Leveraging virtualization possibly replacing multiple boot

Please keep in mind that discussion of illegal downloads/installs is not permitted in the forum.

Thank you

Clarification:
I own Windows 7 license via purchase of a HP tower with Win 7 installed on the included SSD. Iā€™m asking how I can make a iso image that would work in a virtual environment as a guest; or for that matter how to make a bootable iso of Win10 which is also available to me via free upgrade.

I know you donā€™t know this, but I refrain from illegal activity both cyber and physical.

Hi pfeiffep

It is meant to be a friendly reminder to all, nothing more.

Again thank you.

[quote=ā€œpfeiffep, post:20, topic:5097ā€]
Thanks for the suggestions. I hadnā€™t considered storing having a separate area ā€¦ hmmmm since I have TONS of disk space available can I store virtual machines in a NTFS partition? - this would enable me to also test or trouble shoot Ubuntu problems while running Windowsā€¦][/quote]

Absolutely! This is exactly what I do, while NTFS isnā€™t as fast as EXT4, itā€™s great for sharing guest machines with different host OS. Consider you want to store virtual machines on an HDD only issue will be slower guest boot times.

Do you need help with optimum partition auto mounting fstab settings for your NTFS partitions while using Ubuntu MATE?

Even though you have a legal licence, that licence is tied to the host machine. If you had bought a retail (not OEM) version of Windows 7 on DVD, then that license could have been de-activated on the host and moved to the guest.

So you can at least discover if its feasible for you to run Windows 7 within a virtual environment on your system, hereā€™s a Microsoft link to legally download and try different preconfigured versions of Windows within a virtual environment, these are primarily designed for testing IE and Edge but you will also be able to perform other tests as you would with a regular Windows install.

Virtual machines can be used for 90 days. IE11 on Win7 is probably your best option.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms

Not sure if performance will be as optimal as a freshly installed version of Windows within a guest on your host hardware.

In closing, canā€™t recommend Window 10 due to privacy issues.

We better start discussing Ubuntu MATE soon, or people may mistake this thread for a Microsoft support forum. :smile:

Yes, I agree it appears that weā€™re focused on Microsoft instead of Ubuntu MATE.

The test partition Iā€™m using has Ubuntu 16.04 installed with MATE desktop added. This is NOT suggested by me as a method of using MATE. There are duplicate entries created for SMB [my NAS] and other minor peculiar behaviors [one of which was VirtualBox failed to show in the Applications > System menu until a reboot]

After thinking this over a bit more Iā€™ve decided to:

  1. keep the dual boot scenario Iā€™m using - select windows boot loader on SSD at start up, and have /dev/sdb set as default in bios for Ubuntu Mate
  2. abandon tripple & quad boots of separate linux partitions and leverage VirtualBox or possibly Virtual Machine Manager in Software Boutique
  3. do my continued testing on a ā€˜pureā€™ Ubuntu MATE 16.04 install
  4. wait for first point release to install UM as my primary OS on my HP desktop.

Your continued guidance and advice is VERY MUCH APPRECIATED