Edward Mendelson The Best Virtualization Software of 2018 Virtualization software lets you run Windows and all its apps on your macOS or Linux system. Here are the best options to make your Mac Windows PC–compatible. Virtualization is not the buzziest tech term, but that's probably because most people don't really understand what it means. Virtualization software does for your computer what picture-in-picture does for your high-end TV, but a lot more powerfully. Virtualization let you run a complete Windows system on a Mac or Linux machine, or one version of Windows inside another version.
The virtual machine created by the software acts like a real desktop or laptop computer for the guest operating system to run on, except that it doesn't require extra hardware. Everything in the virtual machine—the CPU, video card, RAM, hard disk, network adapter, and everything else—exists only as bits and bytes. The Windows, Mac, Linux, or other system running in the virtual machine acts exactly as if it were running on real hardware. So you can run a Windows app on a Mac running. Or that old Windows XP-only app that you need for your business can run in a window in your new machine. Or you can run multiple versions of OS X on your Mac.
Virtualization Use Cases. For large organizations such as corporations and, virtualization makes it easy to run identical copies of a virtual machine on a hundred different desktop machines and, at the end of the day, restore every copy to its original pristine state, without any of the malware or clutter accumulated over the course of use. Or you can configure a virtual machine so that it's isolated from the Internet and the rest of the network and then use that virtual machine to test any software that you suspect might be dangerous. When I'm working at a Mac, I use virtualization software to run that doesn't have any OS X counterparts, or when I prefer to use the keyboard-friendly Windows version of Microsoft Office instead of the mouse-friendly OS X version. Under Windows, I use virtualization software to run old apps that have served me well for years but that don't run under modern Windows versions. One limitation of these apps: You can't run a guest OS X system on a Linux or Windows machine, because OS X is licensed to run only on Mac hardware, and virtualization apps won't launch an OS X guest under Windows.
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Hackers have found ways around this system, but they're as unstable as they are illegal, and we don't recommend them. You can install multiple virtualization apps on the same machine and use different apps for different purposes. For example, you might choose Wineskin Winery to run an old on a Mac, but use Parallels Desktop to run the latest version of on the same machine. Keep in mind that there are two kinds of virtualization software out there. On the one hand, you can choose full-scale apps that work by running a complete operating system such as Windows or Linux. The full-scale apps include Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, and Oracle VirtualBox.
On the other hand, you can choose Wineskin Winery or other software based on the WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) project. WINE doesn't run a complete copy of Windows or anything else, but instead provides a minimal environment that lets a single Windows app run in OS X or Linux. Virtualization Requirements and Features Before you get started, think about the amount of RAM and disk space you have on your machine.
Virtualization software tends to hog memory and CPU cycles, and every virtual guest system that you create is likely to need 10GB to 30GB of disk space, and probably more as you continue to use it. The new Veertu Mac virtualization app outclasses older full-scale apps by using the built-in virtualization resources of OS X to reduce its own footprint. Wineskin Winery (like other WINE-based software) doesn't need to install a full Windows system, and uses far fewer resources than apps like Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or Oracle VirtualBox, which always run a full Windows system even if only a single app is visible.
Also consider the depth of integration that you want between the virtual guest system and the actual host system. All virtualization apps offer varying degrees of cross-system integration. The champ in the integration sweepstakes is Parallels Desktop, which can optionally make all the files and folders that you have on your actual Mac desktop also appear on a virtual Windows desktop running under Parallels.
You may or may not want this level of integration—I always turn it off because it adds to clutter and distraction—but you'll almost certainly want the ability to drag and drop files between the host and guest system and to copy text in the host and paste it in the guest, or the reverse. All the full-scale virtualization apps offer these features. WINE-based software like Wineskin Winery lets you share text via the clipboard, and lets you share folders between the OS X or Linux host and the guest Windows app. But setup can be tricky, and it uses an interface that looks like something out of Windows 95. The full-scale commercial apps, VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop, offer further integration features like an option to add shortcuts in OS X that open specific Windows apps so you don't have to start Windows and then manually launch the Windows app you want. They also let you set up the host and guest system so that (for example) an email link in the guest Windows system opens the Mail app in OS X—or the reverse, with a mail link in OS X opening Outlook in Windows.
You can also set up menus of Windows apps that can open in OS X. One of the most useful features in high-end virtualization apps like Fusion or Parallels is a display mode that lets you hide the guest Windows desktop while displaying only the window for whichever Windows app you're using. The effect is to make a Windows app look as if it's an OS X app, though it will inevitably run slightly slower than a native OS X app. All the apps include varying levels of keyboard customization, so you can (for example) use OS X-standard keystrokes like Cmd-C and Cmd-V to copy and paste in Windows apps running on the Mac, instead of Windows-standard Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V. Some keyboard keys on Windows machines—like Ins or PrtSc—have no matching keys on Mac hardware, so full-scale virtualization apps let you type those keys into a Windows app by choosing them from a menu in the virtualization app.
