Comments on: Best Test Setup for Windows 7

Question: Best Test Setup for Windows 7

xxnopiratesxx — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:38:19 -0800

What is the best/safest Windows 7 Test Setup? Virtualization? Partition an HD?

I'm currently downloading Windows 7 and I'm trying to think of the best way to test it out without ruining my current setup.

My main concern with partitioning part of my laptop's hard drive is that the boot loader will overwrite vista's and I'll get locked out of my maching.

The other option is virtualization, but Vista is a huge pain to virtualize and I assume that W7 will be the same way.

Any thoughts on the bootloader issue? What has the hive been using to test W7?

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:02:33 -0800

Wha? I have Vista running in vmplayer (VMware) on Linux and it works fine. Unless you want to test driver compatibility I would suggest using a VM 100%.

By: wongcorgi

wongcorgi — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:06:09 -0800

I'd say virtualization. I've never had and issue with installing Vista under VMWare, I don't see why you'd have any problems with Windows 7.

By: xxnopiratesxx

xxnopiratesxx — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:12:32 -0800

Excellent, that definitely abates many of my fears. Does W7 still need 15gb's like Vista did?

By: starzero

starzero — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:12:39 -0800

The latest Windows 7 build works fine in VM Ware, just remove the default virtual SCSI hdd and add an IDE hdd or it won't find a disk to install on during setup.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:29:58 -0800

If you virtualize you probably won't get hardware accelerated graphics.