Get started with virtual machines

It's great to have multiple computers. On the first of them, you can install a database or crunch spreadsheets. On another, you can simply browse the Web, listen to music, and check your e-mail. Yet another can have a supercharged configuration for playing games. Sure, you could have all of your programs on the same, single computer, but some applications--such as games--can't run concurrently with other programs.

Many businesses have a different problem: They need to use applications that will run only on a specific operating system, be it Windows Vista, XP, or 2000, or maybe Mac OS X or Linux. So they maintain computers running different OSs around the office.

Using multiple PCs has several drawbacks, of course, such as the amount of money they cost and the power and space they consume. You can always install a second operating system to dual-boot with your existing OS, but dual-booting requires repartitioning the hard disk, as well as shutting down one operating system and its applications in order to use the other.
Thanks to today's faster processors and capacious memory and disk space, however, you can get many of the benefits of using multiple, separate computers by adding virtualization software to a single PC. Such software lets you install multiple OSs into virtual hard disks that are really just files on your main hard drive. You can then launch and run multiple guest operating systems simultaneously. The software redirects access to key hardware devices on the host system, including network adapters and optical drives. Although the virtualized operating systems themselves are not always free, several excellent virtualization utilities don't cost a cent.

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