Virtual Machine

[macnext1]

Shane, at sometime in the distant past you told me that in order to get clear of Absolute Poker keeping track of my ids it would be easy by setting up a virtual machine, getting the id, and then destroy that machine and create a new virtual machine when I wanted another id. Hook -- no disc to install an operating system. So this has just kind of sat on the shelf. It just dawned on me the other day that I now have a disc since I got the AMD machine. I now have a Windows 7 Ultimate disc and hopefully a big enough machine to install another operating system.

So can you point me in the right direction to create a virtual machine? I was gonna do some reading on the subject but the most proming one wanted to go into Unix.

Mac

[Shane]

Windows 7 requires a lot more hardware than xp, so xp would be better for the virtual machines. Or heck even Ubuntu Linux would work great with it.

But you are getting into a lot of work to do it, so it can be time consuming if your new to it.

Shane

[Evan]

If your machine can handle it, Windows 7 Ultimate comes with a fully licensed copy of Windows XP Pro in the form of a Virtual Machine.  If you have a machine that is already running Windows 7 Ultimate then you might be closer than you think. If you just have the disc then you can see if there is a system you would like to load it onto and go from there.

Evan

[macnext1]

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate on the AMD machine. I don't have any 'extra' hardware to devote to a virtual machine. Do I need to get some more hardware? Do I need to set up a partition to load the new system on? How do I get the system to boot that virtual machine? LOL -- it should be pretty obvious from the kinds of questions that once again I am a neophyte with just a thirst and zippo knowledge -- those probably weren't even the right questions. LOL perhpas you can give some answers to the questions I should be asking.

Mac

[Shane]

Give this a read
http://www.ehow.com/how_2060126_install-operating-system-microsoft-virtual.html

Shane

[macnext1]

Thanks for the pointer -- looked like a good place to go. I signed up for future news 'stuff'. So anyway, I read that thing 3 or 4 times -- some parts more than that. I never saw where you needed to partition a drive (just instructions of how to do it). A really basic question -- you allocate memory to the virtual machine, is that memory forever allocated or is it really just used when you activate the VM and then returned when the VM is shut down?

I downloaded the Virtual PC 2007 but havn't installed it yet.

Mac

[Shane]

The virtual pc will store everything into a file, so don't worry about doing another hard drive. and the memory is only when the virtual pc is running

Shane

[macnext1]

Will the virtual machine inherit drivers from the parent machine? Specifically I am thinking about my external USB extension and my external USB wireless modem.

Mac

[Shane]

It can work with USB devices

Shane

[macnext1]

I installed the Virtual PC 2007. Started the wizard. Selected defauls for everything -- except Operating System (there was no default). Remembering what you said about XP requiring fewer resources and what Evan said about the Windows 7 Ultimate having an XP system on it, I selected XP for OS. Wizard finished.

Step 6 of instructions says to install operating system by hitting 'Start' in the Virtual PC 2007 console. Did that. Next thing according to the instructions would be to select 'CD' toinstall the OS. Never got a question or a selection for 'CD'. What I got was what looked like a DOS screen and I had no clue what to do.

Should I uninstall and try it again but tell it Windows 7 for OS (since it never asked for CD doesn't seem like that would help)? Suggestions?

Mac

[Shane]

You need to have it boot off the cd.

So put the cd in and have the virtual pc use the cd drive.

Shane

[Evan]

Mac, read the information contained in this post for a complete explanation of the "free copy" of Windows XP.
http://forum.scottmueller.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1834

The first change you need to make is that you need a variation of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 called Windows Virtual PC to run XP mode. Just read over the post I linked to to get all the information.

Evan

[macnext1]

Ok -- time out for a second. I want to be able to create and destroy virtual machines so that each time I create a new virtual machine it is truly a new machine -- all this so I can get my wife new ids on Absolute Poker. They can track the IP somehow and limit the number of IDs per IP. The theory all along has been to create new machine/new IPs.

Evan - Sounds like the Virtual PC with it's VHD will just keep creating the same machine. If that's true then I don't think it will get me where I want to be.

Perhaps I should have just stuck with creating a virtual Windows 7 machine.

Shane -- I had the disc in -- how do I tell DOS to go use it?

Should I rub out and start over and specify a Windows 7 VM istead of XP?

XP mode under Windows 7 would be great for my wife since I told her that some day we would have to switch to Windows 7 and she hates it.

Mac

[Evan]

I want to be able to create and destroy virtual machines so that each time I create a new virtual machine it is truly a new machine -- all this so I can get my wife new ids on Absolute Poker. They can track the IP somehow and limit the number of IDs per IP. The theory all along has been to create new machine/new IPs.

If they track it by IP address then creating virtual machines won't help you at all. They are tracking the IP address that shows up on the Port Tester Page. The only way you can change that is by switching providers or if you disconnect your internet and wait a little while and reconnect you might get a different IP. Problem is (for this game at least) that your house only gets a single address. You are able to use more than one computer because of your router.

Sounds like the Virtual PC with it's VHD will just keep creating the same machine. If that's true then I don't think it will get me where I want to be.

I'm not sure if that is true or not but the first point I brought up would be the bigger issue.

XP mode under Windows 7 would be great for my wife since I told her that some day we would have to switch to Windows 7 and she hates it.

That's true and if your original plan doesn't work at least you have this. 

Evan

[macnext1]

I guess the reason I thought it would work is because if I get a new machine then I can go get another 1, 2, or 3 IDs (seems like they have a habit of changing the rules periodically). Which is what I did when I got the Toshiba and then again with the AMD. So I figured if I had a new machine (even though a virtual one) it would havea different MAC and a different IP.

Mac