Advanced users may want to experiment with different virtualization apps to find the keyboard controls that best suit their work habits. All these apps let you run the guest computer full-screen, so that your Mac looks as if it's a Windows machine. When you're running a guest machine in a window, not full-screen, almost all the apps let you drag on a corner of the window to resize it on the fly. (Veertu and Wineskin Winery are exceptions to this.) These features, and all other advanced integration features, are available only if you install in the guest special software called 'guest additions' that run in the background in the guest system to interact with the host system. The kind of integrations that you get with a virtualization app depends on the quality of the guest additions that it provides—and if you're trying to run a little-used OS, you may need to look around to find a virtualization app that offers guest additions for the system you want to run. If you're testing software, or if you want to restore a system to a pristine state after it's been used, then you'll rely on the Snapshot feature in Parallels, VMware, and VirtualBox. At any time, you can save one or more snapshots that preserve the current state of a guest system, and you can return to any snapshot at any time, removing all traces of anything that occurred on the guest system after you created the snapshot.
This lets you repeatedly test software as if it were being installed for the first time, or lets you access a potentially dangerous website from a virtual machine and then remove all traces that the site left on the virtual machine, restoring it to the clean state it started in. Virtual Gaming Virtualization apps aren't all work and no play. Many users of Wineskin Winery, for example, use it to play Windows games that never got ported to the Mac.
Many users of VMware Fusion or Oracle VirtualBox use those utilities to experiment with ancient operating systems like Nextstep or OS/2. And, in addition to the apps listed in the table below, you can find emulation software that lets you run old MS-DOS software and ancient pre-OS X versions of the Mac operating system. If you want to play old DOS games, you can find versions of the open-source for Windows, OS X, and Linux. If you want to run text-based DOS apps like databases or word processors, the best choice is, by Jos Schaars. You can run apps and games written for twentieth-century Macs with SheepShaver or Basilisk II (abandoned by their original authors, but supported by ) or with the still-evolving Mini vMac at the.
A promising work in progress is the open-source that emulates various hardware platforms and is getting close to providing usable support for early OS X versions. Virtualization apps make it possible to run almost any app or game ever written on the computer you're now using. For corporate and leading-edge users, these apps make it possible to test and run programs or whole operating systems with minimal expenditure on hardware. If you've tried virtualization software already, you already know how valuable it is.
If you haven't tried it, think back to that game you played on some clunky machine 10 or 20 years ago—because a virtualization app will let you play it again. Pros: Stable and reliable. Runs guest macOS virtual machines. Can use the same virtual machines created on VMware products running in Windows and Linux. Can be used to run nearly any intel-hardware OS. Cons: Slower and less beginner-friendly than Parallels Desktop.
Virtual machines not as tightly integrated with macOS as Parallels Desktop's. Bottom Line: VMware Fusion 8.5 is a top corporate-level choice for virtual machines on Macs. It's rock-solid, flexible, and can share its virtual machines with Windows and Linux machines running other VMware software. Runs almost any Intel-based guest system. Can run on Windows, OS X, Linux, and Solaris host systems.
Drag-and-drop and shared clipboard between host and guest systems. Cons: Clumsy interface.
Slower and less stable than commercial alternatives in testing. Buggy drag-and-drop functionality.
No automatic printing to printers installed on host system. Bottom Line: VirtualBox is a free, powerful virtualization utility that runs a vast range of Intel-based guest OSes, but it has some rough edges and lacks features offered by the commercial competition. Pros: Fast and reliable. Sandboxed security. Free version includes easy downloads of Linux and other free OS guests. Simple interface.
Cons: Minimal integration between host OS X and guest Windows or Linux system. No drag-and-dropping between host and guest. Only one shared folder for Windows guests. Bottom Line: Veertu is a minimalist virtualization app for running Windows, Linux, and a few other operating systems under OS X.
It lacks some features offered by the competition, but it's got excellent sandboxed security built in.
Free system and administrator utilities. Freebyte's Guide to. Free System & Administrator Utilities 1995-2012 Freebyte.com 384 Gigabyte Personal Information Manager and Word Processor. Intuitive and versatile, including Website Generator, spellchecker, thesaurus, attachments, search engine, recycle bin, and much more!
For Windows and Linux/Wine. Click to get the. Contents Free System tools A lightweight program that manages your computer's power usage when it's idle, saving energy and decreasing the demand on your power utility. Freeware for Windows.
Freeware, open source for Windows. Continously checks system status and can notify the administrator by email or popup message.
