Run Linux in Windows

8/6/2019 Run Linux in Windows

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Run Linux in Windows

Introduction

Many users of Windows XP and Vista will want to try Linux at some point, often just to see

what all the fuss is about. There are many different Linux distributions and it isnt convenient for

a non-technical user to set up dual booting alongside an existing Windows install. Thankfully,there are tools available which mean you can play with a full Linux install inside the familiar

surroundings of Microsoft Windows.

There are several pieces of software that let you run a virtual PC within Windows, allowing you

to install virtually any operating system in an emulated PC environment. There are two main

solutions available, firstly the freeMicrosoft Virtual PC 2007, which is reasonably good and

easy to install. The second choice is also a free piece of software and is called VMware Player,and features several more advanced features. For this article we will be using the MS Virtual PC

virtualisation software as it provides more flexibility in the free version.

Step 1 - Install the Microsoft Virtual PC Software

This is a very straight forward installation, and the download is around 30-60MB (depending oncomponents) at the time of this article:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro.../overview.mspx

Step 2 Locate and download a Linux Distribution

Once Virtual PC is installed, you need to download a Linux distribution. Some popular choicesare:

Ubuntu : http://www.ubuntu.comFedora : http://fedoraproject.org

Mandriva : http://www.mandriva.com/

Proceed to the download section of whichever distribution you choose, and if you are given

plenty of options of types to download then look for a 32bit i386 ISO file.

This article will use Ubunutu, and the download URL at the time was:

http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/release...sktop-i386.iso

Once you have found the file, download it to your PC.

Step 3 Setup a Virtual PC
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/overview.mspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/overview.mspxhttp://www.vmware.com/products/player/overview.htmlhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/overview.mspxhttp://www.ubuntu.com/http://fedoraproject.org/http://www.mandriva.com/http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/releases.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.isohttp://www.vmware.com/products/player/overview.htmlhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/overview.mspxhttp://www.ubuntu.com/http://fedoraproject.org/http://www.mandriva.com/http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/releases.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.isohttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/overview.mspx


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Load MS Virtual PC 2007 from the start menu and begin the wizard to create a new virtual

machine, the screenshots below illustrate this process using recommended settings. Click Next to

begin the setup process:

Select Create a new virtual machine:


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Call this virtual machine whatever you like, for example Linux or Ubuntu:


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Select Other from the OS dropdown menu to customise the virtual PC:


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Choose how much system RAM you wish to allocate to the virtual PC, if you can spare it,

512MB would be recommended. It does appear to allocate the whole amount of memory to the

software, even if you are only using a small portion of it within the Virtual PC. 512MB should befine for users with 2GB+ of Ram, but those with 1GB may struggle to run much else in the

background.


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Select create A new virtual hard disk:


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Choose a location to save this virtual drive and assign a size (dependant on how much disk space

you have left). You can make up to 3 virtual hard drives, but if you wanted more drives you can

always partition them to as many drive letters as required.


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Click finish to create the Virtual PC:


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Step 4 Install Linux

Select the Virtual PC listed under the name assigned during setup, and then click start:


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This will start to boot up the Virtual PC, although there is no operating system installed at

present. To install Linux, click CD > Capture ISO Image and then open the saved Linux ISO

from Step 2. If you find that your mouse pointer is stuck within the Virtual PC window, pressright-ALT to release it:

Once this is done, click Action > Reset to reboot the Virtual PC and start the Linux Install.

During boot, the Linux install will automatically load and the onscreen installation steps must be

followed. These steps will differ slightly for each Linux distribution, but it should be a straightforward process. If you use Ubuntu, select the Install Ubuntu option rather than running the

Live CD:


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This will start the graphical installer where you can customise your install options. This articlewill not cover each installation step, as it will vary for each install. However, in most cases it is

just a case of filling in basic information and clicking next as there is only 1 possible

installation drive. Unless you are an advanced user, allow Linux to automatically partition your

virtual drive:


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Once the installation is complete the Virtual PC will restart, at which point you should unmount

the ISO file by clicking CD > Release CD. Once the restart is complete, you should now be atthe Linux login screen:


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Congratulations, you now have a working Linux install from within Windows! To boot in to

Linux again simply load Virtual PC 2007 from the start menu and double click on the Linuxname (as in the first stage of Step 4).

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Run Linux in Windows