC itself. I should note that I only have the OEM
version of the WinXP Pro that came installed with this PC.

Second: The software I want to install is Visual Studio 2005 Premium (or
whatever the full version is called). But I read the Readme file and
searched the MSKB, and I am not sure if I can just install this on my PC
directly without going through all kinds of installation problems and having
to remove VS 2005 Express and all the svc packs and .Net stuff that I have
added since I installed that going several years back. That is why I want
to install the VM software, so that I could just test out the VS package in
isolation without disturbing my system at all. I am currently running Linux
on a VMWare Virtual Server installed on my PC, it is great that bway because
it is totally separate from my main PC OS.

The reason I want to do this is just to explore the VS, I am retired from
many years as a data applications developer of Office and VB custom
software. So this is just a leisure pastime for me now, I am not doing it
for commercial purposes, I just want to keep abreast of what is going on and
I thought using a VM would allow me to test stuff like this trouble-free:
if I don't like something, well, I just have the VM to deal with to fix it
or get rid of it.

Unfortunately, if I need a separate OS software package for the VM in order
to do it, well, I can't afford to buy a second copy of the WXP software so I
will just have to try installing it on my PC itself, or else just give up on
the whole thing. I have my previous Win ME that I could install, but that
is not what I really want to do.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Malke]

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post with this, but if not
please direct me to the proper forums. I have several questions. First, I
am running WinXP Pro, and I have VB 6, VC+, Frontpage 2K, Office 2K, and VS
2005 Express installed on this PC (my home PC), as well as a great many
other apps like Adobe Acrobat etc. No problems with any of that.

Thanks for the very well-written and detailed post. See my comments inline:

First: I want to install the Win2007 Virtual Machine, but I want to run the
same OS on it as I am currently running, WinXP Pro. Do I need to purchase a
separate software package of WinXP Pro to do this, or is there a way to
employ my current OS onto the VM? I am not trying to duck any licensing
here, it is just that, as I explain below, I want to install some software
on a VM in order to test it out for my own use rather than try to install
the new software on my PC itself. I should note that I only have the OEM
version of the WinXP Pro that came installed with this PC.

You need a license (where required, as with Microsoft operating systems)
for each virtual machine you create in either Virtual PC 2007 or VMWare
(another virtual product, excellent but not free like VPC 2007). So the
answer is that yes, you would need to purchase a new retail copy of XP.
The OEM version of XP you have installed belongs to that computer and is
tied to it. Operating systems installed in VMs are just as real as
operating systems installed on a real-life, non-virtual computer.

Second: The software I want to install is Visual Studio 2005 Premium (or
whatever the full version is called). But I read the Readme file and
searched the MSKB, and I am not sure if I can just install this on my PC
directly without going through all kinds of installation problems and having
to remove VS 2005 Express and all the svc packs and .Net stuff that I have
added since I installed that going several years back. That is why I want
to install the VM software, so that I could just test out the VS package in
isolation without disturbing my system at all. I am currently running Linux
on a VMWare Virtual Server installed on my PC, it is great that bway because
it is totally separate from my main PC OS.

(snippage)

Using VMs for testing the way you are doing is one of the best things
about them. So you are definitely doing the right thing but you'll need
a licensed copy of XP. If you decide to go ahead and want information
about using Visual Studio, the best place to post questions about that
program would be in its newsgroup. Here is a list of all the MS public
newsgroups:

http://aumha.org/nntp.htm

HTH,

Malke

 

[Pete B]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I may have to forget about the VM stuff then,
I cannot really afford to buy another copy of WinXP Pro just for fooling
around with this at home for my own entertainment. So maybe I will go with
installing the full VS on top of VS Express, would that be possible or
practical? Can I install VS on a separate external HDD or partition, I know
some dev software will not run that way? I just still use VB, VC+, and
such and do not want to remove any of that, plus I may someday want to
explore porting my gazillion VB6 apps to VS and so on, doing it myself as a
learning exercise. Or should I ask about all that in the VS forums?

I may install MS VM anyway, just to see if it works better than the last
time I tried it awhile back when I was testing out Ubuntu Linux. BTW I
think VMWare is still free as long as you are only putting it on a personal
home PC like I did, IOW not using it commercially. It works great, and
you're right, I can do anything I want in Linux just like it is on my own
real PC, but it has no way to screw anything up.

 

[Malke]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I may have to forget about the VM stuff then,
I cannot really afford to buy another copy of WinXP Pro just for fooling
around with this at home for my own entertainment. So maybe I will go with
installing the full VS on top of VS Express, would that be possible or
practical? Can I install VS on a separate external HDD or partition, I know
some dev software will not run that way? I just still use VB, VC+, and
such and do not want to remove any of that, plus I may someday want to
explore porting my gazillion VB6 apps to VS and so on, doing it myself as a
learning exercise. Or should I ask about all that in the VS forums?

I may install MS VM anyway, just to see if it works better than the last
time I tried it awhile back when I was testing out Ubuntu Linux. BTW I
think VMWare is still free as long as you are only putting it on a personal
home PC like I did, IOW not using it commercially. It works great, and
you're right, I can do anything I want in Linux just like it is on my own
real PC, but it has no way to screw anything up.

I'm sorry but I really know nothing about VS. You should ask in its
newsgroup.

Cheers,

Malke