Hello, everyone!

I am very new to the theme "virtual machine", and have basic questions. As I have read in sites in Internet, Virtual Box would be appropriate for my PC, that has both Linux and Windows installed.

My question is very simple: after I download and install Virtual Box through Linux, must I install a Windows-ISO file? I have Windows already installed in my PC, and would like to use its features like "Word" without needing to reboot the machine. Would you have any tips for me after installing Virtual Box?

Thanks in advance!

VirtualBox is in a nutshell is creating a physical server within an operating system. VirtualBox is installed on the host operating system and then from VB you would install the virtual operating system which is known as the guest.

The host operating system can be Windows or linux and you can install either as a guest virtual machine (VM). It might be easier to start with installing VirtualBox on Windows and creating a linux VM.

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"creating a physical server" To expand on that, virtual software copy of a physical machine. Some software creates a clone of some original computer.

Here is the problem with running Windows as a client in linux vm. Windows has this HAL deal. It doesn't like to be run in different machines (unless you have a special copy).

Most folks own windows from an computer company supplied copy. It is not a full copy from MS. The computer company supplied copy is usually tied to the bios of the computer. Since a VM replicates most of the hardware from software you won't be able to authenticate the copy by the host hardware.

Every year VM's and hardware find ways to integrate the host hardware more closely with the VM. They are not fully host centric yet.

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Thank you very much for your information. Actually I do work in a company with a computer in which Windows was already installed. I myself installed Linux in it later, without uninstalling Windows. I use Linux most of the time, but sometimes I have to use Windows, and for this reason I plan to install a virtual machine in Linux. Don't you think it is advisable? Thank you again.

you can do that, but probably that windows (inside linux) will not be fast. You need to reinstall windows for that (you cannot use the existing os).

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Most modern middle to higher end systems are quite capable of running a number of VM's at the same time usually. There may be some video issues with windows. The most modern systems have good integration with a VM client to host. Only if you have the most modern system will you be able to run higher quality games. Any business use should be OK.

If you can run Windows will depend on how you own it. Do you know what HAL is and what windows needs to authenticate?

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That would depend on how much RAM the host machine has and what portion of it can be devoted to the virtual machine.

The computer I'm sitting at has 16 GB RAM. I allocated 4 GB to my Windows 7 VM, and it runs quite nicely.

In my experience, VirtualBox's default allocations of RAM and virtual HDD space are usually far too small.

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Thought I had seen somewhere that existing Windows OS could be converted to ISO, but have never tried it (Google it). I installed Win7pro64 guest on Linux host with the W7 install DVD. Linux host is 32GB ram with 8 allotted to the W7 guest, an 8 core cpu with 4 for the guest, have never had any issue with speed.

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The OP wants to run a physical partition of Windows within linux. The problem is that you are changing the HAL. A virtual machine is based off of a generic computer and what will happen is the OS will now be trying to boot to a new system. Windows (unless special windows on key or PE) will not like being changed.

Now that I mention PE, you could make a windows PE iso and run it under linux VM. Include the programs you wish to use.

To run windows programs from within Linux you'd need wine and not sure I'd even play with running programs off of the physical partition. You can however copy most or all of it from registry to programs and dll's. The way you got the software may dictate the agreement.

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Is it possible to assign a bare metal partition in to a VirtualBox guest when providing disk space to the guest? I have no experience with VMware or QEMU/KVM. Perhaps Linux Xen might be another alternative?

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Yes, it's a great idea. I have Windows XP, 7, 8.1 and 10 VMs running in VirtualBox under Linux Mint 18.2 (although obviously not at the same time). However you'll need a Windows ISO and product key to install the VM.

How much RAM do you have to spare? All my VMs get by on 2GiB RAM each, sliced off from a 6GiB system, but the more the better.

Hello, and sorry for the very late answer, but I was in vacation! Thank you for all your comments. Well, actually I decided to install PlayOnLinux, once I need only the Microsoft Office package, and not to really run all Windows. Anyway, I have had difficult with a specific problem with it, and I guess it is better to make a new thread to discuss this question. I will do it now. Thank all again.

Hi again!

Sorry, I would like to make another question. My computer has 2 operational systems, Windows and Linux, but no virtual machine installed. The question is: would it be possible to, using Linux, "access" Windows (that is already installed in the computer) with a virtual machine, and be able to use its softwares? Or must I install Windows anyway with Virtual Box or other method?

Thank you.

Virtualbox is the only one I'm familiar with and that functionality is generally not supported but there are hacks which some have tried with varying degrees of success. See for example the following and note the various issues involved:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows

I think you are better off doing a fresh windows installation in Virtualbox. If it's just a few applications that you need to run, you can give Codeweavers CrossOver a try:

https://www.codeweavers.com/

It's a lot easier to use than PlayOnLinux which you have already tried but it does cost. However, you can download a trial version and see how your windows applications run and then decide if it's worth the money.

Have you tried Libreoffice?