"VanguardLH" wrote:
> Thomas M. wrote:
>
> > XP SP3
> >
> > I am looking for a solution that will allow me to seemlessly cold boot my PC
> > into a virtual machine. I am currently using XP SP3, but I would be
> > interested in solutions for XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Are there any software
> > solutions out there will can provide this functionality for these operating
> > systems?
> >
> > I would also be interested in hearing about what people like in terms of
> > software to mount virtual hard drives.
>
> So what is it that you really want to do? Currently you are probably
> booting Windows and then manually loading a virtual machine. "Cold boot
> a PC into a virtual machine" is a completely different animal. That
> means you want to load a hypervisor first and then load an OS.
> Microsoft has their HyperV product (free for personal use) that runs all
> operatings systems as guests in a virtual machine. I've never used it
> to know if it can be configured to automatically load some of its
> defined VMs.
>
> However, do you have the hardware requirements for HyperV? Besides the
> memory needed for HyperV (which is an OS itself), you will need the
> amount of memory that you want for each virtual machine that you will be
> running concurrently. You'll also need a very fast CPU to accomodate
> the load of the VMs. Since the Windows XP would be running in a VM, and
> because all hardware is probably emulated (except the CPU), you probably
> can't run graphics intensive apps inside a guest, like games. If HyperV
> supports it, having multiple cores where one can be assigned to a VM
> allows for a speedier VM. So, for example, you'll probably want a
> 4-core CPU where you can assign 1 or 2 cores to HyperV and a core for
> each VM.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/default.aspx
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V
You are correct in that currently I boot into Windows XP, and then load a
virtual machine and wait for it to boot. I want to bypass the first login
and go straight to the virtual machine. In other words, it should look more
or less like a normal boot into Windows, but at the end of the process I end
up in a virtual machine instead of having to start the VM separately.
I realize that this takes some horse power in terms of CPU and memory, but I
should have that on both counts.
Currently, this is just something that I am researching as an option for my
mom's machine. She doesn't do any gaming. She mostly uses email, Word, and
IE for reading news online and ordering from places like Amazon.com. I've
started a project to lock down her machine and I've done a lot in terms of
security already, but I wanted to look into putting her into a virtual
environment as an extra measure of safety. The requirement for booting
directly into the VM is intended to avoid causing her confusion by making it
as transparent to her as possible. I realize that this makes it more complex
to setup, but hopefully the transparency will make it easier for her to use.
My reasoning is that as she ages and becomes more prone to being fooled into
clicking links, she is more likely to have her machine compromised, which
could lead to problems with identity theft and the like. In a virtual
environment, most exploits would vanish when the virtual machine powers off.
I do understand that in a virtual enviroment there can be links through to
the underlying hardware and OS, so going virtual would not eliminate all
security concerns, but it should reduce those concerns considerably.
I don't know if virtualizing to this degree is worth doing on her
machine--maybe it's overkill--but I figured that I wouldn't be able to make
that determination until I understand what it takes to pull off this degree
of virtualization. Once I have a good grip on how this kind of thing can be
achieved, I'll be able to make an educated decision on whether or not it is
worth the effort.
As an aside, I work in IT and so wanted to research this issue in order to
increase my own knowledge and, at least to some small degree, further my
career.
--
Thanks for any help that you can offer!
--Tom
