Windows 8.1 VMWare Workstation vs VirtualBox

[Ashwinkumar]

Ok guys this is not a direct head to head pro and cons question. I want the best solution for my needs. I have a pretty basic hardware Core 2 Duo E4700, 4 Gigs DDR2 Ram, Nvidia En 8400Gs..Running with Windows 8.1 And i want run Visual Studio in a virtual machine to code(As it installs a crap load of other stuff while installing so uninstalling it is practically not possible). So that i can just delete the virtual disk if i don't want Visual Studio anymore. I want to know which one Workstation ir Virtual Box will suite me? Will a student license for Workstation be worth for me now or should i go with the Virtual Box now and when i get serious about Virtualization go to Worsktation?

 

[Joe S]

Try the free VMware Player https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/7_0 I think it is better tnam VirtualBox The site is confusing I think that is for the free version.
Joe

 

[Trouble]

Another option, if your hardware and OS Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit support it, you may want to take a look at Hyper-V it's free and native in Windows 8

 

[ussnorway]

Yes hyper-v needs much less overhead (2g of your 4 ram) than the other two so would be my pick as well.

 

[Ashwinkumar]

Yes it is Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit! So any heads up on how to use Hyper-V ?? Also guys i used to play with Workstation trials a few months back. Back then i could install anything i actually ran Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit along with Windows 8.1 trial( I had Windows 7 then) and everything worked fine. But now when i try to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 in either Virtual Box or VMWare Workstation(Trial) it says my pc doesn't support 64 bit architecture that IVT... stuff. Any idea on what i should be doing?

 

[Trouble]

You'll have to take a browse through your BIOS (System Setup) and see what may or may not be available to enable in the way of VT (Virtual Technology).
Each motherboard can be different.
Then you'll need to go into Control Panel-> Programs and Features-> Turn Windows features on or off (link on the Left) and then find the Hyper-V items and make sure all the boxes are checked. If any of them are unavailable then your hardware does not support full Virtualization Technology and you'll have to stick with a third party solution.

 

[ussnorway]

p.s It's one or the other... you cann't have hyper-v and vmware running on the same system i.e. they don't play nice.

However you can (and I do) have a dual boot with hyper-v on one side and wmware on the other but that gets harder than what the op is asking in this post and takes a bit more control over your files...

 

[Ashwinkumar]

You'll have to take a browse through your BIOS (System Setup) and see what may or may not be available to enable in the way of VT (Virtual Technology).
Each motherboard can be different.
Then you'll need to go into Control Panel-> Programs and Features-> Turn Windows features on or off (link on the Left) and then find the Hyper-V items and make sure all the boxes are checked. If any of them are unavailable then your hardware does not support full Virtualization Technology and you'll have to stick with a third party solution.

Ok i just took a look at the BIOS but i couldn't seem to find any Virtualization related settings. And i just noticed one more thingy is my BIOS tooo old? Is there any updates for it? Also i've attached two BIOS snaps take a look at them!

http://postimg.org/image/g85tofs9r/
http://postimg.org/image/h08hnmwgv/

 

[ussnorway]

Would need your motherboard / system model to look it up... examples:
intel;

AMD;

 

[Ashwinkumar]

Ok so i did a scan with speccy exported the results to a text file and put it here http://pastebin.com/ZG9PFNCw

 

[ussnorway]

MSI Boston (Socket 775) = cheap bit of mass made shit... you would still need to open it up and look for a serial number/ bar code on the board itself but its not looking good.

 

[jen jewell]

VirtualBox is much better that VMware. I use win 8.1 vmware can't work properly.

 

[ussnorway]

No need to shout Jen… if you like v-box better the vmware then more power to you.

p.s. for the record, the current version of vmware workstation works just fine on Windows 8.1 as long as you don't already have another virtual software already on it… if you ever what help installing vmware correctly then please open your own post about it and we'll be happy to try and help you get it up and going.