Runs as a service. Free utility to test the memory chips inside your computer. Suitable for PC.
Speeds up the program which is currently active by increasing foreground window priority. Displays detailed system information, such as specs of motherboard, BIOS, CPU, devices, memory, video, disk drives, ports, printers, operating system, active network connections, installed programs and codecs, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys), users, open files, system uptime, network, network shares, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic. Copies the whole Win NT, 2000 or XP system volume to another disk that will be ready to boot without a restore step. Supports FAT, NTFS, USB-disk, PATA and SATA. Process Viewers / Task Managers Freeware process viewer for Windows.
It shows ALL running processes, not just a selection. You can change the priority of processes, kill/terminate multiple processes, kill/terminate multiple instances of the same program.
Freeware process viewer for Windows. More informative than the standard Windows task manager! Freeware process viewer for Windows, which displays much more information on each running process than the built-in Windows task manager. Free program that integrates with the Windows taskmanager.
After installation, near each process inside the Windows taskmanager you will see an 'information' button. If you click on this button you will be taken to an online page describing the process. Free utility to fix the common Windows error 'Task manager has been disabled by your administrator'.
Powerful freeware taskmanager program for Windows. It not only displays currently active processes, but also drivers, dll's, modules, GDI objects, ActiveX components.NET modules, etc. Place your mouse over any window, and WinDowse shows you a large list of data regarding that window, such as: the text, caption, resource ID, process ID, application instance handle, window handle, parent handle, etc. Free Task Schedulers Freeware for Windows.
Small and zero-install utility which enables you to start other programs automatically, periodically and at pre-defined times. This program functions very well in combination with backup software like Freebyte Backup, disk fragmenters, virus scanners and other regularly scheduled system maintanance utilities. Startup Managers A free startup manager and monitor program for Windows. It can prevent other software from automatically running when Windows stars and protect/monitor the Windows startup configuration, It can also protect/monitor Internet Explorer start page changes. Allows you to disable unwanted programs which automatically start after Windows boot. Freeware program which provides information on the programs that automatically start on your Windows system, and whether these programs are necessary, or whether they are spyware.
Freeware; a small monitoring program, which keeps a constant eye on your system's startup entries. When a change is made, you will be notified and given a choice whether or not to allow the change. When you want to find out what the purpose is of a particular Windows program running invisibly in the background, just lookup its filename in this database.
Free Virtual Private Networking A Virtual Private Network (or ) is a private communications network to communicate confidentially over the Internet. A VPN basically is a Local Area Network (or ), except that - instead of physical wires - the Internet is used to create connections between computers. Creates a secure virtual network through the Internet. Freeware for Windows and Linux.
A full-featured SSL VPN Linux, Windows 2000/XP and higher, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris. A free IPsec remote access VPN client for Windows. UltraVPN is a client/server SSL VPN solution based on OpenVPN. It encrypts and anonymize network connections. Website dedicated to providing information on virtual private networking.
Free VPN software for Windows. Free Registry tools Free registry repair software for Windows that allows you to clean and repair registry problems with a few simple mouse clicks. Free registry compacting program for Windows. It optimizes your registry by removing gaps and wasted space, thus improves the whole system performance. Finds and removes incorrect or obsolete information in the registry. Freeware registry editor with more features than the one which comes with Windows. This free cleaner tool allows you to fix your registry and optimize your PCs performance.
Free registry scanner for Windows with real-time disk/registry monitor. Can also create dumps of the actual states of registry and harddisks, compare two different dump files so you'll see exactly what changed, backup/restore the registry, and encrypt/password-protect the dump files. Freeware registry and system monitor for Windows. Tiny Watcher starts by taking a snapshot of important parts of your Windows system; then it tracks changes (every time you log in, or whenever you want to). When a change is detected, you are notified.
Speeds up your PC by cleaning your Registry. It removes the junk that accumulates in your Windows Registry. Freeware and shareware versions are available.
384 Gigabyte Personal Information Manager and Word Processor. Intuitive and versatile, including Website Generator, spellchecker, thesaurus, attachments, search engine, recycle bin, and much more! For Windows and Linux/Wine. Click to get the. Boot Disks and Portable operating systems Bart's PE Builder creates a bootable/portable version of Windows using a regular Windows DVD (only Windows XP, 2000, 2003 are supported). You can copy this bootable Windows version to a USB disk and start your computer from that USB disk. Freely downloadable boot disks for Windows, DOS, Linux.
