Testing software in virtual environment in order to protect your PC.

[Valentin N]

Hey everyone!

I know there are people that maybe want to play with beta products and I will give directions where you can get some tools to test beta product.

1) VMware. You will need to register before you can download the wanted VMware product. VMware Server is also for free.

2) Virtualbox Not all software will work as they should on VirtualBox, for instance CIS, Kaskpersky and some more.

3) Microsoft's Virtual PC

4) You can also use Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Advanced Edition to clone your existing physical machine and create a virtual machine that you can then open with VMWare Player. It's very easy to do and I haven't had any problems with the resulting virtual machines. Written by HeffeD at comodo forums

VMWare also has a converter that will make virtual clones of physical machines, but I haven't tried it.

Regards,
            Valentin N

 

[Chiron]

RE: Testing software in virtual environment

Thanks for the links.

 

[Valentin N]

RE: Testing software in virtual environment

Thanks for the links.

The pleasure is all mine

 

[HeffeD]

RE: Testing software in virtual environment

I should probably make an addendum that Paragon Backup & Recovery can actually create clones in all of the popular VM formats, although larger VM's aren't compatible with M$ Virtual PC.

I just happen to use VMWare Player, so I can't say whether or not the VM's work well on the other virtual environments.

 

[Deleted member 178]

i going to install VMware (with W7 on it) and i want to know what is the best setting i can do? space, allocated RAM, etc...

 

[new user]

Unless you want to pay the $180 that I did for Vmware Workstation, don't use vmware player. It is completely feature deprived. MS VPC is only good for legacy Windows. If you want Free Virtualization, you should use virtual-box.

 

[Jack]

i going to install VMware (with W7 on it) and i want to know what is the best setting i can do? space, allocated RAM, etc...

x86 or x64 ?
This should be the optimal settings when installing a VM

• 2 GB RAM (recommended)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

After installing remember to defrag:

• Your new virtual operating system.
• Your virtual disks (Devices > Hard Disk (SCSI) > Utilities > Defragment)
  [attachment=472]
• You real system

Another thing that you should do is to disable Windows Visual Effects, while we all like how shiny is Windows 7 , these visual effects just cause a virtual machine to appear to run slower.

 

[Deleted member 178]

x64 Jack, do i need to update the virtual W7? it will be to testing softwares and malwares.

@new user: i use CIS and i heard that CIS dont work well with Vbox, does it change?

 

[Jack]

x64 Jack, do i need to update the virtual W7? it will be to testing softwares and malwares.

Update..with Windows Updates right?...Yes,you should Update it because Windows has several Security Updates that in a real world could help when fighting malware and you want your test to be as "fair" as possible.
Also you can create a "Share folder",with shared folders, you can easily share files among virtual machines and the host computer.Of course this is just optional and you should be very careful when using this feature since this is a door to your host computer.

 

[Deleted member 178]

ok Thanks Jacks for your advices

 

[win7holic]

670MB ram and using celeron 1,7GHz and 9GB of HD for my VM (windows XP)

 

[marsellus]

For testing the software, you can use Sandboxie, even in free version. Better give this goal is of course paid, because you can create multiple sandbox and in every install yourself a program. After the tests, just empty the sandbox and have a clean system

 

[bogdan]

Sandboxie wouldn't work if the installer needs to restart your system, install a driver etc. but for everything else... sure. The main idea is to not use your real system as a test bench and install software even if you are not sure you'll keep it.

 

[new user]

Sandboxie wouldn't work if the installer needs to restart your system, install a driver etc. but for everything else... sure. The main idea is to not use your real system as a test bench and install software even if you are not sure you'll keep it.

There is also malware that is Sandbox-aware.

 

[MetalShaun]

I use MS Virtual PC myself. Find it very easy to use and its quick and bug free, shame it doesn't support 64bit VM's though. I tried Virtual box but really couldn't get on with it. Also some programs like comodo don't work correctly on it (don't know if they have fixed that yet).

 

[Deleted member 178]

i will wait reinstall shadow defender when the next release of WRSA beta will have the issue fixed (few days as they said).

 

[bogdan]

There is also malware that is Sandbox-aware.

The first post was about testing software, not malware.

 

[HeffeD]

Unless you want to pay the $180 that I did for Vmware Workstation, don't use vmware player. It is completely feature deprived. MS VPC is only good for legacy Windows. If you want Free Virtualization, you should use virtual-box.

Granted, VMWare Player only has a single snapshot that is over-written when you restart the machine, but I've had no trouble with it.

 

[Ramblin]

Ramblin

 

[Deleted member 178]

VMware x64 guests seems not compatible with my laptop, it dont recognize it as a x64 architecture, during the installation.