Ms's Own Vm Products

I've heard and seen many people write that instead of upgrading, they will plod on with their older hardware and run linux with a Win 7 virtual machine. I've already been doing similiar with Linux, Win PE's, Virtual Machines with Linux, Windows, and PE's of VISTA ,7,8,and 10 running on an 8.1 machine.

But I couldn't believe when I stumbled on this page. MS is providing testing enviroment of IE 8-11 and EDGE on platfoms from '7 - 10 by way of virtual machine downloads.
These are 90 day limited. Used for testing. But they remind you in the instructions to make a backup -or snapshot- when first installed so you can roll back to later on. Available for about 6 of the popular VM softwares. I haven't personally d/l 'd any because they start at around 3 1/2 gig. My wireless would probably loose the connection before finishing.But @ 3 1/2 g it is probably a good full working VM.







From MS's page

"Test Microsoft Edge and versions of IE8 through IE11 using free virtual machines you download and manage locally".


https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

 

I'm wondering why MS would do this as Internet Explorer 8, 9 & 10 are no longer supported.

 

Yeah and talk of end of support for 7 and 8 and all the push for 10. I can see having 10 on new products but on older machines I would rather have the older versions. On my 8.1 I have a 7 sp1 VM and use it often for everything.

And what got my attention is their own statement of it expires in 90 days so do make a snapshot to roll back to. They're telling you how to keep using it. I guess the 'testing' could go on in to anytime once you have it.

 

My 8.1 and 10 have Hyper-V but, I don't know how to use it. I run VMWare Workstation Player (on Win 10) which is a lot smaller than 3.5 Gigs. The two OSes I run as Guest OSes work just fine. And, VMWare doesn't expire in 90 days.

 

The Windows 7 and Oracle's VirtualBox downloads are nowhere near 3 1/2 GB.

Here you go.
https://www.howtogeek.com/196158/how-to-create-and-run-virtual-machines-with-hyper-v/

 

Size wise - , I have a Virtual Machines folder in the User\**\Documents folder and an XP machine I run, the folder is 3.5 gigs and the folder for Win 7 is 6.5 gig, but that includes about 1 1/2 to 2 gigs of stuff I've put on it so it is actually around 4 1/2 gigs itself.
The win 7 thumb drive which I used to create the 7 machine has 11 out of 14 gigs free,so the 3 1/2 gig size @ MS didn't surprise me any.

In the Virtual Machine folder there is 39 machines for a total of 51 gig so an average of over a gig each. But some are 'nano linux' and 'Damn Small Linux' which are quite small so the average is skewed a bit.

 

My mistake.
Windows 7 Ultimate on DVD is 3.47 GB.

 

Yeah the size sounds good to me, I just wish I had better access wirelessly as I'd like to see their offerings. Don't need it but would like to see.

What really got me was to see them offer it at all. And the way it is offered also piqued my curiosity.

And for some out there that are thinking of running Virtual OS's MS's products might be a good place to start.

 

VMWare won't expire in the above either. The virtual machine is what expires.

 

In other words, the Guest OS?

 

Right. So I have 39 vm's now. If I added MS's IE11/Win8.1 vm for 40. After 90 days the 40th would expire. I don't know what might happen to it. Does it go away? Does it fail to load? Does MS cripple it? I don't know. But the write up is saying to make a snapshot right off the bat to be able to roll back to later. I think VMWare Workstation 11 free doesn't have snapshots. But what I do - if I like a virtual machine, I suspend the machine instead of shutting it down. And I add files or programs or music to it and save a copy of it every now and then. My '7 I do shut down and it retains what I have added to it. That's why I like it as much or more than this 8.1.

 

Wow! I have Win 98SE, XP Home, Vista Home, Win 7 Ult, Win 8.1 Pro and Win 10 Pro VMs and thank the good Lord that only the last two are still being updated. As you say, VMware free doesn't do snapshots so I occasionally shut em all down and make copies but I have had problems in the past with copies of VMs not working so regard VMs as being a bit fragile and never keep anything important in them. As for adding Microsoft's offerings too, no thank you! Enough is quite enough

 

I can't afford $189US so, if one of my VMs gets messed up, I'm screwed?

 

It's possible but not inevitable. Usually the copy does work but I've also had one or two failures. I suspect the cause to be EasyBCD defragging new ISOs kept on the same partition as the VM files but haven't made the effort to prove it. Can't imagine any cause other than defragging though.

 

Which version do you get for that? Only Pro does snapshots and here that costs £219.95, more like $270US. There is also VirtualBox which does do snapshots and is free, or was the last time I looked at it. Maybe we should be taking another look at it.

 

Not exactly in line with the OP but I've just loaded up VirtualBox and was taken by surprise to find that it can open the .vmdk virtual hard disk I've been using in VMware Workstation Player, the free version. As VirtualBox can do snapshots and VMware free cannot this is definitely worth looking further into. (Don't ask why a Win 7 desktop is called Win 8 - there's an explanation)

 

Got an activation warning a few minutes later so maybe that's a stopper

Nope, it has activated

 

You get this version for $189US:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/vmware_workstation_for_windows.html

It's the one you said you had.

 

You never know what you find kicking the can! I also have Virtual Box in a portable format. Gonna have to see if I can carry it and a machine or two to a different pc. Interesting. I'm always curious!

 

I have the unlicensed version, free for home use. Don't know why MG don't have it. It doesn't do snapshots but as far as I can see neither does the shareware version MG have, despite what the description says. See HERE. Scroll down for the feature comparisons.

 

Just fired up '7 and '10 both in vm by VirtualBox. Both were made by VMWare. I could switch between '7 ,'8.1 (host), '10 with ease. All showed up as last saved state. Made a snapshot in '7 and then reloaded again. Also quit by the big red 'X' and it offered to save the current configuration. I guess snapshot is just a 'restore' and you can quit and 'save' later on. Maybe snapshot can save your bacon if you do something later in the session that hoses the machine. And also save for later as turning back the clock as MS says in their link if using their machines. Now to see if VMWare honors VirtualBox machines. I think I want the portability so I can run on a different computer and when I close the machine out all is gone with me, not left on the host.

 

You ought to be getting activation issues due to the 'hardware' changes as you switch from VMware to VB. My Win 7 got one warning but activated online OK. I haven't pushed my luck by trying any more with my Win 7 VM. The Vista VM doesn't throw up any errors when I try to open it in VB but there's no screen output at all. Haven't tried my 8.1 VM yet and may not, as I don't want to risk damaging it. I only rarely use my VMs, they are mainly just an interesting diversion.