Also: installation guides for Windows, links to drivers and DLLs. The various Linux live CD's (such as Ubuntu or Fedora) can be used to boot a full working operating system directly from a CD without installing anything. Unix utilities for Windows A collection of tools - including a BASH shell - to provide a Linux look and feel environment for Windows. It also contains a dll which acts as a Linux API compatible layer. Native Win32 ports of some of the common GNU utilities for the Linux shell, like 'ls', 'diff', 'md5sum', 'find', 'grep', 'rm', 'wc', etc. And it also contains a Unix shell port, 'sh.exe'.
You can use these utilities directly from the Windows command-prompt or from 'sh.exe'. Remote Administration tools The remote administration tools listed in this section enable you to connect to, and interact with a remote computer's mouse, keyboard and screen, in just the same way as if you were sitting physically behind it.
Freeware, open-source remote desktop control program. It allows the authorised administrator to remotely control the desktop of another machine over a Windows-based network. It is packaged as a self contained executable file which can be easily added or removed from a system, requiring no non-standard libraries or other non-standard components. VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is open-source, freeware and cross-platform, allowing remote control between different types of computer. For ultimate simplicity, there is even a Java viewer, so that any desktop can be controlled remotely from within a browser without having to install software. System Analysis Utilities AppTimer will run an executable a number of times and time how long it takes for the application to reach a state where user input is being accepted before exiting the application. Freeware for Windows.
Lots of useful open-source software for digital investigations and computer forensics. Windows and Linux. Internet Diagnostics Tools Free online network utilities, such as ping, nslookup, traceroute. Resolve/reverse lookup, whois (domain name), whois (ip owner), check port, ping. If you cannot access a Website, you can use this free service to check whether it is generally down ('for everyone') or whether it is some more local problem ('or just me').
A 'Web debugging proxy' which you can use to monitor network traffic between your computer and the network to which it is connected (often the Internet). Runs on Windows, using the.NET framework. Online IP address lookup. Shows a map with the location of the IP address. DNS/MX and reverse DNS diagnostics. MyDNSCheck.com is a DNS diagnostic utility.
It can be used to troubleshoot problems with your domain, web, DNS and email. If you have a problem with a domain this should be able to help you find out what's wrong. Ping, trace, whois, spam blacklist check, etc.
Reverse lookup (host), nslookup, whois IP, whois Domain, bandwidth meter, check port, ping host, traceroute to host, port scanner, mail relaying. Show me my IP address, IP calculator, ping online, traceroute online, IP geolocation, convert IP to domain name, get MX record, DNS dig, Whois, open relay test, speed test, service name - port TCP/UDP, port TCP/UDP - service name, online cron generator. Ping, traceroute, DNS lookup, whois, port check, reverse lookup, proxy checker, mail relaying, bandwidth meter.
Whois, ping, port scanner, nslookup, traceroute Related sites PC tech reference, tools and solutions for Windows and Unix/Linux. Lots of resources for Windows 7, Vista, XP, 200x, NT, ME, 9x such as service pack download links, repairs, installs, reinstalls, help guides. Related Freebyte Pages Free file, disk and email encryption software; free password managers, free data wiping tools, firewalls, computer vulnerability tests. Disk catalog programs; backup, compression, split and zip programs; disk search engines, disk management utilities, remote file storage services, data recovery tools, data wipe tools, downloadable boot disks and more.
Find your missing system file (dll, vxd, ocx, driver, etc.) or BIOS upgrade, and download it for free. Free Personal Information Managers, free File and Disk Utilities, free Address Books, free eBook Software and more. All created by Freebyte.com. Believe it or not, there are many good anti-virus programs you can download and use for free! Also: free firewalls, very useful trial anti-virus program versions, anti-virus software tests, links to specialized anti-virus sites, etc. Free utilities to detect and remove spyware.
Free technical support for all computer-related issues: Hardware, software, PC, Windows, MAC, PDAs, Linux, drivers, Modems, dll's, virus. Free operating systems, such as: FreeBSD, Windows clones, emulators and much more. Also: interesting alternative commercial operating systems. Free programming tools for Windows, Linux, etc. Free C, C, Delphi, Basic, Assembler, Cobol, Pascal, Java, SQL, Databases; links to free compilers, databases, interpreters, IDE's, installers, components, libraries, languages, helpfile generators and more. Free general purpose calculators, calculator collections, scientific/technical calculators, currency conversion and exchange rates.
A large list of freeware sites, freebie sites, shareware sites and software search engines. Also check out our free software for Windows and Linux/wine! Free organizer/information manager Free eBook compiler Free backup program Free multiple file renaming tool Free addressbook Free Disk-space reporting tool Freeware file splitters - multiplatform Free search engine for your harddisk Free zip/unzip program Information wanted! If you know of any good programs, utilities or services be listed on this page, please! About this page Last updated on November 30, 2012 Copyright: Almere, the Netherlands If you have any comments about this page, please mail us 1995-2012 Freebyte.com. All rights reserved.
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